How many calories are in a typical fast food order?

Averaged across the major US chains, a signature burger with medium fries and a medium soda lands around 1,350 calories. Go large on the fries and the drink and it is closer to 1,650, which is most of a 2,000 calorie day in one sitting.

What's the easiest way to cut these calories?

Not ordering in the first place beats every workaround, and the hard part is the craving in the moment. NOPE is an iPhone app built exactly for that moment: it warns you near your usual spots and helps you get through the urge.

Free tool

How many calories are in your usual order?

Build your typical order below. Every number is an average across the big US chains, not the smallest version on the menu.

Build your usual order

Tap + to add items. Averages across McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Five Guys, Sonic, In-N-Out, Chick-fil-A, Popeyes, KFC, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Domino's and Pizza Hut.

How often do you order this?

To show your yearly total

3× / week

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Adding up your order…

Your order adds up to

calories in one sitting

of a 2,000-calorie day

calories a year at your frequency

0 days

of a full day's energy, in a single order

Where these numbers come from. Each item is an average of the equivalent product across the major US chains, rounded. Portions vary enormously between them, which is why the averages sit well above the lightest option: a McDonald's cheeseburger is 300 calories, but the Little Cheeseburger at Five Guys is 610 and Sonic's is 720. Your actual order may be higher or lower. Nothing is stored and nothing leaves your browser.

One craving at a time, this goes to zero

NOPE catches you right before you order, warns you near your usual spots, and gets you through the craving. Available now on iPhone.

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Why fast food calories add up so fast

Fast food is engineered to be easy to eat a lot of: soft textures, big flavor, oversized defaults. Averaged across the big chains, a signature burger with medium fries and a medium soda lands around 1,350 calories. Order the large fries and the large drink and you're closer to 1,650, which is most of a 2,000-calorie day gone in about eight minutes.

Why these numbers beat the ones on the chain's own page

Every chain publishes its own figures, and if you only ever look at McDonald's you'll get a misleadingly gentle picture, because McDonald's portions are among the smallest in the industry. Their large fries are 480 calories; a regular Five Guys fry is more than 950. Their cheeseburger is 300; Sonic's is 720. Averaging across chains gives you something closer to what a real week of ordering actually looks like, especially if you order from more than one place.

Calories aren't the only number

Energy is the number everyone tracks, but sodium is where fast food is genuinely extreme, and almost nobody checks it. A single fried chicken sandwich can carry two thirds of the sodium the WHO suggests for an entire day, before the fries. You can see that side of your order with the nutrition calculator, and the money side with the cost calculator.

What happens if you cut this out

Dropping a single weekly order of this size removes a serious amount of energy from your year without changing anything else about how you eat. People who quit usually notice steadier energy within the first week. Here's the full day 1 to 90 timeline of what to expect, and if you want to understand why the craving feels so automatic, read the science of the craving loop.

How do I actually stop ordering?

Knowing the calories rarely stops anyone at 6 PM on a tired day. The craving does the deciding, which is why NOPE works at that exact moment: it warns you near the spots that tempt you, helps you through the urge, and turns every clean day into a visible streak.