Most consumers don’t think too much about their fat and calorie intake when they order at their local fast food restaurant. When looking at Burger King menu prices as compared to McDonald’s menu prices, most diners are thinking about the change in their pockets, and not about nutritional values. But a quick comparison of the BK Whopper calories with, say, the McDonald BigMac calories might be a bit of an eye-opener. Just a look at the Burger King menu and the McDonald menu mainstays will give an indication about the types and quality of foods that they offer.

Whopper or Big Mac?

Comparing the Whopper and the Big Mac is not exactly comparing apples to apples (to use a food analogy). The Whopper has only one bun, and one beef patty. The Big Mac is a double-decker burger, with three buns (one in the middle) and two patties. Yet the Whopper ah 650 calories, 37 grams of fat and only 22 grams of protein. For roughly the same price, the Big Mac, ostensibly the larger burger, has 530 calories, 27 grams of fat and 24 grams of protein. It should logically be higher in calories and fat – but it isn’t. In fact, when compared to the Double Whopper, the Burger King double sandwich is reported to have 900 calories, and 56 grams of fat. It does have 35 grams of protein, but at what cost, health-wise, to the consumer?

Just a cursory comparison of Burger King to McDonald fare shows that McDonald’s menu items are generally lower in calories and fat content. The exception to this would be Burger King’s flame broiled items, which are a healthier choice in the burger area. While both restaurants about the same value (both monetarily and heath-wise) in the areas of salads, neither has much of a selection in this food category.

While prices for burgers, fries and other fast foods tend to vary from location to location, the Burger King appears to have a larger selection of lower-priced items available on their Value Menu. In the end, McDonalds probably edges out Burger King with its Favorites Under 400 category of foods: an offering of tasty favorites that are all less than 400 calories.