Calories in Fast Food, and Swaps That Make Sense

There is a dishonest version of this topic where a copycat recipe is presented as a health food because it was made in your own kitchen. This hub is not that.

A home-made Big Mac is a burger. It has broadly the calories of a burger. What cooking it yourself genuinely changes is narrower and more interesting:

Salt, substantially. Chain food is salted for a palate that is eating it occasionally and wants it to taste intense. Home versions of the same recipes routinely come in 25 to 40 per cent lower on sodium without tasting under-seasoned, because you are seasoning to taste rather than to a spec.

Sugar, enormously, in the savoury items. This is the one that surprises people. Buns, sauces, marinades and coatings across almost every chain carry more sugar than a home cook would ever add. Our recipes usually keep some of it, because it is part of the flavour, and say where it is.

Frying oil, completely. A restaurant fryer holds oil that has been through many cycles. Fresh oil at home is a genuine and measurable difference in the finished food, whatever you think about the broader question.

Portion size, if you choose. This is the largest single lever and the one nobody wants to hear about.

Every nutrition panel on this site says how it was calculated. Where we have a restaurant's own published figure we show it beside ours and note where they differ, rather than quietly presenting one as the other.