That's Fit

Here's a frightening thought -- pretty soon, we'll be able to see the calorie counts on the menu boards of several fast food joints falling under the parent company Yum Brands, including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, according to recent reports. Don't get me wrong -- I think we all agree that calorie counts on menus are a great idea. What frightens me is knowing how many calories are in a stuffed crust pizza, deep fried chicken thigh or cheesy taco crunchwrap supreme. The horrors.

Still, this is a definitely a step in the right direction for people trying to lose weight. No longer can you plead innocence after downing that bucket of original recipe chicken -- the 'I just didn't realize it had 10 billion calories' excuse won't work anymore. And for those of you who are counting calories, now you'll know exactly how much of your daily intake you've blown in one meal.

What do you think about calorie counts on menus?

A recent report reveals that fast-food kid's meals have too many calories. This would be the point that you say "No, duh!"

Quite unsurprisingly, nearly every combination of the kid's meals at KFC, Taco Bell, Sonic, and Chick-fil-A are too fattening. Restaurants -- like McDonald's and Burger King that offer apple slices or other options instead of fries fared a little better. Subway came out on top, with 12 of its 18 possible kid's meal combinations under a reasonable amount of calories.

The study deemed a reasonable amount of calories as 430 -- based on the fact that the average 8-year-old should eat 1,200-1,300 calories a day.

Check out your knowledge about fast food and calories -- take this AOL Health quiz!

Losing weight isn't always about eating less. As a matter of fact, the more frequently you eat, the faster your metabolism becomes. But here's the rub: You have to eat healthy foods, and they have to be in smaller portions. Of those two stipulations, I feel the former has been covered well enough here on That's Fit and myriad other publications, so I'll spend the next couple of paragrahps focusing on the latter.

Accorrding to the Mayo Clinic Newsletter, there is research to back-up the fact that people eat less food when it is being eaten from a smaller plate. And with smaller forks and spoons (or "Sporks" if you're at KFC -- which you probably shouldn't be in the first place if you're trying to eat healthy, but ... ). The opposite of this effect also takes place when people eat from bigger bowls and plates; more food is consumed.

Lesson #1 Summary: Small plate/utensils, smaller caloric intake. Large plate/utensils, larger waistlines.

The Newsletter also suggested getting rid of high-calorie leftovers. That sliver of leftover birthday cake, the two slices of pizza from Domino's, the piece of apple pie from Easter -- either get rid of them or store them in opaque containers. If you see them, you will eat them. It's really as simple as that. So, in place of those sweets, have healthier, ready-to-eat options like nuts and Jello in plain site.

Lesson #2 Summary: You are what you eat, and you eat what you see.

The final tip in the newsletter is to buy small packages of food and, if possible, serve or order in small quantities. If you buy the Super-Jumbo-Massive-Gargantuan size bag of food, guess what? You'll probably end up eating a Super-Jumbo-Massive-Gargantuan amount of food. The easy solution is to purchase foods that come in smaller containers, which will automatically cause you to eat less and therefore consume less calories. Also, another trick is to serve the appropriate portions of a certain food and then put the leftovers away immediately. Don't leave them on the table, don't leave them on the counter, and definitely don't leave them on your plate. Back in the fridge they go -- out of sight, out of mind.

Lesson #3 Summary: Buying in bulk may sometimes result in, well, bulk.

Shopping at Costco, Sam's Club, or BJ's may be a great way to cut costs in the long-term, but it may also lead to a tendency to overindulge. To help remedy this potential problem, try apportioning bulk food into small containers right away, rather than letting them remain in their jumbo boxes.

Hats off to the folks at the Mayo Clinic for this one, because these are three ways to lose weight without going on a diet and/or performing even a minute of exercise. It doesn't get much easier than that!!

In this busy world, it's sometimes hard to avoid fast food restaurants. But though you may find yourself in a situation where you don't have a choice of where to eat, you can always choose what to eat. MSN has published this list of the worst fast food offenders, so at the very least, if you find yourself at ones of these eateries, avoid getting:

• McDonald's Deluxe Breakfast weighs in at 1220 calories
• BK's Triple Whopper with Cheese is a hearty 1230 cal, 85 g of fat. That doesn't even include fries
  
• Taco Bell Fiesta Salad. You'd be better off not getting the salad here - it's 860 cal
• Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Meat Lovers has 1000 calories, 82 g of fat in two slices
• Cinnabon's Caramel Pecanabon has 1100 calories, 56 g of fat
• Boston Market's Chicken Pot Pie has 750 calories
• Subways Double Meat Classic Tuna has 790 cal, 55 g of fat
• Domino's ExtravaganZZa Feast deep-dish pizza has 860 calories, 46 grams of fat in two slices
• KFC's Mashed Potato Bowl With Gravy contains 690 calories and 31 grams of fat
• If you must have dessert, by all means, stay away from Dairy Queen's Caramel CheeseQuake Blizzard - it has 1290 calories!

For more items to avoid, check out our How Many Calories feature!

At Kentucky Fried Chicken, if you're watching your calorie intake, everything except the actual Kentucky Fried Chicken can start to look like a relatively good choice. Coleslaw sounds especially healthy since it isn't fried in grease and also is made with fresh cabbage. Plus, on a hot summer day, cool coleslaw can sound like a really refreshing alternative to other sides like mashed potatoes.

The cabbage is healthy, but it's smothered in sauce. How many calories are in one serving of KFC coleslaw? The answer will also give you a rough idea of how many calories are in each serving of coleslaw at that company picnic, too.

A) 150 calories
B) 231 calories
C) 325 calories
D) 412 calories

And another one bites the dust! Yum Brands, Inc. announced this week that two of it's restaurants -- KFC and Taco Bell -- have switched to trans fat-free oils in their restaurants. KFC and KFC/Taco Bell combo restaurants will be using a soybean oil and Taco Bell will be switching to canola oil. Both restaurants still have items on their menus that contain trans fats -- such as biscuits and baked goods -- but the change in oil will affect several popular items.

Trans fats have been shown to raise bad cholesterol and reduce good cholesterol. Restaurants, food manufacturers, and even entire states have been dropping it like a hot potato. But before you run out for a "healthy" bucket of trans fat-free chicken, don't forget to consider the saturated fat and calories. KFC and Taco Bell have improved the health of their products for sure, but they are still selling fast food after all.

I grew up on McDonald's, KFC and similar chains, so seeing fast food ads can be very mouthwatering -- even when I know it's awful for me. However, what you see in the photos is almost never what you get.

To help bring the advertising myth back down to reality, The West Virginia Surf Report has started photographing real fast food, and posting those photos as side-by-side comparisons with photos from ads for the same product.

According to the site: "Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all."

This is equal parts disturbing and hysterical. It's amazing how unappetizing the food looks when it comes fresh the kitchen, instead of the photography studio.

The series is continually updated, so check it out if you have a moment. The Burger King Whopper (pictured above) is my personal favorite. Gross.

[via Boing Boing]

We've seeing cities and restaurant chains ban the use of trans fats in foods -- from New York City to KFC to Taco Bell to Starbucks just this past week. Will we continue to see the banning of this dangerous chemical from all kinds of foods and eateries in the future? You bet.

Frito Lay -- whose fattening products I avoid like the plague -- even advertises heavily on many of its products that there are no longer any trans fats used in -- for example -- potato chips and other snack chips. When other manufacturers start following the lead here (and many have), expect to see "0 grams trans fats" on labels for at least a few years until the marketing panache wears off.

Is this good? While some may argue that they would rather eat trans fats (and clog arteries) given the choice, the move by restaurants and processed food makers is more of a marketing opportunity than a pure move for better consumer health -- but I will take it.

They might be skinny but they're not necessarily healthy according to this article, which lists the food (and other) requests of rock, country, rap and pop stars. Some are pretty basic but some are frankly bizarre. Sugary cereal is a request of both Clay Aitken and Red Hot Chili Peppers. KFC is the greasy meat of choice for Gnarls Barkley and 50 Cent. Alcohol (in mass quantities) is on the list for the members of Green Day and Coldplay. Expensive Champagne is a favorite of Mariah Carey and 50 Cent, and both Axl Rose and Marilyn Manson love their meat -- so much so that Manson always orders a full pound of it.

Some celebrities make healthy choices. John Mayer and Christina Aguilera both request a selection of organic items and Shania Twain brings along her own juicer and requests a bunch of fresh fruits and veggies.

Now it's your turn. If you were a famous musician, what would you request on the road? I think I would ask for a plate of fancy expensive cheeses, a bunch of fresh, organic fruits and veggies, some chocolate (though not too much -- I wouldn't want to over-indulge), a selection of fresh seafood and, what the heck, a bottle of champagne. You only live once, right?

Taco Bell, along with the recent announcement of fast food buddy KFC, will start lowering the amount of transfats in its foods soon, according to the nation's largest tex-mex fast food company.

"This is something we've been working on for over two years, and we just believe it's the right thing and the right changes to make in our products," said Warren Widicus, Taco Bell's chief food innovation officer.

It's great to see that even fast food restaurants and locations are starting to dump unhealthy transfats from products since it makes no sense to use transfats at all when alternatives exist that can allow fried products without adding transfats into the picture.

Even though most fast food restaurants are not exactly serving healthy food, the cutting out of transfats at least makes the picture a little brighter for who that choose to eat at these locations.

In a trend I hope continues by the day, KFC Restaurants has announced that the chain will completely do away with cooking products in Trans Fat oils by April of 2007. This is great news for folks who frequent the restaurant, since Trans Fats add nothing to the diet and have been known in medical circles as harmful to the body as well.

Replacing Trans Fat oils with healthier alternatives will most likely not even alter the taste of KFC's products and most likely will be completely transparent to the consumer. While I don't personally eat at many fast food restaurants these days -- but still do occasionally -- millions do and this switch is bound to have lasting positive aspects to the food millions eat daily.

The bigger question is if Yum! Brands, which owns KFC, will extend this new policy to more chains under its umbrella, following competitor Wendy's International and reductions (but not eliminations) by McDonalds as well. McDonalds, in particular, has not yet eliminated Trans Fats from its product because it said there is no substitute that has shown to work as well. My question is -- how is that determined? User surveys? Come on, McDonalds -- try to lead the efforts instead of making excuses.