9 Healthiest Checkers Orders—and 4 To Avoid

Navigating a fast-food menu can be tricky, and this stands true for Checkers. Specialty items, affordable combos, seasonal specials, and monstrous meals litter the Checkers menu. With so many options, choosing a reasonable order that helps your wellness goals can be hard. What makes this process more challenging is even the healthiest items in each category aren't as healthy as what you may make at home or get at another fast-food restaurant.

Your favorite drive-thru may make it easy to grab a quick meal, but this convenience doesn't always mean healthy. In fact, a single Checkers burger can pack enough calories for a full day, and some of their slushies have more than a day's worth of sugar in them. Although they don't offer any salads, and all of their fish and chicken options are fried, there are still some reasonable orders on the Checkers menu.

How We Chose the Healthiest Checkers Orders

• Calories: These are important when determining how healthy a meal is. An order with 500 calories or fewer is ideal for most people. If the calorie count was higher than this, there needed to be easy modifications to reduce the calories in order for an item to make ours best list.
• Saturated fat: This is a non-essential form of fat that may negatively impact your health if consumed in high amounts. To make our best list, the order had to provide fewer than 10 grams of saturated fat.
• Sugar: This is another nutrient that could be harmful to your health if consumed in high amounts too often. All of our best menu selections contained fewer than 15 grams of added sugar.

Read on to learn the 9 healthiest Checkers orders and 4 to avoid. Then, check out 25 Healthy Fast-Food Orders, According to Dietitians.

9 Healthiest Checkers Orders

Best: 5 Piece Classic Wings

Wings may be a classic, but the calorie count can get sky-high, depending on your portion and sauces. This 5-piece order without sauce is only 350 calories with an impressive 35 grams of protein. This makes it filling for the calorie amount, and it provides no added sugar. To keep these numbers reasonable, avoid tossing your wings in sauce or dipping them in ranch or blue cheese.

 9 Unhealthiest Fast-Food Chicken Wings To Stay Away From Right Now

Best: 3 Piece Fry-Seasoned Tenders

Similar to wings, chicken fingers are notorious for high fat and calorie counts. This 4-piece option has 410 calories, which is nearing our 500 calorie cut-off, but provides 27 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber. Skip the dips to avoid added fat and sugar grams, and instead dip with mustard if you are looking for a flavor boost.

 10 Best & Worst Fast-Food Chicken Nuggets

Best: Spicy Chicken Sandwich

This simple sandwich is comprised of a crispy chicken breast topped with lettuce and mayo and served on a sesame bun. To get this meal to 500 calories, skip the mayo. This modification will also save you several grams of fat, including some saturated fat. Unfortunately, this sandwich only has 15 grams of protein, so add some veggies from home to make for a more filling meal while staying under 500 calories.

 8 Healthiest Fast-Food Chicken Sandwiches

Best: All American Cheeseburger

A seasoned beef patty, cheese, pickles, ketchup, and mustard make this classic burger one of the healthiest options on the entire menu. At only 330 calories, there is room for you to add a side or, even better, some fruit or veggies from home. Skip the ketchup to drop your sugar count by a few grams, and nix the cheese for even more calorie and fat savings.

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Best: Grilled Hot Dog

Hot dogs aren't known for their health attributes, but this simple option is the best in the category at Checkers. Unfortunately, they are lower in protein than we suggest for a meal, so you may consider adding a side from home to boost protein. Luckily, at only 310 calories, you have room in your budget to include Greek yogurt with fruit or some veggies and hummus to round out this meal.

Best: Crispy Fish Sandwich

This fish sandwich sneaks in just under 500 calories. To make this a healthier option, skip one side of the bun. This will save several grams of carbohydrates, and will open your calorie budget to include some healthy sides. You can also skip the mayo to save some fat grams, and ask for extra lettuce for more crunch.

 The 5 Healthiest Fast-Food Fish Sandwiches—and 9 To Avoid

Best: 4 Piece Fry-Seasoned Monsterella Stix

You may be surprised to see fried mozzarella on this list, but the 4-piece serving actually has a decent nutrient breakdown. For under 300 calories, you get 12 grams of filling protein and only 20 grams of carbohydrates. This makes for a reasonable base to a meal, or even a hearty snack. Enjoy alongside a salad from home to make a more balanced meal option.

Best: Small Famous Seasoned Fries

You may not think fried potatoes have any redeeming qualities, but they are actually quite high in fiber. A small order of fries is nearly 400 calories, which is a lot for a side, but this provides 5 grams of filling fiber. Have half an order to keep calories lower, and pair it with a protein-rich order to create a more well-rounded meal.

 16 Best Fast-Food Fries In America

Best: Vanilla Soft Serve

When it comes to fast-food desserts, most options are high in fat and sugar. This soft serve, however, provides only 4.5 grams of fat! Although it does contain 15 grams of sugar, this is much lower than the other sweets on the Checkers menu. Skip the cone to avoid extra sugar, and share this dessert to reduce your calories and sugar grams even more.

4 Unhealthiest Checkers Menu Items to Avoid

Worst: Smoky BBQ Bacon Buford Triple

As the name implies, this burger has three beef patties, cheese, bacon, BBQ sauce, and more. Totaling over 1,200 calories, this order can take up a day's worth of calories for some people and more fat than most people need in a day. Not to mention, this savory burger nearly hits our sugar limit and exceeds the daily sodium need. Skip this option and ask for bacon on your All-American Cheeseburger if you simply can't pass up the salty, crispy topping.

 The #1 Unhealthiest Burger at Every Major Fast-Food Chain

Worst: Triple Baconzilla

Another three-patty bacon burger, this option has even more fat, saturated fat, and sodium. More cheese and bacon contribute to these shocking nutrition numbers and make this a burger option to skip at Checkers. Unless you plan on splitting this burger four ways, skip it for one of our healthier menu orders.

Worst: Fully loaded Fries

No surprise here, but an order of fully loaded fries that comes topped with cheese, ranch dressing, and bacon makes our worst list. While you will get a few grams of fiber from this order, that is the only perk. A small order of fries can be a reasonable side, especially if you split it with someone, but this fully loaded option is better left skipped. To make it worse, this nutrition info is just for the regular order, so you can imagine the large order is even higher in calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium.

Worst: Nerds Layered Slushie- Orange

There aren't many slushies available that would make a "healthiest" list, and this one is no exception. With 55 grams of sugar, no fiber, and no protein, this large slushie is full of empty calories. Although it is only 200 calories, about the same as a small soda at Checkers, you'll get more than a full day's worth of added sugar. The regular size only saves you 30 calories and 8 grams of sugar, so skip the slushie section altogether and save your calories for something more filling and nutritious.

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