You’re in the car after a long day at work, and planning to unwind with comfortable clothes, good food, and a show. As you drive down the highway home, you’re waved at and summoned by the glowing signs for tacos, pizza, and dozens of differently branded burgers. Pizza takes too long for the hurry you’re in, and you just stopped at Taco Spell for dinner yesterday. Tonight, you stop for a burger and fries, and you’ll save time by staying in the car. You pull into the drive-through of… well, it’s not your favorite, but it’s on the way and usually pretty fast… Slick Donald’s.

You’re last in a line of 3 cars to place your order. One is likely frustratingly slow. By the time your greasy bag is passed to you through the window, you’re charged somewhere around $12.00 for your meal, and you’ve spent only 10 minutes in the drive through from start to finish. You go home to eat and push your concerns toward another day on the calendar.

I know that seems like a normal experience providing little to complain about, and it summarizes an evening far too common for far too many people.

According to Cheryl Fryar of the CDC, approximately 1/3 of American adults are eating fast food every single day.

The reasoning is usually either the taste or the convenience of time and cost.

While the taste is pretty subjective, you may be surprised that fast food is not only more expensive than eating at home, but the “fast” tends to be much slower than other methods as well. I’ll break these subtopics down a bit further.

For this article, let’s assume that you’re part of the 37% eating fast food every day. For clarity, let’s assume you choose the same burger meal for dinner for a month. Before you dismiss this as unrealistic, it should be noted that using this practice on a variety of popular meals throughout the month only has a greater impact in all areas listed. Two additional meal comparisons are listed at the bottom of the article.

Fast food Reasoning #1: The Taste

Going through the drive through, you order a $12 combo meal with a burger, fries, and a soft drink. It’s well-represented on the menu and looks delicious. The bag you receive has a burger that’s smashed, sloppy, and nowhere near the size of what was in the photo. Regardless, it “tastes good”.

The burger may have a patty 1/4 inch thick, semi-fresh vegetables, and a bun that’s far smaller than what you were expecting, no matter how many times you’ve been disappointed by it in the past. Regardless, the taste is familiar and satisfying.

I’ll argue that if you decided to cook a burger at home, you’ll likely be a bit more selective with how it’s made. You’ll likely choose a ground beef patty that won’t end up the size of a table coaster after cooking it. It’ll be seasoned the way you prefer, and paired with lettuce or tomato that would actually pass the inspection you might give it beforehand.

Want a toasted bun that’s not smashed? Go for it. Want the proper amount of condiment instead of settling for soggy ketchup bread? Easy. Your home-cooked burger ends up how you prefer it. There’s no reason to settle for any ingredient you don’t love.

Familiar vs Preferred. Round 1 goes to cooking at home.

Fast food reasoning #2: The Cost

This may be the least common reason for choosing fast food because the high prices are fairly well known. Even so, putting a spotlight on it here may reveal something surprising.

The $12 meal in the drive-through gave you the following (now proven not as tasty) ingredients:

Hamburger patty
Bun
Slice of Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Onion
Mayo
Side of fries
12oz soft drink (mostly ice)

In a 30-day month, dinner has financially cost you $360.00… more than the average car note.

Alternatively, let’s assume you spend the next 30 dinners eating a homemade burger and a side. You set off for the grocery store to buy the same burger meal ingredients for the month. Each item is listed with the cost of 30 portions.

Hamburger patty – $9.87 for a pack of 12.  $9.87 x 2.5 = $24.68
Bun – $2.94 for a pack of 8.  $2.94 x 3.75 = $11.03
Slice of GOOD Cheese – $2.22 for a pack of 12. $2.22 x 2.5 = $5.55
Lettuce – $2.97 for approx. 10 servings. $2.97 x 3 = $8.91
Tomato – $1.50 for pack of 3. $1.50 x 3 = $4.50
Onion – $3.88 for 3lb sack. You have leftovers. $3.88
Mayo – $3.98 for 30oz. You have leftovers. $3.98
Side of fries – $3.32 for 11 servings. $3.32 x 3 =  $9.96
12oz Soft drink – $12.78 for pack of 24. $12.78 x 1.25 = $15.98
In a 30 day month, dinner has only cost you A TOTAL OF $88.47….less than your cell phone bill.

$12 vs $2.94 daily. ($2.41 when you skip the soda)
$360 vs $88.47 monthly. ($72.49)
There’s a clear winner here, too. You likely didn’t know it was by this much.

Fast food reasoning #3: The speed

You’re probably thinking my back is against the ropes on this one. How can cooking at home be faster than “fast food”? Well, prep for defeat, Burger Prince.

Your daily dinner drive-through time is 10 minutes. 10 min x 30 days = 5 hours of waiting in line for what we’ve already found to be a seriously overpriced and underwhelming meal.

In prepping the same ingredients at home, you’ll refrigerate most and can precook a few patties at a time. If you cooked 5 burgers six times each month, each time should take approximately 6-7 min for multiple patties to be cooked to medium. I’d spend those minutes slicing tomatoes and onions so they’re ready throughout the week.

Adding a few minutes for cleanup, each meal prep will take no longer than 15-20 min, and that’s being pretty liberal. 15 min x 6 cooking days = 1.5 hours of cooking. If you’d argue that you need even more time, spending 25 min (absurd) only brings your monthly time spent in the kitchen to 2.5 hours…. 50% of the time you would have spent in the drive-through.

Another round for the home chef. It’s 3-0 now, and getting embarrassing. They should throw in the towel (I mean….cardboard napkin). 

The Knockout punch. McCalorie count.

The hardest part of writing this article is pretending that I’d recommend you purchase a soft drink and fries to go with your burger at home. I don’t, but the point had to be made for cost comparison. We can be real now. Find a side that you enjoy and a drink to replace the cup of syrup. I like seasoned asparagus in the air fryer and flavored water.

Your Slick Donald’s meal totals 1160 calories (P-35g / C-143g {67g sugar} / F-52g).
The same home burger meal totals 864 calories (P-28g / C-101g {53g sugar} / F-39.5g).
A home burger with asparagus fries/water is 649 calories (P-29g / C-49g {16g sugar} / F-36g).

A responsible caloric deficit for most individuals is between 200-300 calories below maintenance levels.

This meal swap has a potential swing of 511 calories and 51 grams of sugar every day. That’s a monthly difference of 15,330 cal and 1,530g sugar, the equivalent of nearly 5 lbs of added body fat. Depending on an individual’s current nutritional habits, a meal change like this will have a huge impact on their weight management and overall health.

Keep in mind that these are numbers in nutrition at the most basic level. While the excess of calories is incredibly problematic, another HUGE problem lies within what’s left out. Multiple essential nutrients are missing, but the biggest are Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Vitamins A, C, E, and Fiber. A deficiency in any or all of these can cause major wellness problems that if listed, would swallow the intent of this article. Please, eat your vegetables, folks.

OK. (The argument for) fast food is dead.

Why is it even still around? Because people will still stop and buy the advertised “convenience” of tasting better (myth), reasonable prices (myth), and relative speed (myth).

None of this is unique to our dissected meal, either.

CArby’s Classic Roast Beef Meal vs Homemade Roast Beef Meal
CArby’s Cost: $8.96/serving, $268.80/month
Home Cost: $1.87/serving, $56.10/month  
CArby’s Nutrition: 1130 calories (P-29g / C-162g {65g sugar} / F-43g)
Home Nutrition: 478 calories (P-36g / C-31g {5g sugar} / F-21g)

Chick-Fillet Deluxe Sandwich vs Homemade Deluxe Sandwich
Chick Cost: $9.66/serving, $289.80/month
Home Cost: $2.18/serving, $65.40/month
Chick Nutrition: 1160 calories (P-37g / C-129g {48g sugar} / F-46g)
Home Nutrition: 435 calories (P-26.6g / C-33g {g6 sugar} / F-22g)

The differences in my examples illustrate a consistent monthly diet, but the differences are prevalent for just one meal, just one time. Regardless of what’s normal for your month, I hope you keep this in mind as you choose your meals and pursue your goals.

Save money, time, and calories by enjoying something more. Those neon signs aren’t calling you for anything worth the totally inconvenient stop.

The Anchor – Private Personal Training

Product prices and nutrition information were gathered from Walmart.com. Meals were compared to selections from McDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, and Arby's respectfully.