Grabbing breakfast on the go might make mornings easier, but there's a secondary price to pay beyond the money. Home-cooked eggs and cheese are a lot different than fast-food eggs and cheese, so chain breakfast sandwiches are not always the healthiest way to go.
How differently do fast-food restaurants handle ingredients like bacon, sausage, eggs, cheese, and biscuits? Using the official nutrition facts for each chain, we took a look at 10 of the most popular fast-food chains in the country and ranked the least healthy options by calorie count. Everything you'll see on this list has either 500 calories or more.
Want to know where your favorite morning treat stacks up? Here are the 10 unhealthiest fast-food breakfast sandwiches in America.
Starbucks
1 / 10- Calories: 500
- Total Fat: 27g
- Saturated Fat: 13g
- Sugar: 8g
Starbucks doesn't go too heavy on its breakfast menu for the most part. The Double-Smoked Bacon, Cheddar & Egg sandwich is the most aggressive item the coffee titan sells, landing at 500 calories; the spongy croissant might have a lot to do with this.
Whataburger
2 / 10- Calories: 510
- Total Fat: 35g
- Saturated Fat: 17g
- Sugar: 2g
There's a recurring theme here for a lot of these sandwiches. More often than not, sausage seems to be the least healthy breakfast meat. Bacon sandwiches have more calories in a few cases, but there are other things at play for each of those. Whataburger's is no exception, with a bacon option for over 100 calories less.
Sonic
3 / 10- Calories: 570
- Total Fat: 34g
- Saturated Fat: 13g
- Sugar: 4g
Considering the fact that Sonic's Breakfast Toasters come on two big slices of Texas toast, eighth place feels a little low. Burritos tend to be where fast-food breakfast calorie counts go haywire, but Sonic is still approaching 600 calories for a sandwich with only eggs, cheese, and sausage.
McDonald's
4 / 10- Calories: 590
- Total Fat: 30g
- Saturated Fat: 12g
- Sugar: 7g
We did not see it coming that McDonald's bagel sandwiches would have more calories than McGriddles, which is a sandwich served on pancake buns that have been injected with maple syrup. Yet the Bacon, Egg & Cheese bagel is a full 590 calories and the Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles is only 550. McDonald's might be doing something to those bagels.
Chick-fil-A
5 / 10- Calories: 620
- Total Fat: 42g
- Saturated Fat: 18g
- Sugar: 4g
Even at Chick-fil-A, sausage patties ring in the most calories. One would think that the fried chicken patty would be the worst for you, but it's actually not even close. The Chicken, Egg & Cheese Biscuit will only cost you 550 calories and 28 grams of fat; a sausage patty cranks it to 620 calories and 42 grams of fat.
Jack in the Box
6 / 10- Calories: 650
- Total Fat: 47g
- Saturated Fat: 17g
- Sugar: 5g
Once you start doubling up on the meat, you can expect the calorie count to rise significantly. Think of the Extreme Sausage Sandwich from Jack in the Box like a double burger, with two sausage patties and two slices of cheese. And a fried egg, for good measure.
Dunkin' Donuts
7 / 10- Calories: 680
- Total Fat: 34g
- Saturated Fat: 12g
- Sugar: 8g
Every other sandwich in the Top 5 has doubled up on meat in some way or another, but at Dunkin', the Sausage, Egg & Cheese Bagel almost hits 700 calories with only those three ingredients. That's quite the sausage patty, or maybe it's quite the bagel. Either way, if you're looking for a low-calorie, single-meat breakfast sandwich, Dunkin' Donuts is not going to be the place that you find it.
Wendy's
8 / 10- Calories: 680
- Total Fat: 45g
- Saturated Fat: 18g
- Sugar: 8g
The Breakfast Baconator, which is loaded with sausage, a double portion of bacon, eggs, two slices of cheese, and Swiss cheese sauce, is for no small appetite. It's also served on a potato bun for good measure. You're better off with one of Wendy's burgers, for less than half the calories.
Burger King
9 / 10- Calories: 790
- Total Fat: 59g
- Saturated Fat: 25g
- Sugar: 3g
Burger King's Double Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit is similar to the one at Jack in the Box in that it has two sausage patties, two slices of cheese, and an egg. But, for some reason, it has 140 more calories (that may be due to the "Buttery Spread" listed in the ingredients). With almost 60 grams of fat, Burger King is not playing around on this one.
Carl's Jr.
10 / 10- Calories: 820
- Total Fat: 56g
- Saturated Fat: 25g
- Sugar: 5g
High atop the list sits the appropriately named Monster Biscuit from Carl's Jr. At first glance, it's just like the Breakfast Baconator, stuffed with bacon, sausage, two eggs, Swiss, and American cheese. It's on a biscuit instead of a potato bun, but all in all, the sandwich weighs in at 820 calories. Depending on who you are, that could be more than a third of a 2,000-calorie day. By these numbers, the Monster Biscuit is the unhealthiest fast-food breakfast sandwich in America; you may want to start your day elsewhere.
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