We all know that eating at fast food restaurants is terrible for our health. It makes us fat, lazy, bloated and sick. Just one cheeseburger will double your daily calorie requirement, and the salads, yogurts and diet sodas they sell are not really all that much healthier. They are the biggest reason for the obesity epidemic in America today, and there does not seem to be any way of making them disappear from our ever growing suburban landscapes.

If you are really serious about getting or staying in shape, fast food restaurants are not on your path to success. Sometimes, though, these restaurants may seem like the only option other than starvation. Long road trips, co-worker lunches, and other situations may force you into choosing between bad or worse. This can be devastating to anyone trying to lose weight or trying to change their bad eating habits to good.

Listed below are 7 tips that will help you make healthier choices if you are ever forced to eat fast food. It is inevitably going to happen in todays fast paced world. You might as well be prepared!

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #1: Get Less For Your MoneySo-called value meals really only offer you extra calories, saturated fat, sugar, and other diet killers. The only way this could be beneficial is if you are saving up for bypass surgery. Getting twice as many fries for only 20 cents more is not a good deal. Fast food packs a lot of unhealthiness into a small package as it is, so super-sizing it is only adding fuel to the fire.

Think about it this way. Is 20 cents really worth eating an entire weeks worth of fat and calories in one sitting? Paying extra to ruin your health makes no sense. Ordering the small size may not be as cheap per pound of food, but it will save a fortune when working off pounds of fat later.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #2: Discover Your Inner Child Sadly, a reasonably sized portion for an adult is now only found on the children’s menu! Want to get healthy sides like fruit or carrots? Again, only on the childrens menu! It is great that kids are getting healthier options, but what about adults? We need good nutrition too! Don’t be ashamed to order the junior hamburger or even the kids’ meal. You are the only one who can control what you eat and how much of it.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #3: No All Salads Are Created EqualJust because it has lettuce does not mean it is healthy. A Big Mac has lettuce, and you know it would not be any healthier if it was called a Big Mac Salad. Don’t be fooled by clever naming tricks. Use common sense when selecting a salad, and make sure all the ingredients are vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins you recognize. Also, do not go through all that effort just to drown your healthy meal in a pool of fatty dressing! Ask for vinaigrette.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #4: Have It Your WayMost restaurants honor your requests if you ask them. Hold the mayo and high-corn-syrup ketchup, and ask for more pickles, tomatoes and lettuce. Substitute the breaded chicken breast for the grilled chicken breast. Ask for extra vegetables. Ask for wheat buns instead of white. And by all means, hold the cheese! Most of the time you can not savor the flavor when it is packed into a sandwich anyway.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #5: You Are What You Drink The most profitable menu items for restaurants are soft drinks. Costing almost nothing to make, they want you to get as big a size as possible and pay for it. What you’ll get is tons of sugar and chemicals. And maybe eventually, diabetes! Soda and diet soda will ruin your figure and your health. Order iced tea or water instead. If someone is holding a gun to your head and making you order a soda, get the small.

Of course the best advice I can give you is to make your own fast food at home in the form of a soy-based protein meal replacement. This is how I lost 70 pounds in 4 months and have kept it off for over 15 years. It usually takes me about 3 minutes to make, which is less time than it takes to wait in the drive-thru line at any McDonalds.

I rarely go to fast food restaurants anymore, but when I do I follow the tips listed above. Losing weight and keeping it off for good is about making healthy decisions about what you eat, no matter where you are eating.