Keto Fast Food – Minding Macros While on the Go

It would be great to eat deliciously prepared, wholesome dishes at every meal, wouldn’t it? But let’s face it, sometimes you’ve just got to eat. Whether you’re driving the kids from activity to activity or you’re on a road trip, fast food is usually the easiest solution when your stomach starts to growl.

Surprisingly, with a few adjustments, there are quite a few fast food options available to keto dieters.

Wendy’s

Home of the fresh, never frozen beef patty, Wendy’s is a great option for a quick, keto meal. Craving beef and bacon? Give the Baconator (no bun, no ketchup, wrapped in lettuce) a go. Unlike most fast food chains, you can even opt to make it a combo by swapping out the fries for a Caesar side salad (no croutons, no tomatoes) and add an unsweetened iced tea. The burger alone only has 3g net carbs, so adding the Caesar side salad brings the entire meal to 5g net carbs.

Also at Wendy’s, opt to grab a full-sized Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad (no croutons). This lighter choice only contains 8g net carbs.

Subway

If you can muster the willpower to avoid looking at the bread ovens, Subway’s chopped salads are a great option for a lunch on the go. The sandwich artists will convert any of your favorite low carb sub fillings into a rather large chopped salad for under $7.00. Try their Spicy Italian, double meat, with spinach and other low starch veggies, topped with oil and vinegar dressing.

Chipotle

Sure, the guacamole is extra, but sometimes it’s worth it. One of the great things about Chipotle is that they have a great nutrition information tool1 on their website. It allows you to customize your salad or bowl and determine which ingredients are best for your macro needs that day. Great choices include any of their meats, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, and all of the salsas except for the corn salsa.

Wings

While you have to be mindful of whether a restaurant uses flour before frying their wings, most wing options are very low carb. Wingstop, for example, has several choice rubs and sauces that only add about 1g of carbohydrates for every two wings. When you can’t make your own wings at home, choose a restaurant that doesn’t use flour and that advertises their nutritional information for sauces and rubs clearly.

Sandwiches Without the Bun

While Wendy’s Baconator was mentioned above already, it bears noting that most fast food establishments will honor your request to ditch the bun. With this consideration, nearly every fast food option becomes available to you when you’re on the go. Establishments like Five Guys, Arby’s, In-N-Out Burger, Jimmy John’s, and McDonald’s will serve up their burgers and sandwiches wrapped in lettuce or on a bed of lettuce when you kindly request, “No bun, please”.

The real key to choosing the right keto food options when at a fast food restaurant is avoiding temptation. If you can make the right adjustments to suit your macros, and put blinders on when it comes to the fries, you can grab a quick, easy meal that keeps you fat adapted.