Giving McDonald's eaters calorie guides did not curb bad eating habits

[Silent3]

41. For me, it certainly made drinking shakes are far less frequent occurrence

Then again, as soon as I decided to lose weight and get in shape last April (I've lost 85 lbs.) I've only been to McDonald's rarely. For a while I still grabbed breakfast at McDonald's once a week (Egg McMuffin, Hash Browns, OJ -- comes to around 650 calories as I recall), but I stopped doing that after a while and have only eaten at McDonald's a handful of times in the past year.

Even though I've developed a pretty good sense of caloric values, shakes were one thing that threw me for a loop. I'd been guessing they had about half the calories they really have.

My new fast food is typically Chipotle or Panera. I had been eating at Burger King maybe once per week last summer over a span of time when they had sweet potato fries and I could get a Whopper with cheese (no mayo, no pickles) on a whole grain bun. I know that changing the bun and choosing sweet potato fries over regular fries was hardly that big a change in nutritional value anyway, and as a once-per-week thing it mattered even less in the big picture, but once I couldn't make that little nod toward improving the quality of my meal, I've hardly gone back to Burger King since.

I've been doing so much exercise lately (I burned 1500 calories yesterday, 900-1400/day is typical 6 days per week) that I could easily eat fast food more often, including drinking a few of those shakes, but I try to fill my calorie deficit with healthier choices most of the time, or, if I'm really going to treat myself, tastier indulgences than McDonald's (like last night's trip to Cheesecake Factory).

At any rate, I'm not too surprised at the results. I'm happy to have the extra info, but those of us who want that info are probably less likely to frequent McDonald's, or similar places, in the first place.