Do You Know How Many Calories In That Fast Food Burger?

According to a recent study…Ok, Chip here, so you know something crazy usually follows those words, right?  Americans are horrible at estimating the number of calories in their fast food meals. 

This is likely a good thing.  Why?  We’re pretty good at finding fast food place and we rarely have problems selecting the heart attack meal we would like to consume, but we generally don’t have an idea how much closer we have brought ourselves to diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and even death.

  The study, from Harvard Medical School, indicates that teens underestimated the calories in fast food meals by 34%; their parents?  23%.  Other adults by 20%

Additionally, "One-fourth of participants underestimated the calories in their meals by at least 500 calories." Whoa, that is a lot, believe it or not.

In their defense, after your second Quarter Pounder With Cheese, it tends to get harder and harder to remember how many you eventually ate before the blackout.

Calorie consumption at fast food restaurants now stands as the only category in which Americans don't overestimate themselves. 

I have not come to the point where I try to avoid fast food, but when you have kids, and your kids have extra curricular activities just as you do, sometimes is just so much easier to grab something on the go. 

I gotta hand it to the fast food places, they have somewhat successfully come up with some lighter alternatives…until you drown it with mayo and ranch dressing.