How to Lose Weight Eating Fast Food

You may be a fast food junkie and eat in your car all the time - especially in the summer when there's so much to see and do, and you're often on the road. However, that doesn't mean you have to gain weight. Take a few simple precautions about what you're putting into your mouth and you will soon see a difference on your tummy and thighs.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Investigate all the choices at fast food restaurants. Be very selective, choose the healthiest selections and your efforts will trim calories. Choose grilled over fried chicken and avoid the fish sandwich. It's always fried, and it has more calories than a burger.

2. Stop ordering combo meals. They may be convenient, but they mean more calories. Order single items. You'll find the cost is not much different.

3. Take off half the bun from a burger and save half the calories. Better yet, take the bottom half off, cut the top part in half and this will make your beef or chicken patty seem twice as big.

4. Don't smother your salad with dressing. Keep it on the side. Dip your fork in it before you scoop up the greens. You'll still get the taste, but eat fewer calories. And choose vinaigrette salad dressing instead of ranch. If you do that alone, you save 130 calories.

5. Avoid super-sized meals. Downsize your order to a kids meal if possible. You can always go back and order something else if you're still hungry.

6. Don't drink soda or juice drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. Choose diet soda, coffee, tea or water instead. If you have seltzer with lemon instead of a sweet soda, you save 310 calories.

7. Avoid mayonnaise or special sauce and you save up to 170 calories per sandwich. Stick with mustard, pickles, onions and ketchup.

8. Don't order cheese and bacon extras. You can have some bacon bits or some cheese on the side if you want the taste, but don't use it all.

9. Eat at fast-food restaurants with a friend so you can share. On your own you will always eat the full order.

10. Cut down on french fries because they are loaded with calories.

11. Choose low-fat ice cream or ice milk for dessert. Again, think of sharing the dessert. Avoid the pies and turnovers, and anything made of fried dough.

12. Choose a fruit salad as a side dish or dessert.

13. Try to limit your visits to fast-food restaurants. No more than twice a week is a good rule of thumb.

14. If your passion runs to frozen dinners you may already be on a good weight loss diet. Researchers at the University of Illinois recently found that frozen dinners may help speed weight loss. Look out for meals that contain 350 to 400 calories per package and about 20 grams of protein.

Tips & Warnings

• The secret to making any diet work is sticking with it and making compromises that will add up to weight loss.

• Read "The Fast Food Diet" by cardiologist Stephen Sinatra, MD. He says you can lose weight easily if you choose menu items carefully and exercise regularly. Sinatra recommends eating about 1,500 calories and walking 1 mile a day.

• Nutritious meals that can be prepared fast in 15 minutes or less so check out cookbooks that deals with this topic. Look at celebrity chef Rachael Ray's series of books about cooking a meal in less than 30 minutes for ideas.

• A typical fast food meal gets about 40-50 percent of its calories from fat which is dangerous if you do it too often since the American Heart Association recommends eating only foods that get 30 percent or less of their calories from fat.