If you’ve ever heard a conversation about what foods are unhealthy, you’ll pretty much always hear a fast food hamburger referenced as the benchmark for unhealthiness. As such, most people are already aware that the average hamburger is not exactly low in calories.
In fact, if you have one with all of the typical extras or toppings on top, you’ll get an entire meal’s worth of calories just in the burger. That’s before you even add in the typical french fries and extra large soda that tends to come bundled with the meal.
Because of this, foremost, just going with a single burger patty or the kids option is your best route. It’s also wise to skip out on any of the special sauces or mayonnaise which are loaded with extra fat. Instead shoot for the vegetable-based options like onions, lettuce, and tomatoes.
Fast-Food Burger Calories
Your typical hamburger that contains just a singular, normal sized patty, and typical condiments, contains about 250 calories. If the patty is large you’re looking at about 440 calories. As we move up the burger size scale into the territory of double patties you’ll immediately jump up to around 600 calories. Add cheese to the mix, and you’ll be up another 50 to 100 calories. Bacon adds another 50 to 100 calories to the mix as well.
Burgers Made At Home
There’s no magical fairy dust that makes fast-food burgers more caloric than what you would make in your own kitchen at home. A burger patty formed out of a quarter pound of normal 15% fat ground beef has about 200 calories. A bun will be about another hundred calories. Finally the cheese and ketchup will add about another hundred and fifty calories. So in total, a hamburger with a burger patty ketchup and cheese will run you about 450 calories.