The Fast Food Diet

What it is

If you love quick meals at fast-food restaurants and are looking for an easy weight loss plan, The Fast Food Diet may be for you.

It might sound like a gimmick, but author and cardiologist Stephen Sinatra, MD, thinks you can lose weight easily on The Fast Food Diet -- if you choose menu items carefully and exercise regularly.

Essentially, The Fast Food Diet is a six-week guide for making the healthiest selections from virtually every major fast-food restaurant menu, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks. The book also includes tips for choosing healthy foods from mall food courts, sit-down restaurants, airports, and convenience stores.

It's a no-nonsense approach aimed at busy moms, drive-through addicts, and anyone else who loves the convenience and taste of fast food but wants to eat healthier or lose weight.

Naturally, Sinatra would prefer his patients, and the 80 million other people who eat at fast-food restaurants each day, to enjoy a healthy diet loaded with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy and lean meats. But he realizes that is unrealistic for many people.

"People love fast food because it tastes good and is reasonably priced, and no matter what professionals say, they are going to continue to eat there," says Sinatra. "So why not help them make healthier food choices?" If we empower people to make wiser food choices, it is a step in the right direction toward improved health and weight loss."

What You Can Eat

Dieters can enjoy grilled chicken sandwiches, chili, baked potatoes, fruit parfaits, and even junior burgers on The Fast Food Diet. But don't think for a minute that french fries or sodas sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup are part of the plan. In fact, if you follow The Fast Food Diet plan, you won't get many unhealthy trans fats -- fried foods are not allowed.

But you may not miss them. Sinatra offers suggestions for healthier substitutions for fast-food favorites, along with easy tips for reducing fat and calories while still enjoying a diet primarily from fast-food restaurants.

For example, choose vinaigrette salad dressing instead of ranch for a savings of 130 calories. (Use less of the dressing and you save even more calories.) Order seltzer with lemon instead of a sweet soda, and you save 310 calories. Forget mayonnaise and special sauces, and you can save up to 170 calories per sandwich.

The Fast Food Diet also includes some simple recipes for nutritious meals that can be prepared in 15 minutes or less, as incentives for busy folks to eat at home rather than hitting the drive-through.

How It Works

The plan is as simple as following the recommended food and beverage choices (totaling about 1,500 calories daily), and walking a mile a day.