Wendy’s

The fifth-largest restaurant chain, Wendy’s has done a pretty good job of catering to weight-conscious customers. Most of the menu items, as you’d expect from a burger chain, are devoted to the usual high-calorie, fat-drenched standards. The Big Bacon Classic, for example, boasts 580 calories and 29 grams of fat, nearly half of them saturated. Throw in a shake and you can pretty much count on blowing your calorie budget for the day. But Wendy’s, unlike many of the other fast-food chains, offers a good selection of healthier options. Here are five good choices from Wendy’s.

Taco Bell

You probably remember that cute Chihuahua with enormous ears that turned the advertising slogan “Yo quiero Taco Bell” into a cultural catchphrase. The pooch, like the Mexican-style fast-food restaurant itself, seemed to be everywhere. But judging from this corporate canine’s sleek profile, he probably wasn’t eating much from the hand that fed him.

The core Taco Bell menu, heavy on ground meat and cheese and low on vegetables, won’t do your health (or your weight) any good. That said, there are a few menu choices that fall within the good (if not great) zone. Example: Order the tacos “fresco” style—they dress them with salsa instead of cheese and sauce. Here are seven good choices from Taco Bell.

McDonald’s

It’s tougher to find items on the main menu at McDonald’s that promote real weight loss and general health. The Big Mac alone, which isn’t all that big compared to some of the other burger behemoths out there, delivers 560 calories. To its credit, McDonald’s has included quite a few non-burger meals on the menu. Unfortunately, these aren’t the things most people want to order. In the meantime, there are a few items that won’t blow your fat or calorie budget. Here are your best picks at Mickey D’s.

Sonic

While most fast-food chains have transformed themselves over the decades into sit-down restaurants, Sonic has stayed true to its drive-in roots. It’s the nation’s largest drive-in chain, with more than three thousand restaurants coast to coast.

You can easily order a meal at Sonic that packs in enough fat and calories to really sink your diet. (You don’t even have to walk to pick it up, since carhops deliver orders right to your window.) As with the other fast-food outlets, however, Sonic has made an effort to include some healthier choices. Here are your best menu picks at Sonic.

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Just about every weight-loss expert advises substituting chicken for beef. Chicken has less total fat—and much less saturated fat—than regular ground beef. But when you wrap any chicken in breading and submerge it in a deep-fat fryer, it becomes a Frankenbird. Not long ago, the Federal Trade Commission took KFC to task for claiming in advertisements that two Original Recipe chicken breasts had less fat than a Whopper and were therefore healthier. Turns out they were telling us a “whopper.” What the ads didn’t mention is that the chicken breasts have three times the trans fat and cholesterol and more than twice the sodium. Oops.

You can peel the skin off fried chicken and knock down the fat by about half—but who’s likely to do that? Fortunately, there are a few other things—but only a few—on the menu that can keep calories in a reasonable range. Here are your best choices at KFC.

Burger King

It’s the country’s second-largest burger chain, and the first to dish up a vegetarian burger—with reduced-fat mayo, no less. But hold the applause. Even though the Veggie Burger is a winner, with only 429 calories, the thrust of Burger King’s menu is decidedly toward bigger, more, and higher. The Double Whopper with Cheese hovers around 1,000 calories, with a knock-down 27 grams of saturated fat. The Old Fashioned Vanilla Milkshake is almost a meal by itself, with 700 calories and 41 grams of fat (26 of them the artery-clogging saturated kind).

To be fair, Burger King’s fat-and-calorie bombs aren’t any worse than the competitions’. They just seem to have more of them. There isn’t a lot on the BK menu that fits comfortably into any reasonable diet, but you can cherry-pick and find a few things that are more or less reasonable. Load up your sandwiches with onions, tomatoes, and lettuce, and you’ll push your vegetable and fiber intake in a healthier direction without adding substantially to the calories. Here are six good choices from BK.

Chicken Breast Filet at Arby's

It’s quite a bit higher in calories and total fat than the Regular Roast Beef, but it’s lower in saturated fat—good news if you’re trying to lower cholesterol and keep your heart in the safety zone. This sandwich comes with leaf lettuce and tomatoes, pushing your fresh veggie intake a little higher. Given the relatively high calories, you’ll want to eat a little leaner throughout the day. Vital stats: 500 calories, 25 grams total fat, 4 grams saturated fat.