Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The Baconator

I don't often give nutritional advice on this site but I'm going to today. Don't eat the Baconator. That's it. Pretty simple huh? Now I know that you're probably thinking what could possibly be wrong with two hamburger patties, cheese slices, cheese sauce, mayonnaise, and 6 (count 'em 6) slices of bacon? And the answer is nothing at all, providing you spread that out over 4 meals and 3 days, but I don't think that's quite what Wendy's had in mind. On the other hand bacon sure is tasty so let's say you head in to Wendy's to "do what tastes right" and you order the Baconator. Why yes, I will make that a combo meal. No, I don't want to Biggie size the fries, I'm trying to control my portions! I'd better do a diet coke too. Here's the stats on your lunch: 1250 calories, 71g total fat, 175mg cholesterol, 88g carbs and 3 years... that's 3 years off your life. Whew! Good thing you went with the DIET coke!

Boy was that good, but your sweet tooth is kicking in and you could really use something chocolatey, something like the Brownie Earthquake from Dairy Queen. So you head over to DQ because you want to "DQ something different" and you figure you'll reward yourself for being so good and getting a diet drink with your lunch. Besides, you've already screwed today's calorie count straight to hell so why not? At 740 calories, 28g total fat, 60mg cholesterol and a whopping 149g carbs it can't hurt right? Right? In one meal you're now pushing 2000 calories and almost 100g total fat! You could drink bottled water for the rest of the week and you'd still gain weight. Do you realize that you would have to run for over 18 miles to burn off the calories from that one meal? (Based on an estimate of burning 110 calories/mile). Do you also realize that just by looking at the picture you've probably ingested 200 calories?

Is it any wonder that America continues to get fatter and fatter by the day? It's making me feel fat just to sit and write about this, on the upside I have plenty of motivation to go workout tonight.

Baconator is a registered trademark of Wendy's and is not being used here with their express written permission, which means that by the time you finish reading this Wendy's will likely own my house and my firstborn son.

21 comments:

  1. So here's the thing...I'm probably the only person in this country who craved a McDonald's double cheeseburger all through the movie Supersize Me. I stopped and got one on my way home from the movie. Go guess what your post just did?

    I'm going to Wendy's tonight!

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  2. I always order a diet coke, which is ridiculous. Like those extra calories would be excessive.

    I'm happy to report, I don't Baconate or DQ ... I do occasionally think outside the bun, I love me some taco bell

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  3. I can't lie to you it does look good. I will not get one but I am leaving for a cruise on Thursday. No telling what I will gain on that ship.

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  4. It is not just fast food. At work my co-workers and I looked over the Ruby Tuesday nutritional information on line. I will never eat there again. Chicken and Broccoli for only 1646 calories. Yum.

    http://www.rubytuesday.com/files/Nutrition.pdf

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  5. 1250 won't last anyone 4 meals and 3 days! Runners tend to burn around 2500 a day, which means you can have TWO of those meals, if so inclined ;)

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  6. Half Fast - My hubby and I were just having this conversation yesterday. He was checking out Macaroni Grill menus. My favorite chicken florentine salad is 840 cals but 54 grams of fat and 5.4 grams of sodium. I cannot even figure out how they could get that much fat into this, even with dressing.

    Other items on the menu were even worse. Spaghetti and meat sauce at 2430 cals and 128 gm of fat??? How is that even possible.

    I was sick to my stomach after this. It seems so irresponsible to make things that are so over-the-top fattening. I'm pretty sure I can make a decent spaghetti AND the salad for 20gm of fat (and that would be high!) It is no wonder we are getting fatter by the day.

    My husband ended up ordering off the kid's menu!

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  7. I agree with everyone else's comments. The portion sizes and fat/calorie contents are getting out of control.

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  8. My arteries clogged up just looking at the photos. I am not sure if we have those burgers in OZ but I don't want to know. And now I am hungry.

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  9. OMFG "Baconator"?!? That's what it's really called? I'm dying of laughter over here (it's the small thing, ok) I didn't even know they existed but now I guess I do :P

    I can feel the cellulite on the back of my legs curdling after reading this *puke*

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  10. Sounds like just the thing I need to get started on my "I'm married now I should just let myself go" diet. Yum.

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  11. If I ate that, I wouldn't be able to fit through the door by the time I took the last bite. Side/by related note...this weekend, my dad cooked me his newest cullinary creation - bacon wrapped sausage. Ah..good news is I don't have to save quite as much for my retirement.

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  12. As Homer Simpson would say ... M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M BACON!

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  13. 1250 calories - seriously? I don't get the inclination for a fast food hamburger anymore, but I still get those ol' DQ cravings. I don't even want to know how big a punch my favorite Blizzard packs. Considering the large is the size of a Biggie sized drink I'm guessing it isn't good.

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  14. I run on a canal in Tempe, AZ and at the end of my run is a strip center that I park my car. There's a place there called "The Heart Attack Grill" It has burgers like Wendy's called the single, double and triple bypass. the wait staff is dressed in naughty nurse outfits. www.heartattackgrill.com. I ate there once, right after a 5 miler.

    pat

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  15. 1250 cals sounds like a lot, but when you think about it, the average person should hit between 2000 & 25000 cals per day. Granted, the fat content stated with the Baconator meal is a lot, but if you have a sensible breakfast & a sensible 3rd meal, a Baconator combo once in a while sure as hell isn't going to kill you

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  16. Sorry that should say 2000-2500 (25 hundred) calories per day, not 25000!

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  17. For all the hype that Wendy's did on this (and yes, it was sufficient to get me to try one -- not b/c of the red-haired guy but just the picture of the burger and the ultra-cool name), they could've at least used some good, crispy bacon on it. The one I got had soggy bacon that didn't have much flavor. Nonetheless it was still good, but with that name they should've splurged on better bacon.

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  18. wihle the lunch i just ate contains 1300 calories, 50% by fat, (not including my drink)

    I wonder how many calories i'll actually Absorb, I've read so much about beef not digesting fully , and that diary blocks your from absorbing beef profitens..

    breakfast was a bagel, and a cup of sunflower seeds snacked on. dinner will be steamed vegies maybe with a chicken breast.

    eating less slows down your metabolism , causing you to gain weight. i'm 175 lbs (maybe 180 after the baconator)

    btw it was REALLY GOOD :D

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  19. It really does look good but I'd never get one! I don't really eat fast food but i did go to Jack in the Box once which made me sick. I love bacon but not Wendy's. The food is soggy and sure doesn't look fresh with the experiences my friend had had.

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  20. it actually doesn't have 1250 calories soooo. its like 850.

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  21. Yeah, the 1250 number was the total calories for the combo meal, but reading carefully is soooo overrated these days.

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