by Dave Zinczenko
Men's Health

Countless studies have shown that eating a daily breakfast is your best strategy for losing weight fast, so thankfully Americans are doing so with increasing frequency. Over the past five years, breakfast has comprised more than 60 percent of restaurant traffic growth, and in response, chains like McDonald’s and Burger King have expanded their morning menus. What’s more, Taco Bell and Wendy’s—two chains that have traditionally skipped breakfast—are right now testing egg-based sandwiches and burritos in select markets.

But while it’s easy to praise the increasing variety, it’s equally important to recognize that not every fast food breakfast is equally good for your waistline. Sure breakfast can help you shed pounds, but the wrong meal—one with too many calories—can just as easily pack pounds on. Here’s what to watch out for when you’re hungry and in a hurry, courtesy of Eat This, Not That! 2012.

#5: WORST BREAKFAST
Jamba Juice Chunky Strawberry Topper Parfait (16 oz)
570 calories
17 g fat (3 g saturated)
59 g sugars

SUGAR EQUIVALENT: 18 Keebler Fudge Shoppe Fudge Stripes cookies

You’ll be the chunky one soon enough if you down too many of these parfaits. Jamba adds granola and peanut butter to its “nutritious and delicious” parfaits, resulting in excess fat and calories. The chain’s oatmeal provides protein and fiber, and oat consumption has been proven to lower LDL cholesterol in research studies.

Eat This Instead!
Jamba Juice Blueberry and Blackberry Steel-Cut Oatmeal
290 calories
3.5 g fat (1 g saturated)
25 g sugars

SNACK SMART: Consult The Ultimate Snack Scorecard to find the most slimming between-meal boosters.

#4: WORST BREAKFAST
Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Cake Muffin
650 calories
27 g fat (9 g saturated)
56 g sugars

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 5 bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal

With the exception of the Reduced-Fat Blueberry variety, every one of the monstrous muffins at Dunkin’s sits at about 500 calories or more. In fact, this one is filled with more calories than any doughnut you’ll find on the menu! Plus, more than half of those come from cheap, refined carbohydrates—the top two ingredients are refined flour and sugar. The Cheese Danish doesn’t provide the protein or fiber of an ideal breakfast, but it’s a superior splurge and the moderate sugar load will spare you a mid-morning crash.

Eat This Instead!
Dunkin’ Donuts Cheese Danish
330 calories
17 g fat (8 g saturated)
17 g sugars

FAT-BLASTING FADS: Discover The Best and Worst Food Trends of 2012 to make this your slimmest year yet.

#3: WORST BREAKFAST
Wendy’s Mornin’ Melt Panini with Sausage
650 calories
46 g fat (22 g saturated, 1 g trans)
910 mg sodium

SATURATED FAT EQUIVALENT: 37 Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets

Wendy’s new breakfast menu is slowly rolling out across the country—but it’s the nutrition facts that are really all over the map! Take the Mornin’ Melt Panini: Stuffed between these slices are more than a day’s worth of saturated fat and a full gram of dangerous trans fat. Fortunately the menu offers a few decent options, too. Of the 11 new entrees, five of them fall under 500 calories.

Eat This Instead!
Wendy’s Sausage & Egg Burrito
350 calories
22 g fat (8 g saturated)
850 mg sodium

FREEZER BURN! Don’t allow yourself to be fooled by frosty “health” foods—strike the 6 Worst Frozen Diet Foods from your grocery list.

#2: WORST BREAKFAST
Burger King Ultimate Breakfast Platter
1,310 calories
72 g fat (26 g saturated, 1 g trans)
2,490 mg sodium
41 g sugars

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 17.5 Banquet Brown ‘n Serve Original Sausage Links

This super-sized breakfast is a triple threat of cheap carbs. It features a biscuit, pancakes, AND hash browns, a combination that will set your blood sugar on a roller coaster ride throughout the day. The platter also knocks out a day’s worth of sodium and two-thirds of your day’s total caloric allotment. Compromise with the Double Bacon Double Croissan’wich—doubling up on the bacon grants you an extra 6 grams of protein, adding up to a substantial 20 grams total.

Eat This Instead!
Burger King Double Croissan’wich with Double Bacon
440 calories
25 g fat (11 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
1,190 mg sodium
6 g sugars

BRUTAL BOWLS: Warm up with winter’s ultimate comfort food—just be sure to skip the 6 Worst Soups in America.

THE #1 WORST BREAKFAST IN AMERICA
McDonald’s Big Breakfast with Hotcakes (Large Biscuit) with Hotcake Syrup and Whipped Margarine
1,370 calories
64.5 grams of fat (21.5 g saturated)
2,335 mg sodium
49 g sugars

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 16 Eggo Blueberry Pancakes

This platter contains about 400 more calories and nearly double the saturated fat and sodium load of a Big Mac Extra Value Meal. Plus, it’s made with partially hydrogenated oils, which are the source of those tricky trans fats. Fortunately, McDonald’s also boasts some of the best fast food breakfast options around—this Egg McMuffin-Hash Brown combo is relatively lean, and it’s bolstered with 19 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.

Eat This Instead!
McDonald’s Egg McMuffin and Hash Brown
450 calories
22 g fat (6 g saturated)
1,120 mg sodium
3 g sugars

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By Dave Zinczenko
Men's Health

Whether it’s the game, the commercials, the snacks, or some combination of all three, everyone has a reason to tune in for the Super Bowl. The downside? All of those traditional football foods can leave you looking like the last-pick linebacker in the draft. And with the average airtime for a football game being 185 minutes—just over three hours—there’s plenty of time to commit food-related fumbles. Here’s your defensive lineup, courtesy of "Eat This, Not That! 2012."

NOT THAT:
Lay’s Natural Classic Potato Chips, Sea Salted (3 oz, 51 chips)
450 calories
27 g fat (3 g saturated)
540 mg sodium
+
Lay’s French Onion Dip (6 Tbsp)
180 calories
15 g fat (0 g saturated)
690 mg sodium

Total:
630 calories
42 g fat (3 g saturated)
1,230 mg sodium

FAT EQUIVALENT: 9 Twinkies!

When Courtyard Hotel (an official Super Bowl sponsor) commissioned a survey of America’s favorite Super Bowl snacks, chips and dip took first place. With all that collective dunking at stake, you’d best have a strong play prepped and ready. Natural Lay’s wholesome packaging is deceptive—each serving only cuts a single gram of fat and a mere 10 calories from regular Lay’s, and the first listed ingredient in this dip (other than water) is oil! Instead, go with Tostitos Scoops!, which are the perfect vehicle for spicy, metabolism-stoking salsa.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!
Baked! Tostitos Scoops (3 oz, 42 chips)
360 calories
9 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
420 mg sodium
+
Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa (6 Tbsp)
45 calories
0 g fat (0 g saturated)
630 mg sodium

Total:
405 calories
9 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
1,050 mg sodium“CHIP”-WRECKED: Chips have the potential to be a solid snack, but choose wisely—The Worst Chips and Dips will leave you drowning in calories and fat.

NOT THAT:
Campbell’s Chunky New England Clam Chowder (2 cups/1 can)
420 calories
20 g fat (3 g saturated)
1,780 mg sodium

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: More than 2 cups of Extra Creamy Cool Whip—the chowder is more calorie-dense by volume!

Here we have the official soup showdown of the Super Bowl, and if the quality of the chowder is any indication of the outcome of the game, then it looks like the Giants are going to win—again. New England clam chowder is cream based, whereas the Giants’ home-field chowder—Manhattan clam chowder—is made from a tomato-based broth. As such, New England clam chowder is loaded with fat, and Manhattan clam chowder is loaded with antioxidants.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!
Campbell’s Chunky Manhattan Clam Chowder (2 cups/1 can)
260 calories
7 g fat (2 g saturated)
1,600 mg sodium

CALORIC CANS: There are supposed to be two servings of soup in every can, but most of us just heat ‘n eat the whole thing—check out 9 Other Serving Size Rip-offs that pack on the pounds.

NOT THAT:
Sam Adams Imperial Stout (3 beers, 36 oz)
924 calories
9.2% ABV

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: More than 6 cans of Coke

With the Patriots in the Super Bowl, you can be sure someone’s bringing Sam Adams to the party. It’s no stretch to assume you’ll sip your way through three beers over the course of the game, but if you choose blindly, you might end up wiping out nearly half your day’s calories in the process. Beer is especially dangerous, because unlike food packagers, brewers aren’t required to list calories on their labels. One tip-off here is the word “imperial.” That means that this beer is heavier than your average brew. So skip the stout and go with Sam Adams Light—It’s not the lowest-calorie light option on the market, but it maintains a complexity and fullness of flavor that most light beers lack, and in this case, it saves you an astonishing 564 calories.

DRINK THIS INSTEAD!
Sam Adams Light (3 beers, 36 oz)
357 calories
4.3% ABV

LEAN LIBATIONS: Not all mixed drinks are saccharine, calorie-packed concoctions—sip one of The World’s 4 Healthiest Cocktails instead.

NOT THAT:
Applebee’s Boneless Wings, Honey BBQ
1,250 calories
55 g fat (11 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
3,060 mg sodium

SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 13 orders of Taco Bell Cheesy Nachos

Thanks to a deluge of sugary sauce and thick spackle of breading, these wings contain as many carbs as 10 slices of sandwich bread! They also manage to contain more than a day’s worth of sodium per order, and roughly 100 calories per nugget! Always opt for bone-in wings instead—they’re unquestionably less caloric, and still pack a solid punch of protein.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!
Applebee’s Classic Wings, Southern BBQ
660 calories
35 g fat (9 g saturated)
1,060 mg sodium

FELONIOUS FOWL: Guard your waistline against every one of the egregious Worst Chicken Dishes in America.

NOT THAT:
Domino’s Hand-Tossed Buffalo Chicken Specialty Pizza
700 calories
34 g fat (17 g saturated)
1,760 mg sodium

FAT EQUIVALENT: 7 scoops of Breyer’s Original Strawberry ice cream

This specialty pie from Domino’s starts strong with lean protein and heat-packed sauce, but smothers them between layers of cheese and a thick, oily crust. The result? Two slices that make up 85 percent of your day’s saturated fat allowance. Instead, build a custom pie on a thin crust, and load it with chicken and fiber-rich veggies. Then, if it’s a spicy kick you crave, ask Domino’s to add wing sauce on top. That contributes a ton of heat in a negligible number of calories. Same flavors, but without the excess cheese and bread running interference on your waistline.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!
Domino’s Thin-Crust Pizza with Grilled Chicken, Onion, Mushrooms, Green Chile Peppers, and Wing Sauce (Large pie, 2 slices)
420 calories
19 g fat (7 g saturated)
1,140 mg sodium

Related links:

The 8 NEW Saltiest Foods in America
8 “Scary” Food Myths—Busted
Lose 3 Pounds in 6 Meals!
6 Worst Frozen Diet Foods

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