Have you ever wondered if you can really eat and stay low carb in a fast food restaurant? It can be very difficult, particularly as fast-food meals are often based on bread, tortillas, and other high-carb items.
Unless you choose to bake your low carb breads at home, most bread and bakery products from fast food restaurants are very high in carbs and not suitable for low carb and keto diets.
The thing is, staying low-carb is actually possible and you’ll be totally surprised how easily you can get something fast and convenient to eat in most fast-food chains you wouldn’t normally think of visiting in the U.S.
Here are 10 fast-food restaurants you can check out for your low-carb journey.
McDonald’s
Who’s not familiar with McDonald’s? This fast-food restaurant is renowned for its fast and cheap fast food on almost every street corner of the USA. You don’t need to ruin your low-carb diet as long as you make sure you throw out the bread and skip the croutons and the salad dressing. There are even keto options at McDonald’s that you can order such as sausage patty and bunless cheeseburger.
Burger King
Burger King also has some low-carb options, just like McDonald’s. For your low-carb breakfast, you can try ordering a la carte ingredients or you can choose to select one of the pre-made breakfast sandwiches from Burger King and ditch the bun. You can also try burgers, cheeseburgers, grilled chicken sandwich, Whopper, or bread-free Double Whopper and you are still low-carb.
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A has plenty of low-carb diet choices, so salads are not your only choice. In Chick-fil-A, it is easier to keep the carbohydrates under control. Toss the bread out and enjoy a chicken filet breakfast or sandwich without adding a bun, muffin or biscuit carbs. You can also customize any leafy green vegetables to be served with Grilled Chicken instead if you’re a salad lover.
Wendy’s
Wendy’s offers a wide variety of burgers that you can enjoy if you just toss away the bun and ask for the sauce to be kept. They’ve even got a good selection of salads. When it comes to eating low-carb at Wendy’s, the best bet is to go without the bun or sauce of your cheeseburger and pair it with a side salad on the menu.
Taco Bell
Taco Bell has so much more than the super-double-decker-cheesy-potato wrapped in a tortilla. Although low carb options are available in McDonald’s and similar fast service chains, the infinitely customizable and radically different menu of Taco Bell can provide an enticing low carb fast food alternative. The low-carb Taco Bell breakfast, bowls, and low-carb taco salad are only a few tasty low-carb foods you can enjoy here.
KFC
It’s hard to imagine a restaurant with the words “fried chicken” in its name, like KFC, especially if you’re ordering something low-carb. KFC is the other place for the chicken to go to in the U.S. Though it’s not as trendy as Chick-fil-A, it’s been around forever.
KFC’s list of low-carb friendly options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is not going to be almost as long as some of the other fast-food restaurants, but you have at least one good option: get a bucket of grilled chicken. Some people who follow a keto diet advice to peel off the breading from the fried chicken to keep it low carb.
Subway
When you hear Subway, you might think of sandwiches. Well, it’s because sandwiches are quite well known to them. But in fact, they are also low-carb friendly as you can create a low-carb chopped salad by choosing your own ingredients starting with a shredded lettuce bed, adding meat, cheese, olives, salad dressing, etc.
Chipotle
The great thing about Chipotle is that from many different options for meat, dairy, veggie & salsa, you can make your own salads. They have five options for low-carb meat, two low-carb veggies, three dairy ingredients (queso, shredded cheese, and sour cream), and four salsas you can mix and match to make fantastic low-carb meals.
If you’re new to eating low carb, I’ll start by saying that you should avoid all Chipotle rice, beans, taco shells, tortillas, and tortilla chips as they are too high in carb. Recently, Chipotle offers lifestyle bowls which cater for people who follow healthy low carb, keto and Paleo diets.
In-N-Out Burgers
Despite having a somewhat limited menu (since only three different burgers are available), In-N-Out Burger guarantees that the next time you’re in a rush you’ll be able to order a fast, low-carb meal. At In-N-Out Burger, the best way to ensure that you get a low-carb meal is to order your burger without the bun or any sauce. Instead, you can ask for your burger to be wrapped in a lettuce wrap, or just ditch the bun when it arrives and eat just the inside.
Five Guys
Five Guys doesn’t have much on their menu, but if you need anything low-carb, it’s a decent place to go and get a bunless burger. The majority of Five Guys burgers come with two patties and two cheese slices. It is perfect because you can be loaded up with it. They don’t have a lot of side dishes but you might want to stay away from fries and milkshakes.