Here's how many calories are in your favourite fast foods

Many of the nation’s favourite take-away restaurants are taking part in Eat Out to Help Out scheme.Diners can enjoy a 50 per cent discount in participating restaurants from Mondays to Wednesdays throughout August.

The scheme does not apply to drive-throughs or if you have food delivered.

It is hard to resist children’s demands to tuck in to their favourite burger and chips or chicken wings.

Everyone deserves a treat but, with warnings about obesity being on the rise in adults and children, it pays to be aware of calories in burgers and fried chicken.

Remember “a little of what you fancy does you good”.

But you can also have “too much of a good thing”.

According to data from National Statistics publication of National Child Measurement Programme, 40.3 per cent of UK children in year six are obese.

Experts have now compared three of the leading UK fast-food chains - KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King - to see which meals are the most calorific for children.

The data has been collected by analysing the nutritional information provided by each fast-food chain on their website and averaging the sugar, salt, calorie and fat intake per main meal as well as sides and drinks.

CALORIESWith a variety of meals, sides, and drink options to choose from, McDonald’s knocks KFC off the top with a calorie average per Happy Meal of 381.71 KCALs.Falling 5.04 KCALs behind McDonald’s, the nation’s finger-licking favourite, KFC reaches 376.67 KCALS per serving.Burger King has the lowest average calories for all main meals considered, as their children’s meal average is 269.08 KCALs per serving.Daily Average Calorie Intake ConsumptionAcross all three fast-food chains, out of children aged seven to 10, girls and boys aged seven have the highest daily calorie intake.The daily calorie intake for boys and girls aged seven is 1,649 and 1,530, respectively.The highest of that average is McDonald’s with 23.14 per cent for boys and 24.94 per cent for girls.Following closely behind is KFC with 22.84 per cent for boys and 24.61 per cent for girls.Burger King sits at 16.31 per cent for boys and 17.58 per cent for girls.

Know what you are eatingKnow what you are eating
Know what you are eating

FATMcDonald’s has not only the highest calorific average but also the highest fat content with 13 grams of fat per serving.Coming in second is KFC at 11.43 grams of fat per serving, only 1.57 grams lower than its rival McDonald’s.Finally, Burger King shows the lowest grams of fat per serving (9.83).Across all the three chosen fast-food chains Burger King is the lowest for all four content averages - calories, fat, sugars and salt.

SUGARThe survey found that, out of the three selected fast-food chains, KFC exceeds daily sugar intake of children between the ages of four and six (19 grams) by 6.8 per cent.KFC also comes close to exceeding the daily intake for children between seven and 10 (24 grams).McDonald’s has an average four teaspoons of sugar in its Happy Meals.It nearly hit the daily sugar intake for children between the ages of four to six by serving 17.39 grams of sugar on average in each meal.Out of the three fast-food chains Burger King serves almost half of KFC’s sugar average.Burger King stands at 10.92 grams of sugar, 9.38 grams less than KFC and nearly half the number of teaspoons compared to McDonald’s.

SALTNot only is KFC holding the title for the highest sugar content, but they also hold the highest salt average (1.37 grams). KFC’s average meal constitutes 45.7 per cent and 27.4 per cent of the daily average of salt for four to six-years olds (3 grams) and seven to ten-year olds (5 grams) respectively.Following closely behind, McDonald’s stands at 1.29 grams of salt per serving, 0.08 grams lower than KFC.Again remaining lowest of the three fast-food chains is Burger King with an average of 1 gram of salt per meal serving.

The survey was carried out by Chewsgum.com site.