But I Just Want A Cheeseburger!?
I don’t eat a lot of red meat, but when the craving strikes, I won’t deprive myself. Here are a few ideas for ordering a dreamy burger while avoiding a calorie nightmare.
Nutrition Lowdown
Many of your favorite restaurant cheeseburgers tip the scales at 1,100 calories and 75 grams of fat (that’s more than a days worth!). You can shave off calories and fat immediately just by making your own burgers with 3 to 4 ounces of lean ground beef — or cutting down the restaurant burger to that size. Beef is a great source of protein and iron; lean varieties have all these nutrients and less artery-clogging saturated fat.
Resist the Temptation to “Supersize”
No need to order the 5-pound burger — the smaller, the better (kid’s menu, anyone?). Be smart and pass on the mound of fries and gallon of soda (classic companions to a juicy burger). So your burger isn’t lonely, order up a side salad or some steamed veggies. If your burger just isn’t the same without the fries (I hear ya!), make sure you split the order with a buddy or two.
Lighter Burger Options
Lighter alternatives to beef include ground turkey, chicken or bison. Sometimes cheeseburgers come on 300-calorie buns; see if you can have your burger on an English muffin or sliced bread instead. Ask if there is low-fat cheese (every little bit helps), skip the bacon and steer clear of mayo and “special sauce” (which might be a sodium, sugar and fat nightmare) — go for low-fat condiments such as ketchup, mustard, relish or pickles.
[Photo by Tom Censani]
TELL US: What’s your favorite low-cal way to prep a burger?
If ground turkey & ground beef are both marked 93% lean, why is the ground turkey healthier?
Hi Lee –
Great question! Turkey tends to have less saturated fat than beef. Too much saturated fat isn’t good for your heart. Always look for ground turkey breast to get the leanest turkey.
and if you want beef instead of turkey, opt for ground sirloin 93% lean it has even less sat fat than just ground beef. and is most comparable to turkey and chicken.
96/4 lean beef- 4oz (140 cal), add some spices…put it on a lite bun (80 calories) and top it with a pc of fat free swiss cheese (30 cal)..YUMMY and LOW CALORIE! (250 cal total)
man the burger in that picture looks phenomenal. what a great shot! photographic genius!
i use turkey and buffalo with a onion soup pkg and lots of onion.my husband loves them and they are very lite in fat..
I make turkey burgers and had a touch of bbq sauce (low sugar) with spices. For a change, put them on lite multigrain english muffins…add lettuce, tomatoes or whatever on top…
Wrap it up. After grilling your low fat burger break it up and put it on a low fat wrap with a little shreaded cheese, lots of lettuce and tomato and a little low fat dressing.
“Ground Turkey” can be of varying fat contents, depending on the brand. Ground turkey breast is almost fat free. I like to make a big batch using 1 package of ground turkey, 1 package of ground turket breast and 1 package of ground ground chicken. Mix in some sauteed minced onion, garlic, celery & ginger, some lemon and/or orange zest, bread crumbs, sage, salt & pepper. Make a big batch of “burgers” and freeze what you don’t cook. The frozen ones cook up great!
A great burger, ground turkey of course, and I use lettuce for my bun, very good!
We make ground sirloin burgers at home all the time…90% lean…use some maggies in your burger…yum yum…not just for steak…we bake some fries…yes need fries…but baked ones are not bad for you like the fried ones
I actually don’t really care for beef hamburgers so I make turkey burgers. I use 93% ground turkey (about 3 oz) mix that with chopped onions, green peppers, garlic powder, slat and peper, then grill it on my George Foreman grill. Afterwards I top with american cheese, use light toasted bread (2 slices 70 calories), spinach instead of lettuce, and tomatoes. For condiments I usually do light mayo and ketchup. It’s super yummy!
Blue cheese anyone? I love it. Top low fat burger with 1 TBS of good light blue cheese dressing(I like Lite House) Kills two birds with one stone. Takes care of your cheese and mayo fix.
On some menus you can order sliders. Smaller versions of your favorite cheeseburger. Sometimes they will let you order a la carte. So splurge and just get one slider. It does the trick!
You start with ground turkey breast about 1 lb. Then you get a third of a red bell pepper a third of a green bell pepper and a third of an onion you dice them up all in about quarter inch pieces mix then up with the ground turkey breast. Mince up 1 large garlic clove Mix. Then you season the meat with, an 8th of a teaspoon of chili powder, and really what ever you like. I like 1/2 a table spoon of montreal steak seasoning mixed in with the meat also. Put it in the fridge to chill. Next get 1 or 2 ripe hass avacados, spoon out the avacado and mix in half a teaspoon of the following: onion powder, garlic salt, chili powder, paprika, lemon zest and of course pepper. Blend all of the ingredients together for a tasty home made guacamole. Alsp place in the fridge to chill. Start to cook the burgers on the grill. Get a package of turkey bacon and grill up the bacon on the grill also when your cooking the burgers. Place on slice of smoked gouda, havarti,or munster cheese on the burger to melt. Grab your whole wheat buns and get the following condiments out of the fridge: Pickles, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, light mayo, ketchup and dijon mustard, make up your bun and put it all together and you have one of the worlds tastiest burgers around. Plus no-one whould even know if it was a healthy turkey burger.
I use ground turkey and add diced purple onion, fresh garlic, a few bread crumbs (or you can actually use oats), chicken broth, fresh cilantro and WOW! They’re the BOMB!!
You can do the same above with salmon (no oats this time, just bread crumbs) – oh and add some lemon juice and zest. Just pop all in the processor and there you go!
ground turkey mixed with lite feta and red onions, before foming into patties. served with romaine lettuce and Pita…so good, but you have to use a lot of feta.
The person who is using the onion soup packet for the burger has a great idea there, but the sodium levels in the soup mix can be very high. Be careful!
I love me some burgers!!!!
YEAH BABY!!!!
8]
To further reduce the amount of calories and carbs, use a crisp iceberg lettuce leaf as the bun. We also love the high fiber English muffins, toasted. For a burger, the hands down best taste is lean beef!
The leaner beef and turkey are great calorie reducers, but they come at a cost of being dry , even if you are going for a medium, or medium rare beef. A little trick I found was to mince up some mushrooms and mix with the meat. This works very well with the turkey meat. It keeps the burger moist.
I love the new Arnold brand Sandwich thins in 100% whole wheat. They are like buns but much thinner, taste delicious, are 100 calories, and have no high fructose corn syrup. YUM!
I’m horrified by the super high calorie bun. I know not everyone has the time, but I make my own bread rolls with olive oil and half whole wheat flour (with a bread machine for the dough and finished in the oven). I put low fat ground beef on the fresh roll with a little BBQ sauce and slowly caramelized onions, with maybe some baby swiss or part-skim mozzerella on top, so good!
I have grown to love ground turkery as a healthier substitute to ground beef and so has my family. The best turkey burger I’ve ever had was the result of a quick time saver. I took two pounds of ground turkey breast, 1 small onion diced and 1 package of lipton onion soup mix, beef flavor and mixed all of those ingredients together just till blended. I then formed nice mounded patties and placed them around the perimeter of a heated grill and only turned them once. Once I turned them I made sure not to flatten them as that would have released the juices that had already accumulated within the burger. Once done on the other side I removed them from the grill and placed them on a rack to rest. The burgers were then dressed with a thin slice of colby jack cheese. I added a leaf of Romaine, a slice of tomatoe and kosher midgets on the side. This burger became a fave of my family with baked fries on the side.
Here is an Onion Soup Mix you can make yourself. It is not only lower in sodium but less expensive than the commercial brands!
3/4 cup instant minced onion
1/3 cup beef flavor instant bouillon 9look for low salt variety)
4 teaspoons onion powder
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon sugar (or Splenda)
Mix all ingredients together and store in a tightly sealed container up to 6 months. Shake well before each use. Makes 18 tablespoons. 5T mix is equal to a 1.25 ounce package of purchased soup mix.
I love Turkey burgers but find they are quite dry and tasteless. I put the same spices in beef burgs but there doesnt seem to be any magic to the Turkey burgs. Suggestions?
Our faorite burgers are made at home. For the low fat and great taste we use ground bison. Then a simple bun and everyone selects their own condiments. (low fat mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos)
THANKS FOR THE GREAT FACTS ABOUT TURKEY. I QUIT EATING MEAT IN AUGUST OF 2009. HAVE NOT LOOKED BACK. I STTLL HAVE TO PREPARE HEATHY MEAT DISHES FOR MY HUSBAND.
THAT SHOT OF THE BURGER IS FANTASTIC!!!
Lisa…I love those sandwich thins! Jeez, they are a lifesaver to replace bread with! I put my turkey burgers and any other sandwich I deciede to eat on them. I highly recommend them to anyone doing a diet right now.
Grass-fed, organic beef burgers are the way to go! Grass-fed meat actually has lower saturated fat than industrial produced beef (and don’t be fooled–cows are NOT meant to eat “grain.” Even though swanky restaurants try to make it sound sophisticated, “grain-fed” is feed-lot fed and full of antibiotics. Careful, though, grass-fed beef, because of the lower fat content, cooks quicker than regular beef.
I top my grass-fed burger with sauteed onions, feta cheese (naturally low-cal and goat-milk feta is even lighter), some spicy mustard and Annie’s organic BBQ sauce. Put it all between an Ezekiel sprouted grain bun (low cal + high fiber = good for you), and you may never go back to the typical American burger!
Top a lean burger with Lite Sour Cream and Chopped Green Olives. Ohhh my god! Good!
To make this an even healthier burger, skip the buns. Use whole leaves of iceberg lettuce to wrap your cheeseburger in. Its just as good, if not better! I love eating my burgers like this.
No way! I am a burger connoisseur. I don’t skimp in any way. But I do eat healthy and run every morning in addition to taking care of my kids and taking them on walks. I appreciate the tips on keeping it healthy, but if you cheat every once in a while, it’s totally worth all the extra calories!
I make burgers for our family of 7 and have leftovers. I use 3 pounds of 90% or leaner beef, 1 1/2 pounds of ground turkey, 1/2 cup of Frank’s Red Hot and 1/4 cup of Tones Garlic Rosemary blend. My kids (from 21-6) brag about my burgers to all their friends and they frequently show up on “burger nite”. Any leftovers get gobbled up by my teenage son.
This burger is good on the Foreman or the charcoal grill outside. I prefer a slice of lowfat colby jack, onion and dill pickle on mine.
Since I’m gluten-intolerant, I can’t have wheat buns. Finally, something that works in my favor! I wrap my burger in romaine or green-leaf lettuce, and add cheese, red onion, dijon and tomato. Yummy.
I’ll admit these aren’t the same as a big, juicy beef burger, but as a super light alternative to meat I LOVE grilled portabellos or black bean burgers. Both can get topped just as you would any other burger. They are filling, satisfying and super healthy!
I’ll admit these aren’t the same as big, juicy beef burgers, but I love grilled portobellas or black bean burgers as light alternatives. They can be dressed as regular burgers and are super healthy and satisfying.
I agree that if you eat a healthy diet and exercise, splurging on a good burger is OK! When I was growing up in Ohio my parents would sometimes take us to a drive in restaurant that was famous for peanut burgers. Just before you lay on that slice of cheese, place a small amount of peanut butter on the burger and let it melt into the meat. It may sound strange, but it is delicious! That was over 40 years ago and this restaurant is still serving their unusual specialty.
I must say that’s a curiously interesting idea about adding a dollop of peanut butter to your burger. I have heard of people combining peanut butter and bacon before.
I use ground sirloin when making burgers. Instead of a roll I use whole wheat Pita bread. My family enjoys it this way and it isn’t as heavy using pita instead of rolls.
the turkey meat is healthy if you only use the white part of the turkey otherwise it is the same as using ground beef
I make cajun turkey burgers.. Fresh ground pepper, onion powder, garlic powder,a little salt, and cayenne pepper! mmm… yummy
I buy the 90/10 Beef Patties already made, 4 oz. each (quarter pounders) for 5 ww points. Grill them with some Ranch Dressing/dry, pepper & then top with some low fat sharp cheddar. Place between Arnolds Sandwich thins for an awesome, huge and flavorful burger that will kill any “red meat” craving! Total points for entire thing 7! Of course adding some onion (sweet vidalia when in season is my fave) and tomato and lettuce helps get in those veggies!
Kim, the peanut butter thing sounds just strange enough to be good! LOL I’m trying it with the next burgers! Thanks! (Reduced fat PB of course)
All these suggestions are great if you are cooking at home, but I've got to endulge in a professionally constructed burger sometimes. So I make it a rare therefore occasional treat – about once every other paycheck. It's just got to be full-fleged and a real "contender" sometimes. This sates the craving and completes the soul's needs enough to resist the "light-weight" replacements.
i AGREE, I RATHER EAT THE REAL THING AND HAVE CHICKEN, FISH AND LOW-FAT MEALS OVER ALL.