The Worst Things To Order At Fast Food Restaurants

Most fast food restaurants have introduced healthier options to their menus, but there are still plenty of bad things to order. The industry's main source of income comes from selling heart-stoppingly delicious bombs of fat, calories, and salt (and cheese—so much cheese). Luckily, most fast food joints readily provide their menus' nutritional information in their restaurants and on their websites. You might want to avoid the following menu items at these popular chains if you don't want to get a day's worth of calories and fat in a single meal—that's not even including the soda and sides that usually go with them.

Subway's Spicy Italian

Subway has long touted itself as the home of healthy sandwiches that have "six grams of fat or less." That's only true if you get a specific six-inch sandwich, like turkey, and load it up with vegetables, while skipping the cheese and condiments. A foot-long Spicy Italian, one of the chain's most popular sandwiches, is one of the unhealthiest hoagies in America. It's piled high with 960 calories, 48 grams of fat, and 2,980 milligrams of sodium. That's 80 calories, 4 grams of fat, and 248 mg of salt per inch.

KFC's Chicken Pot Pie

You'd be surprised at how many calories are packed into the average meal at KFC. But the fried chicken isn't the only thing to look out for when ordering. Kentucky Fried Chicken's Pot Pie packs 790 calories, 45 grams of fat, and 1,970 milligrams of sodium, making it really easy to end up with a pot belly if you're downing these regularly.

Chipotle's Carnitas Burrito

Chipotle deserves praise for its commitment to hormone-free and sustainable ingredients, but that doesn't mean all of its food is healthy. A giant burrito is still a rather unhealthy choice no matter where you go, especially if you load it up with filler. If you decide to go all out with a Carnitas Burrito filled to the brim, it can contain as much as 1,365 calories, 66 grams of fat, and more than 3,000 mg of sodium. That's accounting for the meat, rice, beans, cheese, veggies, salsa, sour cream, cheese, guac, and tortilla. Do your heart a favor and go for something smaller, like a couple of tacos, where the amount of fillings are limited by the size of the shell.

Sonic's Peanut Butter and Cookie Dough Dream Master Blast

It's called a "Dream Master" because you'll pass out in a diabetic coma after drinking one of these candy-filled milkshake treats. A large PBCDDMB contains a staggering 1,810 calories, 88 grams of fat, and 203 grams of sugar. That's more fat than 33 slices of greasy bacon and more sugar than seven Snickers bars. At least the peanut butter helps bring in a respectable 24 grams of protein, but there are plenty of healthier ways to accomplish that.

Carl's Jr. Thickburger El Diablo

This jalapeno-topped burger will burn your mouth on the way in and clog your arteries on the way down. Sitting inside of a bun that can barely hold it all is half a pound of beef, pepper jack cheese, spicy mayonnaise, bacon, jalapenos, and deep-fried jalapeno poppers. El Diablo's total damage: a hellacious 1,290 calories and 85 grams of fat.

Long John Silver's Baja Fish Tacos

Of all the deep-fried catches up for sale at Long John Silver's, fish tacos seem like a reasonably healthy choice. They're not. The Baja Fish Taco is the unhealthiest thing on the menu at this fast food fish chain. Worst of all, the tacos are sold as a pair, which contain a whopping 820 calories, 42 grams of fat, and 2580 mg of sodium (even LJS warns on their nutrition facts page that the recommended daily limit is 2300 mg of sodium). You can walk the plank at Long John Silver's for some Baja Fish Tacos if you want, but you'll need to run the StairMaster for a long time to burn them off.

Taco Bell XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito

Gone are the days when we can be fooled by the word "grilled." The XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito from Taco Bell is absolutely terrible for you. At 860 calories, 41 grams of fat (14 saturated, 1 TRANS, for Pete's Sake. Considering the American Heart Association recommends that you eat no more than 2 grams of trans fat per day, it's best to avoid it altogether). and 2,170 mg sodium, it's a gut bomb for sure. Taco Bell's website even guarantees a food coma. Add a soda and any other Taco Bell delicacy to your order, and you're well over your daily calorie, fat, saturated fat and sodium limits for the day, if not beyond.

Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate

It's a drink! That's the thing. It's a beverage. No way should a drink make this list, but this one does. As should several items on the Starbuck's drink menu. This yummy treat, in Venti size with whole milk and whipped cream will cost you 760 calories, 84 grams of fat and 111 grams of carbs. That's more than a third of your daily carb allowance (with a 2000 calorie diet), and the 18 grams of saturated fat exceed the amount of you're supposed to have in a day. That's a whole lot of your daily allowance of everything for a 20 oz. hot chocolate, no matter how tasty it is. You could substitute skim milk and skip the whip, but how would that taste? Not the same.

Five Guys Fries

There are fries that are worse. Let's not mistake it. There are even things on the Five Guys menu that are much worse for you. But, since these puppies are cooking in peanut oil, which has no added cholesterol, people have been known to chow down on these delicious treats like they were health food. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but if you consider the fact that you're told that there's no cholesterol, it's easy to skate over the fact that these fries are, in fact, full of other bad stuff. For instance, one serving is 953 calories, 41 grams of fat (7 saturated and 1 trans), 962 mg. sodium and 131 carbs. One serving is 411 grams, or less than 2 cups. And, since the lovely, friendly Five Guys guys tend to put twice that in your bag, it's likely a diner will consume more. Danger!

Pizza Hut Meat Lover's Pizza

The Za. It's a classic. Go to any office meeting where Pizza Hut is summoned and you'll likely find a cheese pizza, a Meat Lover's, Veggie Lover's and maybe an odd pepperoni. It's always the Meat Lover's that goes first, isn't it? Something about that combination of ham, 2 types of sausage, pepperoni, ground beef and bacon that makes the most greasy finger smears on the conference room table. One slice of this delicacy (with hand-tossed crust) contains 300 calories, 16 grams of fat, 7 grams saturated fat and 860 mg of sodium. And do you think most people only eat one slice? Oh no. The trusty calculate-this article on pizza tells you to order enough for 3 slices per person. 3 slices of Meat Lover's reaches into astronomical gastronomical badness.

Dave's Triple

It makes sense, if you're going to splurge on a triple cheeseburger, that you know a little bit about what you're getting into, calorically. Dave's Triple at Wendy's has three patties of beef, yeah. Which makes the 1070 calories, 72 grams of fat and 30 grams of saturated fat make sense, right? But who would eat a little over half their daily calories, but more than their daily allowance of fat and saturated fat in just one burger? This doesn't count in fries or sodas. Just the sandwich. This falls under the never-ever eat, unless it's about every decade, category.