Chea Matherne imagined tasting a deliciously greasy McDonald’s burger topped with American cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard on a sesame seed bun, salty french fries and a medium Coke. Then she remembered the little black dress she needed to squeeze into later that night and instead ordered a chicken caesar salad, devoured it in less than four minutes and was hungry again two hours later.
Most fast food restaurants in recent years have beefed up their menus with “leaner” options to keep customers at their counters despite the health crazes sweeping the nation. Customers often think they are ordering healthier when they choose menu items dubbed as fresh, premium or select, but nutrition facts show they are actually still blowing their diets. Nutritionists said careful menu selection and skipping the salad dressing all together are key tips while dining out.
Look at McDonald’s. A quarter pounder has 410 calories and 19 grams of fat, but the premium grilled chicken club has 570 calories and 21 grams of fat. The words premium, grilled and chicken may sound healthy, or at least healthier than a burger, but the McDonald’s USA nutrition fact sheet shockingly proves otherwise. The chicken sandwich’s liquid margarine, bacon and mayonnaise drench its nutritional value.
“All this time I thought I was doing well by not ordering hamburgers or chicken nuggets. I assumed salads were automatically healthier,” Matherne said. “I guess I should start looking at the facts before ordering what the menus portray as healthier choices.”
Most salads are worse than a quarter pounder, chicken nuggets or an egg mcmuffin: The Caesar salad with crispy chicken has 550 calories and 32.5 grams of fat and the premium southwest salad with grilled chicken has 420 calories and 36 grams of fat because of the creamy salad dressings, butter garlic croutons and bacon bites.
“I would advise avid fast food consumers who want healthy options to still order the salads, with lots of raw food, like greens, carrots, tomatoes, and even grilled chicken, but to order them without dressing,” said Renee Barasch, owner of Nutritional Health Solutions and a weight management specialist. “And remember to always choose grilled chicken, not fried. Always.”
A roast beef and Swiss market fresh sandwich with lettuce and tomato on honey wheat bread at Arby’s sounds healthy, right? Totaling 810 calories and 42 grams of fat, the sandwich is almost twice as bad as the basic super roast beef sandwich, according to Arby’s nutritional calculator.
“I eat the Market Fresh sandwiches all the time,” said Baohan Wu, a regular customer at Arby’s. “I am a very athletic and active guy. With the veggies, all natural meat and whole wheat bread they seemed like the healthiest menu items.”
The market fresh sandwich is loaded with fattening mayonnaise and Italian sub sauce, and topped with a thick slice of processed Swiss cheese. The two pieces of honey wheat bread alone contain 361 calories and 68 grams of carbohydrates, but the super roast beef sandwich’s sesame bud has half the carbs and it substitutes the mayo with a lower-calorie spicy pepper sauce, according to “Eat This, Not That,” Men’s Health Editor-In-Chief David Zinczenko.
At Wendy’s, the chicken club sandwich tops in with 610 calories and 31 grams of fat, while an order of chicken nuggets AND chili only adds up to 450 calories and 21 grams of fat.
“Arby’s and Wendy’s are my favorite restaurants. They have healthy options, and Wendy’s is super cheap,” said Blaire Embrey, a 20-year-old dance major at Columbia College Chicago. After Embrey saw the nutrition sheets, she dropped her fork, pushed the Santa Fe Salad away and slid back in her chair. “There is seriously 773 calories in this thing? I’d rather eat a Big Mac.”
Some see fast food chain’s attempts to lure customers in with their “healthier” options as a marketing and business scheme targeted to women, who are under the most societal pressure to stay fit.
“Dieting, worrying about weight and worrying about healthy food is a woman’s position,” said Judith Gardiner, director of gender and women’s studies at University of Illinois, Chicago. “For a man’s appetite, you still see the super size options based on the previous historical times and positions that men deserve more calories because they do a lot of physical labor. Fast food chains are trying to use both positions to appeal to everyone.”
Public relations contacts at McDonald’s, Arby’s and Wendy’s did not respond to repeated calls for comment.
Some customers are too health savvy to fall for the marketing. Nutritional facts are easily accessible online, and many fast food chains offer in-store brochures or display posters with information about the menu items.
“Americans are often too lazy to really look into things. They hear the word ‘salad’ and automatically think they’re sticking to their diets,” said 28-year-old customer Justin Neal, while looking up at the overhead menu options. “If people really want to lose weight they should stay out of places like McDonald’s and Wendy’s and figure out healthy and balanced options from places like Subway, Panera and other sandwich shops.”
Dieting customers should look closely at menu options before assuming Panera and Subway items are automatically healthy. Panera’s sierra turkey sandwich has over 800 calories and 40 grams of fat, but its BBQ chicken crispani boasts only 380 calories and 15 grams of fat. The sierra turkey is coated in chipotle mayonnaise and there are six grams of fat per slice in the Asiago Cheese Focaccia bread.
“When I found out I could eat pizza here instead of the usual turkey sandwich I was so excited pizza didn’t have to be a guilty pleasure,” Haley Fritz, 20, said. “I started eating at Subway, too, when I found out a steak and cheese was healthier than a turkey breast salad.”
Subway’s six-inch steak and cheese sandwich has 400 calories and 12 grams of fat, whereas a turkey breast salad has 430 calories and 37.5 whopping grams of fat because of the ranch dressing and high sodium content. The best salad option is its oven roasted chicken breast salad with fat free Italian dressing, which only has 175 calories and 2.5 grams of fat.
With all of the “healthy” misconceptions at common fast food chains, nutritionists said going back to the basics is always the best way to stay fit and lose weight.
“If dieting individuals want to eat McDonalds and Arby’s, they should remember that exercising is critical,” Barasch said. “But if they really want to lose weight, they should stay clear of the restaurants all together. Try going back to the kindergarten days of brown bag lunches. They definitely beat the burgers and so-called fresh sandwiches.”
Kristen Buerster arrives at her chic, downtown Chicago office every weekday morning at nine with her grande, vanilla chai tea half-empty. Eight hours later, she ditches her business suit and patent leather stilettos for bare-footed, sweaty fun.
Buerster works as the grants administrator for The Siragusa Foundation, a nonprofit organization that assists low-income people and local charitable groups. But when the clock strikes five she starts dancing and twisting around metal poles and a slick dance floor. She’s neither a stripper nor professional pole dancer. She’s a pole dancing fitness instructor, teaching others how to follow her lead.
As a part-time instructor at Flirty Girl Fitness, Buerster does not live the life of a typical 24-year-old college graduate with a business marketing degree. Teaching sensual yet body-sculpting fitness classes like sexy stretch, xxx power strip and pole dancing, Buerster unleashes the flirtatious, strong and confident dancer within her students
But Buerster knows that there are skeptics out there because she often finds herself defending her job.
"The first thing I always have to say to people is that it's not what you think," Buerster said, with a hint of southern twang. "Most have a negative stereotype until I explain that these classes indescribably build strength, endurance and flexibility more than regular weight and cardio workouts."
Buerster didn’t set out to become a teacher. She was more interested in being a student when she went to her first Flirty Girl Fitness class in June. At that time, she hadn't danced in almost a year, but she easily revived her temporarily stalled six-year dance background. One manager immediately recruited Buerster to join the staff after noticing her standout talent and technique.
"When the music started, it felt so natural to me. It was like no time had gone by, just like when you meet up with an old friend," she said.
Buerster danced on the Eastern Illinois University Purple Pizzazz for four years, choreographed routines for three, and was captain for two. But it hadn’t always come so easy to her. Even though she ate, slept, and lived dance throughout college, she did not make the pompom squad in seventh, eighth, ninth or 10th grade. It wasn't until her junior year, when despite having pulled a hamstring the day of tryouts, that she finally made the cut.
"I dedicated the entire summer before junior year to practicing for tryouts. Of course things had to go wrong, but the coaches let me audition while sitting in a chair, judging only my facials, vocals and arm motions," Buerster said, demonstrating a cheesy smile and high-v cheer motion, followed by a wink and handclap.
Being cut from the squad four consecutive years wasn't the only hardship Buerster had to face in her younger years. At age two, her parents divorced, forcing a long-distance relationship between her and her father, who moved to Savannah, Ga. Her father remarried and now has two other children.
"It was hard not having my dad around. I adored him, and I always felt like a piece of me was gone," she said. "And it's still hard. I miss out on everything with my stepbrother and stepsister. I don't get to cheer on my brother at his games or help my sister deal with normal, growing-up girl issues."
Smiling and shrugging her shoulders, Buerster said she knows she is loved by her family and doesn't feel abandoned. But she did recall a time when she felt alone.
"I hated high school because I didn't fit in. I only had a few friends, and I felt invisible," she said. "But I learned who I was, who I wanted to be, and who I didn't want to be."
The goofy, energetic, organized, super-sensitive, empathetic, aspiring philanthropist said her quirky but unfeigned characteristics trickled down from her father.
"He is the most genuine and non-selfish man,” she said. “He always goes out of his way to help people, and I definitely get that from him."
Both of Buerster’s jobs involve helping people, and she does the same in her off hours by motivating her personal friends, as well.
"Kristen is a very upbeat, loving and talented person," said HER best friend, college roommate and Purple Pizazz co-dancer Stephanie Johnson. "I think she has mastered the true art forms of dance and choreography. Some can, others can't. But Kristen is one of the best."
Buerster instructs the sexy stretch class, a core fitness hour focused on toning and increasing flexibility but with a spice of sass. She also teaches the xxx power strip and pole dancing classes, where she choreographs her own routines to her favorite hip-hop and R&B r&b songs, like The Dream's "Falsetto" and "Striptease" by Danity Kane.
"Kristen's routines are always a lot of fun. She uses both popular songs with awesome beats to hit to, and even funny old school stuff with 80s and 90s themes," said Flirty Girl Fitness member Saba Chaudhr. "The sexy attitude and spunk make the workout so much better, not to mention how we really break a sweat trying to dance hot and work up and down the pole at the same time.
Buerster said she is working towards her master's in public service management at DePaul University and hopes to work with an organization that helps women and girls in the future. But she will continue instructing the dance classes, too, she said.
"I can't imagine a day when I won't be dancing. Dancing is who I am," Buerster said, putting on a pink sweatshirt over her sweaty aerobics tank top. "The joy and inspiration I get from teaching these women my routines is unbeatable."
Helicopters, snakes and butterflies may not seem to have anything in common, but in a dance studio with metal poles and mirror walls, all three are giving women an innovative work out.
Strippers and firefighters aren’t the only ones sliding down poles. Fitness studios around the nation have started offering pole dancing, striptease and other sensual fitness classes instead of regular aerobic, weight and cardio workouts. Ditching the free weights and elliptical machines for poles and chairs has become a hot fitness trend for Chicago women looking to stay fit, tone up or lose weight.
“Pole dancing pushes you harder than any other workout,” said Rebecca Lee, an intermediate pole dancing instructor at Flirty Girl Fitness. “It’s one thing to lift weights, but try combining dance, gymnastics and cardio, and then putting it all together in the air.”
Flirty Girl Fitness, located at 1325 W. Randolph St., offers a variety of feminine fitness classes, including chair striptease, xxx power strip, hottie body boxing and pole dancing. The studio originated in Toronto and opened its Chicago location in June.
“The Toronto location reached 100 percent capacity for every class, and investors decided to start a second location,” said Michelle Epstein, public relations director. “Membership in Chicago has tripled. We started with five members on opening day, and now have 300-plus regulars.”
Flirty Girl Fitness is a women’s only facility that prides itself on offering its clients a comfortable environment where they can not only lose weight and stay fit, but also be flirty, fun and healthy.
“We are set up here to give women a place unlike regular gyms with men and machinery,” said dance instructor Kristen Buerster. “We try to empower women and make them feel confident and sexy in their own skin by structuring choreography that is flirty and fun, but will also help everyone reach their personal fitness goals.”
From the pink plush towels, pink boxing bags, pink chairs, pink hoolah hoops and pink lights, Flirty Girl Fitness is just that- flirty.
“I don’t like weights, I want to get fit, and I like to dance,” member Saba Chaudhr said. “Since it’s only women here, I can pole dance and not feel bad about it.”
Chaudhr has participated in xxx power strip, pole tricks, and intermediate pole dancing since Flirty Girl Fitness opened.
“Pole tricks and Intermediate Pole Dancing are my favorite classes here,” she said. “Learning to move up and down the pole has definitely improved my dance and strength.”
The stage-like pole dancing studio features 16 silver poles, wood flooring, a room-length mirror wall and booming music beats. Beginning with a hip-hop dance warm-up routine, the women move fiercely to the beat of the music in eight-count choreography as the routine transitions to dancing around the pole. Some women add their own personal touches, extra hip thrusts or flipping their hair around.
The routine progresses to more difficult techniques that involve climbing up and sliding down the pole and all the way to floor, incorporating break dance and gymnastic techniques that rely on total body control and strength.
The fireman is the most basic pole trick, but there’s nothing basic about it. Beginning your right arm up, grasping the pole, and your left Achilles heal touching the poll, you use entire upper body and core abdominal strength to cross your right foot over your left, pull up and twirl around. Sounds easy, right?
For the intermediate level dancers, the firemen is easy. But, add climbing up the pole, sliding down, and then doing both upside down, all the while dancing in flirty pole tricks like the inverted snake and butterfly. In these tricks, the dancer seductively slides down the pole head first and whips around while rolling her upper body to the beat of the music.
“Poll dancing is the hardest class here because you have to be flexible to contort your body into the positions, you need strength to get up the poll, and you need cardio to last the whole routine,” member Arlyne Chin said. “The sensual dance aspect is the best part because it’s what makes it look good…It pulls it together so you don’t look like a robot and actually look like a dancer with rhythm and grace.”
Flirty Girl Fitness is not the only Chicago area gym offering sensual and sassy classes. The S Factor offers seven class levels that incorporate yoga, Pilates, pole tricks and dancing, and Pole Velocity Dance and Fitness offers beginner, intermediate, advanced and private classes, as well as exotic dance workshops and home parties.
While participants enjoy these unique workouts, some feel the trend furthers the idea that women must not only be in shape, but also sexy in today’s society.
“The femininity of women has been reduced to an image and a physicality where women have to stay fit and beautiful,” Judith Gardiner, director of gender and women’s studies at University of Illinois, Chicago, said. “The flirty aspect fits in the ideas of our contemporary society, where being attractive is a competitive sport and not at all personalized.”
Instructors said the studio does focus on personalization and strives to make sure every woman meets their own goals, whatever they may be. Members said they have lost weight because of these workouts, and have gained confidence in their own ways, even though it may seem raunchy to outsiders.
“I’ve literally dropped inches, and I can tell because I need smaller clothing sizes,” member Christine Spiro said. “Everyone here is supportive and makes sure you feel comfortable in your own way. At first I thought I looked like an idiot on the poll, but I became confident and have taken that confidence in myself outside of Flirty Girl.”
“I’ve been to the S Factor, Pole Velocity and Flirty Girl. I like to try classes everywhere, because even though the classes are similar, each studio has a different vibe,” Roosevelt University sophomore Christine Perkins said. “People may think I’m a stripper or promiscuous, but really its just fun and an amazing work out.”
