America's Unhealthiest Restaurants

Going out to eat? The authors of Eat This, Not That! have some recommendations on places to avoid.
By David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, Men's Health

Your favorite fast food restaurant is often like your favorite city: Visit some neighborhoods and you live the high life. Visit others and you're just plain asking for trouble. And that's where Eat This, Not That! comes in: We've analyzed and graded 66 different chain restaurants—fast food and sit-down—to determine which ones have healthy options, and which could turn out to be diet disasters. What we found will surprise you. Specifically, some of the fast food joints you've come to think of as terrible for you actually ranked alright—McDonald's scored a B+, for example, so the Micky D's drive-through just might be your fast-lane to weight loss. Something even more shocking, though: More than half of the sit-down restaurants we graded ended up with our lowest scores!

To separate the commendable from the deplorable, we calculated the total number of calories per entrée. This gave us a snapshot of how each restaurant compared in average serving size—a key indicator of unhealthy portion distortion. Then we rewarded establishments with fruit and vegetable side-dish choices, as well as offering whole-wheat bread. Finally, we penalized places for excessive amounts of trans fats and menus that temp you with gut-busting desserts. Hey, if the neighborhood is crowded with shady characters, sooner or later, one of them will jump you.

Here's our list of the Worst Restaurants in America. It'll help you stay on the safer side of town.

Baskin-Robbins: D+

We thought we'd see some improvements after we identified Baskin's Heath Shake as the Worst Drink on the Planet. But all they did was lower it from 2,300 to 1,900 calories, leaving an almost equally egregious drinkable disaster to set back unsuspecting sippers. It's typical of the menu there; B-R's soft serve is among the most caloric in the country; the smoothies contain more sugar than fruit; and most of what Baskin sticks into a cup winds up with more fat than a steakhouse buffet. Check out our list of the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America to see other liquid offenders. If you learn how to make smart choices when you sip, you can lose a few pounds a month—without giving up your favorite foods or ever dieting again.

Survival strategy: With frozen yogurt, sherbet, and no-sugar-added ice cream, Baskin's lighter menu is the one bright spot. Just be sure to ask for your ice cream in a sugar or cake cone—the waffle cone will swaddle your treat in an extra 160 calories.

Carl's Jr.: D+

Most fast-food restaurants today are making at least some attempt to offset their bulging burgers and deep-fried sides with healthier options such as lean sandwiches or yogurt parfaits. But Carl's Jr. is swimming against the nutritional tide, trying to attract those with hearty appetites and less concern about fat, salt, and calories. The lightest item on the breakfast menu, for instance, is the Hash Brown Nuggets—but even they have 21 grams of fat, and 5.5 of them are trans fats. (As a rule, you should try to get 2 grams or fewer of the stuff in an entire day!) The burgers are worse, and there's not a side on the menu that hasn't been given a long, bubbling bath in their trans-fatty frying oil.

Survival strategy: Find another place to grab lunch. Failing that, you should settle on either the Charbroiled Chicken Salad with Low-Fat Balsamic Dressing or the Charbroiled BBQ Chicken Sandwich—the only sandwich on the menu with fewer than 400 calories.

Denny's: D+

Too bad the adult menu at Denny's doesn't adhere to the same standard as the kids' menu. The famous Slam breakfasts all top 800 calories, and the burgers are even worse. The Double Cheeseburger is one of the worst in the country, with 116 grams of fat, 7 of which are trans fats. Make sure you try to avoid it whenever possible.

Survival strategy: The Fit Fare menu gathers together all the best options on the menu. Outside of that, stick to the sirloin, grilled chicken, or soups. For breakfast, order a Veggie Cheese Omelet or create your own meal from à la carte options such as fruit, oatmeal, toast, and eggs.

Dairy Queen: D+

Dairy Queen's taste for excess rivals that of other fast-food failures such as Carl's Jr. and Hardees. But unlike Carl's, DQ offers an avalanche of abominable ice cream creations to follow up its sodium-spiked, trans-fatty foods. Here's a look at one hypothetical meal: A Bacon Cheddar GrillBurger with onion rings and a Small Snickers Blizzard—a staggering 1,740-calorie meal with 2,640 mg sodium and 83 grams of fat, 2 grams of which are trans fats.

Survival strategy: Play solid defense. Skip elaborate burgers, fried sides, and specialty ice cream concoctions entirely. Order a Grilled Chicken Sandwich or an Original Burger, and if you must have a treat, stick to a small soft-serve or a small sundae.

Ruby Tuesday: D+

The chain earned its fame from a hearty selection of hamburgers. The problem: They average 75 grams of fat apiece—more than enough to exceed the USDA's recommended limit for the day. Even the veggie and turkey burgers have more than 850 calories! The chain rounds out its menu with a selection of appetizers than hover around 1,000 calories (supposedly to be split four ways), a smattering of high-impact entrées like potpie and ribs, and sloppy selection of salads that's just as bad.

Survival strategy: Solace lies in the three Ss: steak, seafood, and sides. Sirloins, salmon, and shrimp all make for relatively innocuous eating, especially when paired with one of Ruby Tuesday's half-dozen healthy sides such as mashed cauliflower and baby green beans. Other than that, think Mick Jagger, and think about occasionally saying goodbye to Ruby Tuesday!

Chili's: D

From burgers to baby back ribs, Chili's serves up some of the saltiest and fattiest fare on fast-food row. In fact, with 3,810 mg of sodium and 122 grams of fat, Chili's Smokehouse Bacon Triple Cheese Big Mouth Burger earns the distinction as being one of the worst burgers in America. The Guiltless Grill menu is Chili's attempt to offer healthier options, but with only eight items and an average sodium count of 1,320 mg, there’s meager hope for nutritional salvation.

Survival strategy: There's not too much to choose from after you omit the ribs, burgers, fajitas, chicken, and salads. You're better off with a Classic Sirloin and steamed vegetables or broccoli. Another decent option is the Chicken Fajita Pita with Black Beans and Pico de Gallo. The appetizers are off limits—the Texas Cheese Fries with Jalapeño-Ranch Dressing has 2,070 calories, 160 grams of fat, and 73 grams of saturated fat!

Uno Chicago Grill: D

Uno has some serious strikes against it: The chain invented the deep-dish pizza, they encouraged gluttony with their Bigger and Better menu, and in 1997 they faced false-advertising charges for erroneously claiming that some of their pizzas were low in fat. They've cleaned up some of the more conspicuous health hazards and have increased nutritional transparency at all of their stores, but from appetizers to desserts, this menu is still riddled with belt-busting fat.

Survival strategy: First off, cast aside the bloated breadstick that Uno tries to sneak onto most plates. Next, choose flatbread over deep-dish pizzas—it could save you more than 1,000 calories. Beyond that, stick to soups or entree items served with mango salsa.

Chevy's: D

Don't let the made-fresh-daily shtick distract you; Chevy's massive portions push many of meals beyond the 1,000-calorie threshold. The Taco Trader's menu has three strikes against it: 1.) The consistently dangerous amount of fat in its entrees (the average salad has 67 grams); 2.) the outrageous salt levels that make it difficult to find a meal with fewer than 2,000 mg of sodium; and 3.) the chain earns its poor score by failing to offer complete nutritional disclosure. It provides no information for its appetizers or quesadillas, for instance, and although it maintains it uses trans-fat free oils, there's no trans-fat data for the full entrees.

Survival strategy: The best items on the menu are the Homemade Tortilla Soup, with just 393 calories and a full 26 grams of protein, and the Santa Fe Chopped Salad, which has only 470 calories when you order it without cheese. If you can't resist an entrée, order it without all the fixin's—tamalito, rice, sour cream, and cheese. That should knock more than 300 calories off your meal.

On the Border: D-

On the Border is a subsidiary of Brinker International, the same parent company that owns Chili's and Romano's Macaroni Grill. It should come as no surprise then that this chain is just as threatening to your health as its corporate cohorts. The overloaded menu offers appetizers with 120 grams of fat, salads with a full day's worth of sodium, and taco entrées with a horrific 960 calories—and that's the calculation without rice and beans. Border crossing is a decidedly dangerous enterprise.

Survival strategy: The Border Smart Menu highlights four items with fewer than 600 calories and 25 grams of fat. Those aren't great numbers, considering they average 1,800 mg of sodium apiece, but that's all you've got to work with.

Romano's Macaroni Grill: D-

For years now we've been on Romano's case to clean up the menu at his beloved Macaroni Grill. So far we've had no luck. This Italian grease spot serves some of the worst appetizers in the country, offers not one dinner entrée with fewer than 800 calories, and hosts no fewer than 60 menu items with more than 2,000 mg of sodium—almost an entire day's worth of salt! A select few menu items earn the restaurant's Sensible Fare logo—a fork with a halo over it—but unfortunately these items can still carry up to 640 calories and 25 grams of fat.

Survival strategy: Macaroni Grill will let you build your own dish. Ask for the marinara over a bed of the restaurant's whole-wheat penne, and then top it with grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. Just beware their salads—the Seared Sea Scallops Salad has more than 1,000 calories and 90 grams of fat!

Baja Fresh: D-

It's a surprise Baja Fresh's menu has yet to collapse under the weight of its own fatty fare. About a third of the items on the menu have more than 1,000 calories, and most of them are spiked with enough sodium to melt a polar icecap. Order the Shrimp Burrito Dos Manos Enchilado-Style, for instance, and you're looking at 5,130 mg sodium—that's more than 2 days' worth in one sitting!

Survival strategy: Unless you're comfortable stuffing 110 grams of fat into your arteries, avoid the nachos at all costs. In fact, avoid almost everything on this menu. The only safe options are the tacos, or a salad topped with salsa verde and served without the belly-busting tortilla bowl.

Applebee’s, IHOP, Outback, T.G.I. Friday's: F

These titans of the restaurant industry are among the last national chains that don’t offer nutritional information on their dishes. Even after years of badgering their representatives, we still hear the same old excuses: It’s too pricey, it’s too time-consuming, it's impossible to do accurately because their food is so fresh, or we have too much variety. Our response is simple: If nearly every other chain restaurant in the country can do it, then why can’t they?

Survival strategy: Write letters, make phone calls, beg, scream, and plead for these restaurants to provide nutritional information on all of their products. Here’s the contact information for each of the restaurants that refuse to fess up!

America's 10 Best Fast-Food Restaurants

By Dave Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, Men's Health

Men's Health

Eating out invariably raises a number of tricky questions: sit down or drive through? Burgers or pizza? Thin or stuffed crust? Choosing one over the other could mean saving hundreds of calories in a single meal, up to 50 pounds of flab in the course of a year, and countless health woes over the course of a lifetime. That's why Eat This, Not That! launched an investigation and put 66 major chain restaurants under the nutritional microscope—so that you and your family can continue to eat out, but do so knowing the types of insider tips and savvy strategies that can help melt fat all year long. And the good news is that many fan favorites scored top marks!

To separate the commendable from the deplorable, we calculated the total number of calories per entrée. This gave us a snapshot of how each restaurant compared in average serving size—a key indicator of unhealthy portion distortion. Then we rewarded establishments with fruit and vegetable side-dish choices, as well as for providing whole-grain options. Finally, we penalized places for excessive amounts of trans fats and menus laden with gut-busting desserts. What we ended up with is the Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Report Card, which will show you how all of the nation's largest eating establishments stack up nutritionally.

Check out those restaurants that scored a B+ or higher:

Chick-fil-A: A-

Between the breakfast and lunch menus, there are only two entrées at Chick-fil-A that break 500 calories, a rare feat in the fast-food world. What this means is that you can't possibly do too much harm—especially if you stick to the chicken. And unlike the typical fast-food chain, Chick-fil-A offers a list of sides that goes beyond breaded and fried potatoes and onions. (Just beware the large cole slaw, which adds an extra 600 calories to your daily intake!) That's why we dub the Atlanta-based chicken shack one of our all-time favorite fast-food restaurants.

Also, be sure to check out our exclusive list of the best and worst restaurants for kids to see why Chick-fil-A receives an even higher grade when it comes to kids' meals.

Survival strategy: The worst thing you can do is supplement your meal with a milkshake—not a single cup has fewer than 600 calories. And instead of nuggets or strips, look to the Chargrilled Chicken Sandwiches, which average only 320 calories apiece.

Subway: A-

A menu based on lean protein and vegetables is always going to score well in our book. With more than half a dozen sandwiches under 300 calories, plus a slew of soups and healthy sides to boot, Subway can satisfy even the pickiest eater without breaking the caloric bank. But, despite what Jared may want you to believe, Subway is not nutritionally infallible: Those rosy calorie counts posted on the menu boards include neither cheese nor mayo (add 160 calories per 6-inch sub), and some of the toasted subs, like the Meatball Marinara, contain hefty doses of calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

Survival strategy: Cornell researchers have discovered a "health halo" at Subway, which refers to the tendency to reward yourself or your kid with chips, cookies, and large soft drinks because the entrée is healthy. Avoid the halo, and all will be well.

Jamba Juice: A-

Jamba offers a viable and tasty solution to the dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables in the American diet: Stick it all in a blender and let us slurp it up. But make this your rule: If it includes syrup or added sugar, it ceases to be a smoothie. Jamba Juice makes plenty of real-deal smoothies, but their menu is sullied with more than a few faux-fruit blends. Just make sure you choose the right one.

Survival strategy: For a perfectly guilt-free treat, opt for a Jamba Light or All Fruit Smoothie in a 16-ounce cup. And unless you're looking to put on weight for your new acting career, don't touch the Peanut Butter Moo'd, which has more sugar than an entire bag of chocolate chips!

Au Bon Pain: A-

Sure the menu has its pitfalls, but what menu doesn't? The bottom line is that Au Bon Pain combines an extensive inventory of healthy items with an unrivaled standard of nutritional transparency. Each store has an on-site nutritional kiosk to help customers find a meal to meet their expectations, and the variety of ordering options provides dozens of paths to a sensible meal.

Survival strategy: Most of the café sandwiches are in the 650-calorie range, so make a lean meal instead by combining a hot soup with one of the many low-calorie options on the Portions menu. And if you must indulge, eschew the baked goods in favor of a cup of fruit and yogurt, or serving of chocolate-covered almonds.

Boston Market: B+

With more than a dozen healthy vegetable sides and lean meats like turkey and roast sirloin on the menu, the low-cal, high-nutrient possibilities at Boston Market are endless. But with nearly a dozen calorie-packed sides and fatty meats like dark meat chicken and meat loaf, it's almost as easy to construct a lousy meal.

Survival strategy: There are three simple steps to nutritional salvation: 1) Start with turkey, sirloin, or rotisserie chicken. 2) Add two non-creamy, non-starchy vegetable sides. 3) Ignore all special items, such as pot pie and nearly all of the sandwiches.

Cici's Pizza Buffet: B+

Cici's began in Texas in 1985 and now boasts more than 600 locations, proving definitively that Americans love a good buffet. The good news for our waistlines is that the crust is moderately sized, and the pizza comes in varieties beyond simple sausage and pepperoni. But if you check your willpower at the door, you're probably better off skipping the pizza buffet entirely.

Survival strategy: It takes 20 minutes for your brain to tell your body it's full, so start with a salad and then proceed slowly to the pizza. Limit yourself to the healthier slices like the Zesty Vegetable, Alfredo, and the Olé, which is a Mexican-inspired pie with only 108 calories per slice.

McDonald's: B+

The world-famous burger baron has come a long way since the days of Fast Food Nation—at least, nutritionally speaking. The trans fats are mostly gone, the number of gut-wrecking calorie bombs are now fewer than ever, and the menu holds plenty of healthy options such as salads and yogurt parfaits. Don't cut loose at the counter just yet, though. Too many of the breakfast and lunch sandwiches still top the 500-calorie mark, and the dessert menu is fodder for some major belly-building.

Survival strategy: The Egg McMuffin remains one of the best ways to start your day in the fast-food world. As for the later hours, you can splurge on a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder, but only if you skip the fries and soda, which add an average of 590 calories onto any meal.

Taco Bell: B+

Taco Bell combines two things with bad nutritional reputations: Mexican food and fast food. The result should be horrendous, yet somehow it works out so that a little prudence at the ordering window can bag you a meal with fewer than 500 calories. The potential for belly-building is still there, but the calorie bombs are generally easy to spot. And to limit the chances of a mistake, Taco Bell reengineered some of its classic items and listed them under the Fresco Menu for a savings of up to 10 grams of fat per item.

Survival strategy: Grilled Stuft Burritos, anything served in a bowl, and anything prepared with multiple "layers" are your worst options. Instead, order any combination of two of the following: crunchy tacos, bean burritos, or anything on the Fresco menu.

Wendy's: B+

Scoring a decent meal at Wendy's is just about as easy as scoring a bad one, and that's a big compliment for a burger joint. Options such as chili and baked potatoes offer the side-order variety that's missing from less-evolved fast-food chains like Dairy Queen and Carl's Jr. Plus they offer a handful of Jr. Burgers that don't stray far over 300 calories. And for our money, the 1/4-pound single is one of the best substantial burgers in the industry. Where they err is in their recently expanded line of desserts and a lackluster selection of beverages. But you're happy just drinking water, right?

Survival strategy: The grilled chicken sandwiches and wraps don't have more than 320 calories, which is less than even a small order of french fries. Choose the chicken or a small burger and pair it with a healthy side, and then hit the door before you receive the 500-calorie penalty for giving in to your Frosty hankering.

You can check out the complete Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Report Card here. Finally, sign up for your FREE Eat This, Not That! weekly newsletter or subscribe to the new Eat This, Not That! premium Web site. You'll get thousands of useful tips, tricks, and secret insights into everything going on in the world of food and nutrition, so you can stay lean for life while still enjoying all of your favorite foods. It's like having a personal nutritionist on call 24 hours a day!

Stress is Sabotaging Your Diet Success

By Lucy Danziger

If there's one thing that gets in the way of you being your healthiest, it's stress. For anyone who's found themselves standing in front of the freezer inhaling spoonfuls of Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream (not my real name!) to avoid finishing a project, or waking up three times in the wee hours of the night in anticipation of a difficult conversation, here's some not-so-shocking news: Research shows that anxiety can make you sleep fewer hours, get sick more often, remember less, become more prone to long-term disease and—as if you needed reminding—eat more. No wonder up to 90 percent of doctor visits are for stress-related complaints, a fact that I suspect too many of you know firsthand (though you experience it as GI distress, back pain, a headache or other physical symptom).

In a recent Self.com poll, 85 percent of women said that worries interfere with their ability to catch zzz's, while 71 percent say they're more irritable due to stress. And given the recent headlines about the state of our economy, it's not surprising that 52 percent of women say they are under considerably more stress than they were six months ago. (What is your stress level?)

Grim, yes, but there IS hope. Just as our bodies are wired to react to stress, we're all also programmed to know how to wind down, whether it's by watching a funny movie, sitting in the sauna, sipping some chamomile tea (while dunking a cookie, of course!) or drinking a glass (or two) of wine with dinner. These activities switch on the brain's pleasure centers, blocking the production of the stress hormone cortisol and churning out happiness-inducing chemicals like serotonin instead.

When I feel a tightening in my back or neck coming on, I cope by doing things I love, like going for a long, slow run in the park with my dog. Try a few of these instant soothers, and watch your own stress go from ARGH! to Ahhh.

Turn up the tunes. Listening to music that has a steady (not frenetic) beat may cause brain waves to keep time and relax you, research from a music symposium at Stanford University in California reports. Load your iPod with a playlist of the songs that make you happiest.

Phone a friend. Pouring your heart out to pals can help you cope with bad feelings and brainstorm new ways to solve problems. And don't forget to return the favor: Lending an ear and offering support can make you feel needed and reduce anxiety. (Or drop them an e-card to say thanks!)

Break a sweat. Exercising for 30 minutes makes your body release chemicals that dull the physiological effects of stress response for up to a full day. But the effect only works when the activity is something you really want to do, so make sure you're psyched about channeling your energy in that cardiovascular direction.

Use a better bulb. Outfit your office lamp with an incandescent bulb, particularly if your cubicle is brightened by fluorescent lights. Incandescent and fluorescent lights work together to more closely mimic outside light. And it's sunshine (or the perception of it) that regulates the body's biorhythms. Not getting enough of it can affect hormone levels, suppressing the immune system and increasing the probability of mood swings, depression and sluggishness.

Pamper yourself. Whether you get a pedicure or splurge on a blowout, giving yourself special treatment reduces your blood pressure and gets your mind off what’s bothering you. Science supports this coping mechanism as well: A warm bath can activate neurons that increase serotonin, and a study from Bowling Green State University in Ohio found that a 15-minute massage can significantly cut anxiety levels. Not up for a splurge? Get the same effect from an at-home pedicure, manicure or blowout.

Dine by candlelight. The effect won't just make you look gorgeous. The dim setting actually signals your brain to release melatonin, the good-for-you sleep hormone which ensures a better night's rest. And catching enough zzz's helps keep your stress levels under control and your immune system humming. Can't sleep? See what your stress dreams are trying to tell you.

Snuggle with your sweetie. A simple 20-second kiss or hug increases endorphin levels, while having sex releases more calming hormones than any other form of sex play, researchers at the University of the West of Scotland at Paisley note.

Keep a journal. Jotting down your stressful thoughts can help you look at them more logically, potentially easing anxiety, mentally and physically. A study in the Journal of Health Psychology finds that a mere month of expressive writing can help reduce hypertension. Keep a pretty notebook handy at all times.

Anticipate something awesome. Or something tiny that makes you smile. The point is to look forward to something each day, whether it’s enjoying your morning java or counting down to an exotic vacation. Practicing this will keep your mind from focusing on what could go wrong that day.

Exhibit your exhilarating moments. Tape up pictures of three amazing days you’ve experienced, such as dancing at your wedding or crossing the finish line of a half-marathon. Honing in on the images for at least 10 seconds can lower muscle tension and stabilize your heartbeat.

Give someone props. Go on, pay a compliment to someone deserving. Research has shown that the more warm personal connections you make, the better your body is at jettisoning the effects of stress.

The New Science of Hair Growth

By Michael Behar, Best Life

Best Life

Brandishing a syringe the size of a caulking gun, hair-transplant surgeon James Harris, M.D., injects local anesthetic into the scalp of a male patient, a married financial analyst in his early forties who has asked not to be identified. We'll call him Scott. For five hours, I've been watching Dr. Harris perform a hair transplant called surgically advanced follicular extraction, or SAFE. A follicular unit is a miniature, self-contained hair factory embedded in the skin. Each square centimeter of human scalp contains 80 to 120 follicular units, and each of those has one to four hairs.

Though Scott is sitting upright, his scalp is a gruesome battlefield. Rivulets of blood seep from thousands of BB-size puncture wounds. A trash can is brimming with blood-soaked gauze. But Scott feels nothing. He's watching CNBC's financial roundup on a wall-mounted TV while thumbing through e-mails on his BlackBerry, oblivious to the mayhem topside.

Dr. Harris is using a motorized tool he designed himself, in a procedure that, for all its bloodshed, represents the current state-of-the-art in baldness treatment. The instrument has a blunt hollow tube that lets Dr. Harris make incisions less than a millimeter wide, in rapid-fire succession, around clusters of hairs without damaging the underlying follicles. It's painstaking work. I watched earlier as Dr. Harris donned mantislike headgear (dual loupes with six-fold magnification) and extracted follicular units from a band of hair between Scott's ears, a region of scalp hair docs call the "horseshoe fringe." In virtually all men, this fringe is impervious to balding, a vestigial result of genes that dictate how skin forms during fetal development.

By the time he's through, Dr. Harris will have made 1,045 incisions along the front and top of Scott's head, enough to accommodate the same number of follicular units removed from his fringe. An assistant counts the extracted follicular units under a microscope, tabulating the number of individual units and the number of hairs protruding from each one. Single-hair units are reserved for the front to create a feathered widow's peak. "I want to avoid a wall of hair jutting from the forehead," explains Dr. Harris, citing a common blunder of botched transplants. "SAFE is a lot less traumatic than other transplant procedures, such as a surgery in which a strip of scalp is extracted, because it's minimally invasive." Even so, the procedure looks medieval, and it's hard to believe this gory mélange will have a happy ending.

Hair transplants have improved dramatically in the past 10 years, although in the hands of unskilled surgeons, mishaps can occur that leave patients with gruesome doll heads. But transplants remain hamstrung for a more fundamental reason: You can shuffle only so many hairs from fringe to forelock. This is Scott's fourth surgery, and at this point he's simply running out of hair. It's a dwindling game of musical chairs that confounds surgeons and frustrates patients. The average age for undergoing a hair transplant is 40, but hair is doomed long before that. To be precise, its fate is decided in utero, during the tenth week of pregnancy, when the human fetus is the size of a peanut shell. That's when the fingers and toes take shape and the brain starts to evolve. It's also when the hair follicles form—roughly 5 million over the entire body. This number is fixed: After exiting the womb, the human body can't produce a single additional follicle.

That's why a revolutionary technique known as hair cloning, or hair multiplication, holds so much promise. It changes the game because it gives transplant surgeons an endless supply of follicular units to restore the vanishing manes of their patients. Researchers in a handful of labs around the world have been testing the technique on mice with impressive results. Several start-ups have formed, and these companies are racing to complete successful human clinical trials. It could have a profound effect on the landscape: Male pattern baldness, or androgenetic alopecia, affects 40 million men in America. Although it doesn't have any known physical downsides, the specter of premature aging and the perception of waning virility and diminished sexual attractiveness can be mentally debilitating and lead to personal, social, and work-related problems, according to Nigel Hunt, Ph.D., an associate professor of applied psychology at the University of Nottingham, in England. In 66 percent of men, hair follicles start to shrink around age 35 (in some men, it starts at age 21), causing hair to thin. By age 50, hair follicles are dying and 85 percent of men have significantly thinning hair. For these men, the cure for balding can't come soon enough.

The dawn of hair cloning

The eureka moment for Colin Jahoda, M.D., Ph.D., and Amanda Reynolds, Ph.D.—a husband-and-wife team of biologists at the University of Durham, in England—involved an experiment that also served as a nerdy version of a "Colin Forever" tattoo. Dr. Jahoda removed a hair follicle from his head, put it under a microscope, and snipped off a cluster of dermal papilla cells, which are located in a bulb at the root of the shaft. He then nicked his wife's forearm with a scalpel and transplanted the cells. A few days later, a thick tuft of dark hair (complete with Dr. Jahoda's male DNA) emerged. The experiment demonstrated, for the first time, the possibility of growing hair from transplanted dermal papilla cells. It seemed the two had found a new treatment for hair loss. Yet they soon discovered that, once removed from the body, dermal papilla cells quickly lose their ability to make hair if they are not transplanted immediately.

Angela Christiano, Ph.D., a professor of dermatology and genetics and development at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, collaborates closely with Dr. Jahoda on hair-related research. "Not long after you remove them, the cells don't even know they're dermal papillae anymore," says Christiano, who is sitting in her office behind a desk piled two feet high with books and papers. "It's like taking an Etch-a-Sketch and shaking it," she says. "You erase their identity."

The Jahoda-Reynolds experiment worked because a clump of hair follicle cells were promptly relocated, which preserved their inductivity, a measure of their capacity to remain uniquely hair cells before devolving into something more generic. While I'm in her office, Christiano calls England and puts Dr. Jahoda on speakerphone. "These cells seem to have an in-built regulatory system," he explains. "We don't know how it works. Getting the cells to remain inductive is still the basic challenge."

Christiano became interested in hair follicle research in 1996, when a common hair disorder called alopecia areata caused patches of her own hair to fall out abruptly (steroid injections have revived it to a formidable whorl of ebony locks). Two years later, she made headlines after announcing she'd pinpointed several specific genes that are responsible for other genetic forms of hair loss—a scientific first. She is now focused almost exclusively on finding new genes for hair loss, as well as using dermal papilla cells to develop new ways of treating it. Scientists are still unclear about precisely what occurs, but they do know that whenever you pluck or shave a hair, molecular compounds in the follicle begin a complex dialogue with surrounding cells. These include dermal papillae, epithelial cells (those lining the wall of the hair shaft), and stem cells in a little-understood region referred to as "the bulge."

The dermal papillae are encoded with genetic instructions that respond to cues sent from surrounding cells and tissues in the follicle. Once signaled, the dermal papillae begin hatching hair fibers. What Christiano and Dr. Jahoda are trying to figure out is how to trick the cells into growing hair by themselves, without guidance from the rest of the follicle. Doing this would allow scientists to culture, or clone, thousands of dermal papilla cells in the lab that would retain their knack for producing hair. "With current transplant surgery, if you take a thousand follicles from the back of the head and move them to the front, you still only have a thousand," says Christiano. "With the cloning approach, you could start with a small biopsy of cells and then grow enough of them to repopulate your entire scalp with hair."

A researcher named Claire Higgins informs us she has just received a fresh dime-size chunk of live scalp donated by a male hair-transplant patient. We join her in a lab, where she is hunched over a steel table, staring into a microscope. With forceps and a long needle, she scrapes dermal papillae from each follicle. I look through the eyepiece. She tells me I'm viewing roughly 3,000 dermal papillae packed into a ball of cells just a fraction of a millimeter wide. They resemble golden tobiko, the flying-fish roe dolloped onto sushi rolls. These cells will end up in an incubator, where they'll be cultured for at least four weeks and then transplanted into mice to see if they'll produce hair.

Several factors determine whether this happens. One is the growth medium, the soupy broth fed to the cells to help them thrive. Another is how quickly the cells multiply: As Dr. Jahoda and Reynolds showed, the less time cells spend outside the body, the better they retain their inductivity. A third factor is how the cells are transplanted. Do you inject them? Or position them surgically under the skin? "We're trying to get into the heads of the dermal papillae and understand why they lose their inductivity," says Christiano. "Then we'll do the reverse: Take old cells that have been in culture for many months and bring them back into the fold, coaxing them to grow hair."

I ask Christiano how she and Dr. Jahoda intend to accomplish this. She smiles, clearly not wanting to tip her hand, and replies, "We have a few ideas. I will say that if we figure it out, a lot of hair-loss sufferers will be very, very happy." Their research could also inform next-generation baldness cures, genetic fixes that reprogram the cells, much like a software patch, and override the genes responsible for androgenetic alopecia.

Training hair cells to grow

Nude mice are the foot soldiers for the war on balding. These dainty pink-hued rodents have been bred or genetically altered to remain hairless throughout their lives. They can be ordered by the mischief-load from medical suppliers and endure poking and prodding and other unspeakable horrors for the sake of balding men everywhere. In Philadelphia, Ken Washenik, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president of scientific and medical development for Aderans Research Institute and a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at New York University's Langone Medical Center, shows me slides of nude mice on his laptop. They have undergone a new type of hair-cloning procedure that Dr. Washenik has been developing for Aderans. The company, which has its headquarters in Tokyo, is the world's largest manufacturer of wigs. It also owns Bosley, which operates 88 hair-transplant clinics in North America.

When I arrive at Aderans, Dr. Washenik hastily ushers me past several labs, perhaps wary I might glimpse some sort of trade secret, and into an empty conference room. What he does reveal is that his approach to hair cloning (he calls it follicular neogenesis) doesn't rely solely on dermal papillae. "We are using a two-cell construct, growing not just dermal papillae but also another type of cell from the follicle," he explains. As the thinking goes, disparate cell types already communicate with one another in the follicle to regenerate hair. Dr. Washenik believes that if he can recreate that environment in the lab, cultured cells won't get dementia and forget how to make hair. "The different cells in the follicle are smarter than we are," says Dr. Washenik. "They already know they are supposed to be hairy. In eight days, we grew a ball of hair that never existed before on the back of a mouse."

Dr. Washenik clicks an image file on his computer: The photo shows what looks like Piglet—but with a sable Mohawk. But there is a caveat: "These were hair cells from a mouse that were injected into a mouse. When researchers injected human cells into a mouse, they didn't get the same results." This disappointed Dr. Washenik and other researchers, because unlike other organs, follicles are supposed to be immune privileged: When transplanted across or between species, they're expected to grow normally, without being rejected or provoking infection. He hopes to have better luck in clinical trials, when he will transplant human cells into humans. Aderans is in the second phase of a human trial, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The company is pouring serious cash (Dr. Washenik won't say how much) into its hair-cloning effort. Dr. Washenik is also intrigued by other researchers who are pursuing another pathway. They're cultivating in-vitro microscopic hairs, or "proto-hairs," as Dr. Washenik dubs them. "These are early follicular structures that you can place in the scalp with the same technology that's used for a hair transplant," he says. "The big hurdle so far is getting the cells to multiply to make enough hair. Once we culture them, they sometimes die or de-differentiate."

But Dr. Washenik remains confident. "The sooner we figure this out, the better," he says. "So many people are waiting for this technology. I know that with every medical advance, the first one to market becomes the leader, and everyone else plays catch-up." Like many of the scientists I meet, his passion for a cure is personal. "I started going bald at 25," he says, tussling his hair to flaunt his 2,200-graft transplant. "While I was working on my Ph.D., I was mixing up homemade minoxidil [the active ingredient in Rogaine] in my lab."

A few blocks away is a start-up called Follica. One of its cofounders, George Cotsarelis, M.D., is a cutaneous biologist and associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1990, Dr. Cotsarelis was investigating the biological mechanisms of skin regeneration. "I was studying stem cells and found a population of them in the hair follicle, in a strange area called 'the bulge,'" he tells me when I stop by his office at U. Penn's School of Medicine. "We didn't know the function of the area, and we almost blew it off." From then on, Dr. Cotsarelis started paying more attention to hair follicles. After a series of more recent experiments on mice, he made two important discoveries. First, he found that bulge cells aid in the formation of new hair follicles, suggesting that these cells influence hair growth during embryonic development, when we were bobbing around in the womb. He also learned that, throughout our lives, these same stem cells awaken to mend minor cuts and burns, as well as deeper wounds in the skin. What baffled Dr. Cotsarelis is why, if a healing wound is populated with bulge stem cells, new follicles don't form. The answer would at least explain why hair doesn't grow from scars.

Dr. Cotsarelis conducted further studies designed to reveal what kinds of molecular compounds (e.g., hormones and proteins) are present during hair-follicle development in mice embryos and are also present in adult mice. A major one, which he wrote about in a 2007 Nature article, was something called Wnt (pronounced wint), a network of proteins first identified in fruit flies. Curious, Dr. Cotsarelis applied Wnt to small lesions purposely cut into nude mice (such gracious, noble critters). To his shock, follicles formed and sprouted hair. So if a person is bald, the obvious strategy would seem to be to douse his scalp with Wnt and wait for hair to grow. "The problem is that Wnt is involved in a lot of other things, one of which is skin cancer," says Dr. Cotsarelis. "It's very tricky business."

The idea behind Follica is to develop a procedure in which a surgeon would lightly wound the scalp—something akin to microdermabrasion, an antiaging treatment—to disrupt the skin and then apply a compound that would influence hair development in the area. This would trick the cells into reverting to an embryonic state, one in which they are genetically pre-programmed to make hair rather than simply repair skin, as they're predisposed to do after we're born. "Just when cells are deciding, 'Do I make a hair follicle? Or do I make an epidermis?' we can influence them with a protein to go down a hair-follicle pathway."

Testing the science on humans

My hair started thinning when I was 32. I'm now 40, and my shedding has eased up. Dr. Harris informs me I have plenty left for a follicular unit transplant. But after watching Scott's procedure, I'm a little freaked out. Yet, all the specialists I speak with urge anyone dealing with hair loss to act fast, because once the hairs are gone, they're gone for good.

"Absolutely no one concerned about hair loss should wait," says Dr. Washenik. He started taking Propecia when he was in his thirties (he's now 50), and he uses Rogaine religiously. He is a big advocate of drug therapies, and readily champions surgical options such as follicular unit grafting. Dr. Washenik examines my scalp and announces, "Rogaine is made for you. You're not bald; your hairs are just miniaturized." I'm a chemical-phobe, so I'd rather save my dough and wait for a viable hair-cloning procedure, which many of the experts I talked to claim is less than five years away.

Intercytex, a public company based in London, may be closest to a marketable product, says Jerry Cooley, M.D., a transplant surgeon who has been consulting for the firm since 2001. Nobody directly employed by Intercytex would speak to me for this story. "We do not feel that exposure of our research is helpful," wrote Jeff Teumer, Intercytex's director of research, in a curt e-mail. But Dr. Cooley, who works closely with Teumer, tells me that Intercytex scientists have successfully grown large batches of cloned proto-hairs similar to those that other researchers have been struggling to keep alive. What's more, in animal experiments, the Intercytex team has observed cloned hair follicles growing hair again after the original hairs were plucked. This suggests that their cloned follicles cycle through the entire life span of hair—three phases known as anagen (growth), catagen (transitional), and telogen (resting)—something no other researchers have been able to do.

A key to the team's success has been growing proto-hairs in a special medium, licensed from a Japanese inventor, which contains cultured skin cells known as keratinocytes. "I'm very excited about this technology," says Dr. Cooley. "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."

Bessam Farjo, M.D., a hair-restoration surgeon contracted by Intercytex to run its ongoing clinical trials, says, "All I can tell you is that we've grown a significant number of hairs on animals through this technique." It sounds encouraging, and Dr. Farjo expects to complete clinical trials this year.

Hair cloning will be pricey initially, so early adopters may be men who are not only wealthy but also desperate because they don't have enough hair left to do a follicular unit transplant. Cloning could also be ideal for younger men who aren't good candidates for follicular grafting. "Younger guys aren't suitable for current surgical techniques because we don't know how much hair they are going to lose," says Dr. Farjo. Imagine if the receded hairline of a 25-year-old male were replaced with a follicular unit transplant. If the rest of his hair were to fall out—and going bald at an early age generally means it will—he wouldn't have enough hair to complete a second or third follicular unit transplant, so he'd end up with a solitary plume sprouting from his forehead. "It would look like unfinished business, which is why we typically avoid working on young guys," says Dr. Farjo. "But if I know I'll never run out of hair, thanks to the new cell therapy, I can treat anyone."

Nobody is sure how the actual cloning process will be implemented. Most surgeons speculate that they'll use boring tools similar to the existing ones used for harvesting follicular units. The follicular units will be sent to centralized labs, where industrial incubators will mass-produce millions of follicle cells for a relatively low cost. Another question is how will the cloned cells be transplanted? Instead of transplanting follicular units, your surgeon may inject cloned cells into micro-incisions, or he may implant lab-grown hair follicles. It could be fast, clean, and painless. Or it might entail something closer to Dr. Cotsarelis's method at Follica. At Intercytex, technicians are tinkering with sundry techniques. "We're experimenting with varying the number of cells in each injection, and whether we have to inject the cells into the skin as it is, or if we have to pre-stimulate the skin," says Dr. Farjo.

Whatever the outcome, choices will abound. In the future, hair cloning will coexist alongside follicular unit transplants, drug therapies, and emerging technologies still incubating in the labs. For his part, Dr. Harris is also part of a team designing the world's first follicular extraction robot: It will fully automate the procedure, making it magnitudes faster and less expensive. While Scott, our balding financial analyst, was being prepped for surgery, Dr. Harris took me into his office to show me a photo of the $25 million speed surgeon (the actual machine was locked in a storage closet a few floors above us). At about six feet tall with a fixed base and a mechanical arm with multiple joints, it resembles one of those space-age automatons you might see on a vehicle assembly line at a Toyota plant. Dr. Harris has already tested it on a couple of willing volunteers (with no alarming mishaps) and is preparing to apply for FDA approval under the name Restoration Robotics.

"We think the robot might be able to extract a thousand grafts an hour," says Dr. Harris. "That's more than triple what can be done by hand. This will broaden the market so that more people can afford the procedure. There may be a time soon when hair-transplant surgery will be available to everyone."

The Slim-Down Shimmy

A new way to slim down your belly—in just 15 minutes.
By Mindy Berry, Prevention

Does the sight of your belly fat in the mirror make you hold your breath and suck it in? Unfortunately, the reflex is a common one: As women age, extra pounds tend to migrate to their middle, research shows. But you can get that flat-bellied look you crave if you commit to doing regular belly fat exercises, like this 15-minute routine created exclusively for Prevention by Melissa Michalak, a Middle Eastern dancer and creator of Bellycore, a belly dancing and Pilates class.

"Like Pilates, belly dancing focuses on strengthening your core," says Michalak. "But when you do it, your abdominals work even harder to isolate your hips from your ribs, resulting in a flatter stomach and more defined waist." And if you feel a little silly when you start shimmying in your living room, remember this: The reason these graceful moves have lasted for more than 2,000 years is that they work!

Warm-up

A. To engage abdominal muscles, in these belly fat exercises, stand tall with feet hip-width apart, shoulders relaxed, head directly above spine. Place a hand on lower belly, thumb in navel, and rest other arm at side. Inhale deeply so belly and rib cage expand. Pause.

B. Exhale completely so you feel waist narrow and belly flatten, and contract pelvic-floor muscles as if you were stopping the flow of urine. Repeat warm-up five times.

Twisting Shimmy

Stand tall with feet a few inches apart and knees slightly bent. Raise arms out to sides and relax shoulders.

While holding abs in, rotate left hip forward and right hip back, keeping rib cage still. Then rotate right hip forward and left hip back. Continue rotating forward and back like a washing machine for 60 seconds.

Tip: After your first time trying these belly fat exercises, try to increase speed of shimmy.

Single-Leg Stretch

Lie on back, bend right knee toward chest and grasp right thigh with both hands. Pull belly button toward spine without pressing spine to floor so you maintain a natural curve.

Extend left leg at a 45-degree angle to floor, toes pointed. (If you have a bad back, slightly bend left knee instead of keeping it straight.) Curl head and shoulders off floor. Inhale and pause. Exhale and switch legs. Alternate legs for 10 to 15 reps.

Modified Scissors

Lie on back. Extend right leg toward ceiling, toes pointed. Pull belly button toward spine without pressing spine to floor so you maintain a natural curve.

Curl head and shoulders off floor, grasping right thigh with both hands. Raise left leg 2 to 6 inches off floor, toes pointed. (If you have a bad back, keep left leg on floor and bend right leg so knee points toward ceiling.)

Inhale and pause. Exhale and switch legs. Continue alternating legs for 10 to 15 reps.

Roll-Ups

A. Lie on back with legs straight, arms resting overhead.

Inhale and raise arms directly over chest.

Then tuck chin slightly and exhale as you curl head, shoulders, and back off floor one vertebra at a time, like picking up a strand of pearls.

B. Reach arms forward as you come to a sitting position.

Inhale and pause.

Exhale and slowly roll back to starting position. Do 10 reps.

For extra toning, hold light hand weights (no more than 5 pounds).

Skip the weights if you have back problems.

Hip Circles

Stand tall with feet a few inches apart, hands hovering beside hips.

While keeping abs tight and rib cage still, slide both hips to left, back, right, and then front, making a circle.

Continue for 30 seconds, contracting abs tightly at end of each circle.

Repeat, circling to right.

Sliding Snake Arms

Stand tall with feet almost hip-width apart, arms lifted out to sides.

While keeping abs contracted and hips still, reach left arm to side, rolling shoulder up, and slide rib cage to left, letting right arm and shoulder dip.

As you slide to right, roll left shoulder back and down, and reach right arm to side, rolling right shoulder up. Then slide rib cage back to left, rolling the right shoulder back and down.

Imagine a string pulling shoulder and rib cage to the side so that they separate from hips. Continue side-to-side, making one smooth movement for 30 seconds.

Cool fact: Sliding Snake Arms is a key move that belly dancers use when performing in costume.

Belly Basics

• Sets and sessions: Do the entire routine once, then repeat all but the warm-up move. The workout should take about 15 minutes.
• Results: Do these moves five days a week and you should begin to see a toned and trimmer belly in about a month.

Weight Loss: Your Best Body Ever - Men

Whether the goal is a bigger chest or tighter abs, your workout needs to yield great results fast. Use this plan to maximize your time--and your muscle. The biggest difference between this workout program and the one you're doing now is balance. Not stand-on-one-leg-and-curl balance, but the well- rounded-approach-to-training kind of balance.

Don't worry: This plan is easy to use, and we've carefully organized your gym time minute by minute, so you won't train longer than you do now. You'll just train more effectively and appropriately for your goal: a bigger, stronger, leaner body that works as great as it looks.

Move # 1: Warrior Lunge

Stand with your feet together, then move your left foot forward about 12 inches and your right foot back about the same distance. Raise your arms straight overhead.

Move # 1: Warrior Lunge

Finish: Keeping your head and chest up, bend both knees to lower your body. Shift your weight forward until the front of your right thigh feels stretched and your right knee is an inch or two off the floor. Hold for 3 to 5 seconds, then return to the starting position. Do three to five repetitions on each side.

Move # 2: Sumo Squat To Stand

Stand with your feet spread wide and angled out. With your knees flexed, bend at the waist and wrap your fingers under your big toes.

Move # 2: Sumo Squat To Stand

Finish: Holding your toes, straighten your legs as much as you can without losing the natural arch in your spine. (In other words, if your back rounds, you've gone too far.) Move at a slow pace. Do one or two sets of 12 to 15 reps.

Move # 3: Kneeling Hip-Flexor Stretch

Place one foot on a bench behind you and your other foot flat on the floor. Lower yourself until your back knee touches the floor. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.

Move # 4: Lying Chest Stretch

Lie faceup on a foam roll with your head supported, your arms bent 90 degrees, and your upper arms parallel to the floor. Your palms should face the ceiling. Hold for 30 seconds.

Injury-Proof Your Body

Perform one or two sets of eight to 10 repetitions of the following exercises.

Move # 5: Glute Bridge

Lie with your knees bent, with a rolled towel between them. Pull your toes toward your shins. Squeeze your glutes and raise your body.

Move # 5: Glute Bridge

Finish: Lower your hips to the floor, but don't touch it.

Move # 6: Lateral Tube Walk

Slip exercise tubing around your ankles and move it above your knees. Stand with your knees slightly bent and place your hands on your hips. Sidestep to your right, then to your left.

Move # 6: Lateral Tube Walk

Finish: Sidestep to your right, then to your left.

Move # 7: Swiss-Ball L

Lie on a Swiss ball as shown, with your chest off the ball.

Move # 7: Swiss-Ball L

Next: Bend your elbows 90 degrees as you raise them to the level of your shoulders, so that your arms create a pair of L's.

Move # 7: Swiss-Ball L

Finish: Rotate your forearms upward 90 degrees. Retrace the pattern to the start.

Move # 8: Swiss Ball Y

Assume the same starting position as for the Swiss-ball L.

Move # 8: Swiss Ball Y

Finish: Glide your shoulder blades back and down, and lift your arms up and to the sides at 45-degree angles till you form a Y. Return to the starting position.

Move #9: Swiss-Ball T

Use the same starting position as for the Y. Pull your shoulder blades in toward your spine and extend your arms straight to the sides to create a T with your torso. Then reverse the move back to the starting position.

America's Worst Lunches—And What You Should Eat Instead

By Dave Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, Men's Health

Men's Health

If you're like two-thirds of working Americans, you pick up lunch from a fast-food joint or restaurant at least once a week. Sure, it's not as healthy as packing your own celery sticks, but eating out every once in a while can't hurt, right?

Not so fast: There might be trouble in the drive-through lane.

Not only could the window worker pile an entire day's worth of calories through your car window, but you might also be sapping your energy and productivity: Carb overloads lead to energy spikes and crashes, and studies have shown that the bigger your waistline, the lower your cognitive functioning and the more sick days you take. Kind of ironic, considering "convenience" is the most common reason people give for buying lunch during the workday. In this economy, it's hardly convenient to snore through the 2 o'clock meeting, or miss a few crucial days when the boss is looking for you.

A healthy lunch can help you maximize your afternoon performance, but if you're in a hurry to grab and go, you might not take the time to sort through the menu hits and misses. Let the Eat This, Not That! folks be your efficiency experts: DON'T order the items we warn you about, below. Opt instead for less outrageous alternatives (also below), and reap the benefits at bonus time.

QUIZNO'S

Large Prime Rib Cheesesteak Sub

1,490 calories

92 g fat (22.5 g saturated, 2 g trans)

2,620 mg sodium

Fat equivalent: Like eating four Dunkin Donuts cheese danishes!

It's hard enough to make the argument for one cheese Danish, but four? And we're just talking fat, here—with more than 800 calories of the stuff in just one sandwich. You're also be filling up with more than a day's worth of sodium and saturated fat. While this is one of the worst items you could choose, the rest of the Quizno's menu has hazards, as well. But if your co-workers insist on eating there, order this instead:

Small Turkey Ranch and Swiss Sub

410 calories

17 g fat (2.5 g saturated)

1,230 mg sodium

CHILI'S

Crispy Sweet Chile Glazed Chicken Crispers

1,930 calories

112 g fat (17 g saturated)

4,190 mg sodium

Calorie equivalent: Like eating an entire medium Pizza Hut 12" pepperoni pizza!

If you have the time for a sit-down meal, you have the time to think this through. Chicken Crispers are fun, but account for almost a whole day's worth of calories and almost two days' worth of sodium. Your smarter choice is to eat this instead:

Classic Chicken Fajitas

370 calories

11 g fat (1.5 saturated)

2,000 mg sodium

And another hint for a healthy sit-down lunch: forgo the appetizers. Chili's Texas Cheese Fries with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing made the top of our list when we rounded up the worst appetizers money can buy. Check out the other appetizer land-mines here. You'll be shocked.

ARBY'S

Roast Turkey Ranch and Bacon Sandwich

817 calories

37 g fat (11 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)

2,146 mg sodium

Calorie equivalent: Like eating 23 Thin Mints (one whole sleeve)!

Just because you could prepare it at home doesn't mean it’s good for you when you order it away from home—the Roast Turkey Ranch and Bacon Sandwich packs nearly half of your daily allowance of calories and almost an entire day’s dose of sodium. Doesn't leave much room for anything else, does it?

Eat this instead:

Sourdough Roast Beef Melt

351 calories

14 g fat (4 g saturated)

1,048 mg of sodium

DAIRY QUEEN

Chicken Strip Basket with Country Gravy (6 piece)

1,640 calories

74 g fat (12 g saturated, 1 g trans)

3,690 mg sodium

Sodium equivalent: Like eating 11 large orders of McDonald's French fries!

Talk about a value meal: One Chicken Strip Basket gives you almost two days' payload of sodium! If thinking about it doesn't elevate your blood pressure, eating it might. Don't become a statistic.

Eat this instead:

Crispy Chicken Sandwich

560 calories

28 g fat (3.5 g saturated)

980 mg sodium

PANERA

Italian Combo on Ciabatta sandwich

1,050 calories

47 g fat (18 g saturated, 1 g trans)

3,050 mg of sodium

Fat equivalent: Like eating 6 slices of Papa John's cheese pizza!

You were on the right track in choosing Panera, but don't be sidelined by the allure of the Italian Combo. Ciabatta bread may sound sophisticated, but you won't look so refined when you're lugging that spare Pirelli around your midsection.

Eat this instead:

Smoked Turkey Breast on Sourdough sandwich

470 calories

17 g fat (2.5 g saturated)

1,680 mg sodium

CHIPOTLE

13” tortilla with steak, black beans, rice, cheese, sour cream and lettuce

955 calories

38 g fat (18 g saturated)

1,600 mg sodium

Calorie equivalent: Like eating 37 Hershey’s Kisses!

The good news about this tortilla is that it contains 56 grams of protein, but that's hardly worth the outrageous calorie and carbohydrate load—with 94 grams of carbs, you've already covered a third of your recommended daily intake, plus you're taking in nearly a day's worth of sodium and saturated fat. Downsize to drop pounds.

Eat this instead:

Three hard tacos with steak, pinto beans, sour cream and lettuce

615 calories

24 g fat (11 g saturated)

710 mg sodium

(Another hint: When it comes to Chipotle chips, just say "no." They add an outrageous 570 calories and 73 extra grams of carbs.)

HARDEE'S

2/3-lb Monster Thickburger

1,420 calories

108 g fat (43 g saturated)

2,770 mg sodium

Saturated fat equivalent: Like eating 43 strips of Oscar Mayer bacon!

It's called Monster for a reason. It's a monster load of saturated fat (more than two days' worth). The good news is that it has a friendlier, healthier cousin in the 1/3-lb Low-Carb Thickburger, with 1,000 fewer calories and a third the amount of fat. Even better, the Low-Carb Thickburger is true to its name—it only has 5 grams of quick-burning carbohydrates, compared to 46 grams in the Monster.

Eat this instead:

1/3-lb Low-Carb Thickburger

420 calories

32 g fat (12 g saturated)

1,010 mg sodium

BURGER KING

Triple Whopper Sandwich with cheese and mayo

1,250 calories

84 g fat (32 g saturated, 2.5 g trans)

1,600 mg sodium

Fat equivalent: Like eating 10 slices of Papa John's cheese pizza!

You should know by now not to order a triple anything. In this case you're getting egregious calorie, fat, and sodium overloads. It's not bad, though, compared to the shockers on our list of the trans-fattiest foods in America. Choose a regular cheeseburger instead and slash 920 calories, 68 g of fat, and save yourself from the judgmental stares of your co-workers, who are three times as likely to be grossed out!

Eat this instead:

Cheeseburger

330 calories

16 g fat (7 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)

780 mg sodium