What to Eat at Burger King: Healthy Menu Choices and Nutrition Facts

From its famous Whopper to chicken sandwiches, salads, onion rings, and even breakfast, Burger King’s menu has made it one of the most popular fast food restaurants in the world. Choose from hamburgers and cheeseburgers with a side of fries or nuggets, chicken sandwiches, crispy chicken tenders, salads, and dessert. 

While some dishes may be high in calories, fat, carbohydrate, and sodium, having an idea of how your choices stack up can help you avoid becoming overwhelmed by your options and stick to a meal that fits your tastes, dietary needs, and overall health goals. Making a healthy choice at the drive-thru can be tricky, but with a few simple tips and a solid understanding of the menu, it is possible to make nutritious choices Burger King.

Navigating the Menu

Most Nutritious Option

If you're searching for the most nutritious option at Burger King, reach for the hamburger, which has the healthiest nutrition profile.

Breakfast

Burger King’s breakfast menu includes egg and cheese sandwiches on biscuits or croissants, sausage and bacon, a stack of pancakes, and hash browns. While Burger King’s French Toast Sticks with syrup for dipping are lower in calories than other options on the breakfast menu, they’re also low in protein. Choosing a meal that’s higher in protein will help keep you satisfied until it’s time for lunch.

✓ Egg and Cheese Croissan’wich

The Egg and Cheese Croissan’wich provides 302 calories, 15g fat, 7g saturated fat, 576 mg sodium, 30g carbohydrate, 4g sugar, and 11g protein. While Burger King offers the sausage, bacon, or ham Croissan'wich, opt for the meatless version with just egg and cheese to keep the sodium lower while still benefitting from the 12g of protein from the egg.

✗ Double Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit

Burger King's double sausage, egg and cheese biscuit provides 910 calories, 69g fat, 30g saturated fat, 2g trans fat, 2,760mg sodium, 35g carbohydrate, 4g sugar, and 39g protein. With more than quadruple the sodium of the most nutritious breakfast item, this single sandwich can make up half of your caloric or sodium intake for the day.

Cut down on the sodium by ordering the sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit or the plain sausage biscuit, which have (1,400mg or 1,147mg sodium, respectively).

Burgers

While Burger King is known for the Whopper, you’ll also find typical fast food burger options on the menu. To keep the calories, fat, and sodium content of your burger low, avoid double, triple, (or more) stacked burgers. You can also save calories, fat, and carbs by loading up your burger with veggies instead of cheese, bacon, or onion rings. When you’re choosing a side, stick with a simple salad instead of fries or mozzarella sticks. 

✓ Hamburger

The Burger King hamburger contains 242 calories, 10g fat, 3.7g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 385mg sodium, 26g carbohydrate, 6g sugar, and 13g protein. This classic sandwich comes with pickles, mustard, and ketchup, and keeps it simple with no additional toppings.

✗ Bacon King

The Burger King Bacon King has 2,103 calories, 93g fat, 39g saturated fat, 1.9g trans fat, 2,866mg sodium, 52g carbohydrate, 11g sugar, and 70g protein. With two beef patties, two slices of American cheese, as well as a layer smoked bacon, this sandwich is loaded in sodium, saturated fat, and calories.

The classic Whopper, meanwhile, can be a better alternative. Depending on how many patties you get, Burger King’s Whoppers can be anywhere from 600 to more than 1200 calories. If you want to go with the famous burger, choose the Whopper Jr. which has 310 calories and 18 grams of fat. 

Chicken

You’ll find a selection of crispy fried chicken items on Burger King’s menu, such as sandwiches, nuggets, and even Chicken Fries. Burger King only offers a couple of grilled chicken options. However, when you add cheese and sauce, they won't necessarily be lower in calories and fat than smaller portions of fried versions. 

✓ Chicken Nuggets (4 pieces)

The 4-piece chicken nugget portion provides 170 calories, 11g fat, 1.5g saturated fat, 310 mg sodium, 11g carbohydrate, 0g sugar, and 8g protein. These bite-sized portions can make for a low-calorie protein snack.

✗ Spicy Ch'King Deluxe Sandwich

At 1,052 calories, 150g fat, 13g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 955 mg sodium, 74g carbohydrate, 13g sugar, and 33g protein, the Spicy Ch'King Deluxe Sandwich is the highest-calorie and highest-carb chicken sandwich on the menu. One way to make a lower-carb sandwich at Burger King is to order the Chicken Jr. without the bun. You’ll save calories but still get 11g of protein. 

Salads

Burger King only offers a few salads—and they aren’t necessarily low-calorie options. However, it is possible to customize your salad to maximize nutrition.

✓ Side Garden Salad

The side garden salad at Burger King provides 322 calories, 32g fat, 6.4g saturated fat, 336mg sodium, 5g carbohydrate, 4g sugar, and 5g protein. With lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and croutons, this salad can be made healthier by skipping the final two ingredients and opting for no dressing.

✗ Chicken Garden Salad

The chicken garden salad contains 870 calories, 71g fat, 14.2g saturated fat, 1,605mg sodium, 35g carbohydrate, 7g sugar, and 27g protein. While the Burger King salad menu is fairly limited, there are things you can do to improve the nutrition of your salad. Skip extras like cheese and croutons, use a low-fat dressing sparingly, and go for grilled chicken rather than crispy fried, to make a healthier Burger King salad. 

Sides

You’ll find classic fast food sides at Burger King, like fries and onion rings, as well as some unique offerings like Chicken Fries and mozzarella sticks. These sides are typically high calorie, high-carb, and have a lot of sodium. However, you can find a smaller 4-piece portion of Burger King’s Chicken Nuggets on the side menu for 170 calories, 11 grams of fat, and 8 grams of protein. 

✓ French Fries (Value)

A value size of French fries delivers 223 calories, 10g fat, 1.7g saturated fat, 331mg sodium, 31g carbohydrate, 0g sugar, and 3g protein. Opt for the value size of all sides for a snack portion of your favorite menu items.

✗ Onion Rings (Large)

Meanwhile, a large order of the onion rings contains 653 calories, 40g fat, 6.9g saturated fat, 1,546 mg sodium, 69g carbohydrate, 7g sugar, and 5g protein. Alternatively, the Burger King 8-piece serving of cheesy tots delivers 316 calories and 795mg sodium—approximately half of the large onion rings.

Dessert

The dessert options at Burger King are all high in calories, carbs, and sugar. While you’ll find some typical fast food sweet treats, like soft serve and shakes, Burger King also offers slices of pie, cookies, and mini cinnamon buns.

✓ Vanilla Soft Serve

The vanilla soft serve has 142 calories, 4g fat, 3g saturated fat, 100 mg sodium, 20g carbohydrate, 16g sugar, and 3g protein. This cool sweet treat comes in at the lowest sugar count of all Burger King desserts—just 16 grams.

✗ OREO Cookie Shake

The OREO Cookie Shake delivers 715 calories, 20g fat, 12g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 539 mg sodium, 118g carbohydrate, 98g sugar, and 16g protein. Loaded with calories, sodium, and sugar, this treat is best shared—grab two spoons and split it with a friend.

Beverages

Your best bet for a healthy drink at Burger King is a bottle of water. However, depending on your dietary needs and preferences, there are some other low or no-calorie beverages, as well as a few that are low in sugar. Just remember that soft drinks and other calorie-free beverages may contain artificial sweeteners or preservatives like aspartame, which you may prefer to avoid.

✓ Nestle Pure Life Bottled Water

A bottle of Nestle Pure Life water has 0 calories, 0g fat, 30 mg sodium, 0g carbohydrate, 0g sugar, and 0g protein. Overall, water is your best bet and most nutritious option when dining out.

✗ Moche Frappe (20 oz)

A 20-ounce Mocha Frappe drink has 510 calories, 13g fat, 8g saturated fat, 50 mg sodium, 87g carbohydrate, 71g sugar, and 12g protein. One beverage option that’s unique to the Burger King menu is Frozen Coke. The regular version of the slushy soda has 130 calories and 35 grams of sugar.

Diet-Specific Options

If you follow a specific diet, Burger King offers options for gluten-free, low-carb, diabetes-friendly, low-fat, low-sodium, vegetarian, and vegan diets.

Gluten-free

If you avoid gluten or wheat, you may find some options on Burger King’s menu that could work for your diet.

If you have Celiac disease, you should know that no item on Burger King’s menu is guaranteed gluten-free. Burger King does not recommend its list of gluten-free-friendly foods (which do not contain gluten, wheat, oats, or barley) to customers who have Celiac disease. 

As with many restaurants, Burger King’s food is prepared in a shared kitchen. Even if you order a meal without gluten or wheat-containing ingredients, it may come into contact with allergens during storage, prep, or cooking (such as in a shared fryer).

Items on Burger King’s menu that may be suitable for a gluten-free diet include:

• Eggs
• Hamburger Patty
• Tendergrill Chicken Filet
• Garden Fresh Salad mix
• Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry Shakes

Low-carb

• Hamburger
• Hash Browns (small)
• Chicken Nuggets (4 pieces)
• Value Menu Cheeseburger
• Garden Side Salad with Ken’s Ranch Dressing

Diabetes-Friendly

• Whopper Jr.
• Fries (Value)
• Double Hamburger
• Breakfast Burrito Jr. 
• Club Salad with Grilled Chicken 

Low-fat

• Hamburger
• Veggie Burger
• Spicy Crispy Chicken Jr. 
• Egg and Cheese Croissan’wich 
• Vanilla Soft Serve (cup or cone)

Low-sodium

• Whopper Jr.
• French Toast Sticks
• Chicken Nuggets (4 pieces)
• Chocolate Chip or M&M Cookie
• Garden Side Salad (no dressing or croutons)

Vegetarian & Vegan

In 2018, Burger King made its foray into meatless meat with a Veggie Burger made with Morningstar Farms patties). Starting in 2019, the chain will be rolling out an Impossible Whopper nationwide made with vegan patties by Impossible Foods. 

If these burgers haven’t arrived at your location (or they aren’t to your liking) there are a few other options that can work for a vegan or vegetarian diet. 

Vegan-friendly items at Burger King may include:

• Dutch Apple Pie
• French Toast Sticks
• Garden Side Salad (no dressing) 
• “Veggie Sandwich” (Whopper Jr. with no meat or mayo)

If your local Burger King offers Quaker Oats Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal, the option can be made vegan if you ask for it to be prepared with water instead of milk. 

While Burger King’s fries and hash browns are made from potato, they are fried in the same fryer as items that may not be vegan. Whether or not you choose fries as a viable option will depend on the type of vegan diet you follow. 

If you follow a vegetarian diet, you can also choose from: 

• Pancakes
• Cheesy Tots, Onion Rings
• Cookies, Shakes, and Soft Serve
• Club or Garden Salad (no chicken)
• Egg ‘n Cheese Breakfast Sandwich 

Food Allergies and Safety

Burger King makes information about the ingredients used to create its menu readily available for diners to review as a PDF. If you have a food allergy, you’ll want to consult this information or use the interactive menu-sorting tool before placing your order. 

Common food allergens found in Burger King’s menu include:

• Soy
• Milk
• Fish
• Eggs
• Wheat
• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts

You can also sort the menu to show items prepared on equipment that may have come into contact with peanuts, soy, wheat, milk, or gluten. 

While some menu items may not include a particular food allergen, your meal still may have come into contact with the allergen during the storage or preparation process. Due to the risk of cross-contamination, it’s always best to talk to your doctor about how to safely order fast food and exercise caution when dining out.

A Word From Verywell 

You’ll find all your fast food favorites on Burger King’s menu, but you may be surprised by the other options you’ll have to choose from. The chain offers vegetarian-friendly burgers and offers a vegan version of its famous Whopper in some locations.

Depending on your tastes and dietary needs, it’s possible to order a relatively nutritious meal at Burger King as long as you keep a few simple tips in mind: stick to smaller portions, choose grilled meat over fried, and skip any extra sauces and toppings.