The 10 Unhealthiest Restaurant Desserts That Will Wreck Your Diet

You're finishing up a tasty meal at your favorite restaurant, and the server walks over and asks if you want to see a dessert menu. Even though you're full from dinner, you of course say yes, because everyone knows we all have a separate stomach for dessert. But as you're looking through the options, you start to feel overwhelmed. You ate a relatively healthy dinner and are trying to eat more nutritious foods, and now you're worried dessert will derail everything. However, this doesn't have to be the case, as long as you know what to choose!

Eating healthy doesn't have to mean always skipping dessert. Treating ourselves to our favorite sweets from time to time is an important part of living a healthy and balanced life! Unfortunately, though, many restaurant desserts are wildly unhealthy and full of calories, fat, and sugar, and some of these menu options do have the ability to derail your healthy eating plans for the evening.

For example, a slice of carrot cake from The Cheesecake Factory has more calories (1,720 calories to be exact) than what most people would aim to eat in an entire meal. And if that sounds bad, just wait until you see some of the other sweet treats we've chosen for our list of unhealthiest restaurant chain desserts.

A quick note before we continue. We aren't saying that you have to avoid all of these desserts forever. In fact, some of these can still be enjoyed, but maybe you can choose to split them among your whole table instead of ordering one for just yourself. At the end of the day, we just want you to know what is inside some popular dessert options so you can make empowered decisions when ordering at your favorite chain.

Chili's Peanut Butter Pie

Another beloved Chili's dessert item, the Peanut Butter Pie, is made with real Reese's Cups, chocolate chips, and a chocolate pie crust. All of these delicious ingredients rack up to around 920 calories, 69 grams of fat, and almost 60 grams of added sugar. Plus, you'll get 25 grams of saturated fat in one pie slice, which is more than the recommended daily limit.

Olive Garden Chocolate Lasagna

A good lasagna is something you can expect at any Italian restaurant, but what about a chocolate lasagna? These layers of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate sauce, and crushed wafers certainly satisfy your sweet cravings, but the Olive Garden Chocolate Lasagna is one of the unhealthiest chain restaurant desserts you can find. At almost 1,000 calories and 86 grams of added sugars, you may want to skip this one, or at least split it with the table.

Red Lobster Brownie Overboard

The Brownie Overboard is a tasty way to end your Red Lobster meal, but it unfortunately has more calories than most meals you'd have for lunch or dinner. The sodium count is relatively low compared to other items on our list, but the saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, and calories are all way too high in this one.

Texas Roadhouse Big Ol' Brownie

A brownie and ice cream doesn't seem like a lot at first, but the Big Ol' Brownie from Texas Roadhouse is the unhealthiest dessert at this popular chain restaurant. It's a simple dish of a chocolate brownie, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce on top, but it's stacked to the brim with 1,200 calories and over 150 grams of sugar.

Longhorn Steakhouse THE Cheesecake

This isn't just any ol' cheesecake. This is THE Cheesecake from Longhorn Steakhouse.  At first glance it may not look like much, but this cheesecake, topped with whipped cream, caramel, and candied pecans, is loaded with 1,200 calories, 79 grams of sugar, and 37 grams of saturated fat. Plus, your sodium levels for a dessert are very high at 970 milligrams, especially considering the daily recommended limit of 2,300 milligrams.

BJ's Salted Caramel Pizookie

The Salted Caramel Pizookie from BJ's is an enticing dessert option, but it also has the highest sugar count out of every dessert on our list. Plus, you're getting over 1,300 calories and over 1,300 milligrams of sodium in each dish.

Chili's Molten Chocolate Cake

You can't think of Chili's desserts without thinking of the famous Molten Chocolate Cake. Cutting into this gooey cake and seeing the chocolate lava fall all over your plate is a dream experience for every chocolate lover, but if you're going to get this dessert, we recommend splitting it with some friends.

Cheesecake Factory Carrot Cake

Your mind may not go straight to carrot cake when thinking about the unhealthiest desserts out there, but the one from Cheesecake Factory is no joke. This carrot cake comes packed with 1,720 calories, 122 grams of fat, 57 grams of saturated fat, and a whopping 116 grams of sugar—and that's just in one slice!6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Applebee's Cinnabon Mini Swirls

It may have "mini" in the name, but there's nothing small about the calories, fat, sugar, and sodium levels of this Applebee's dessert. With more than 1,620 calories and over 1,000 milligrams of sodium, the Cinnabon Mini Swirls are definitely better split between a table full of people.

Longhorn Steakhouse Chocolate Stampede

With almost 2,500 calories and just below 200 grams of sugar, the Chocolate Stampede from Longhorn Steakhouse is definitely meant to be shared. Ordering this one on your own would give you more calories, sugar, and saturated fat in one dessert than is recommended to have in an entire day.