Five Guys is not healthier than McDonald’s. In most head-to-head comparisons, a typical Five Guys meal delivers more calories, more fat, and more sodium than an equivalent McDonald’s order. The gap is large enough that even choosing the smallest options at Five Guys often puts you above what a full-sized McDonald’s meal contains.
That said, the answer gets more nuanced when you look at ingredient quality, portion sizes, and what you actually order. Here’s how the two chains compare across the menu.
Burgers: A Big Calorie Gap
The most important thing to understand about Five Guys is that their standard “hamburger” is a double patty. If you want a single patty, you need to order the “little” version. This naming convention trips up a lot of people and inflates the calorie count before you’ve added a single topping.
A Five Guys Hamburger (double patty, no toppings) comes in at 840 calories. The Little Hamburger, with one patty and no toppings, is 540 calories. Add cheese and bacon and you’re looking at 1,060 calories for the Bacon Cheeseburger or 690 for the Little Bacon Cheeseburger. These numbers don’t include any toppings like mayo, which pushes the total higher.
By comparison, a McDonald’s Big Mac sits around 550 calories, and a Quarter Pounder with Cheese lands near 520 calories. A basic McDouble is roughly 400 calories. So even the smallest Five Guys cheeseburger (the Little Cheeseburger at 610 calories) outpaces a Big Mac. Order the standard Five Guys Cheeseburger at 980 calories and you’re eating nearly two Big Macs’ worth of calories in one sandwich.
Fries: Where the Difference Gets Extreme
French fries are where Five Guys really pulls ahead in calories, and not in a good way. Five Guys is known for generous portions. A regular order of fries often fills the bag around your burger, and a single serving can easily exceed 900 calories. Even a “little” fry at Five Guys typically lands between 500 and 600 calories, depending on the location’s scooping habits.
A medium fry at McDonald’s runs about 320 calories. That’s a meaningful difference, and it comes down to portion size more than anything else.
The oil is different, though. Five Guys fries are cooked in 100% peanut oil, which is cholesterol-free and relatively high in unsaturated fats. McDonald’s historically used beef tallow for their fries and now uses a blend of canola, soybean, and hydrogenated soybean oil. Peanut oil has a slightly better fat profile, with more monounsaturated fat. But oil quality matters far less than the sheer volume of fries you’re eating, and Five Guys serves substantially more.
Milkshakes: A Surprising Sugar Load
If you’re adding a shake to your meal, Five Guys is in a league of its own. A Five Guys milkshake with chocolate and banana mix-ins contains about 1,073 calories and 149 grams of sugar. That’s nearly six times the American Heart Association’s recommended daily added sugar limit for women (25 grams) and almost four times the limit for men (36 grams), in a single drink.
McDonald’s shakes are far from health food either. A medium McDonald’s chocolate shake runs around 600 to 630 calories with roughly 80 grams of sugar. That’s still a lot, but it’s significantly less than the Five Guys version. The Five Guys shake alone contains more calories than many people’s entire lunch should.
Ingredient Quality and Simplicity
Five Guys does have some genuine advantages when it comes to ingredients. Their burgers use fresh, never-frozen beef with no fillers. Their fries are cut from whole potatoes in-store each day. Toppings like lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and peppers are free, so you can load up on vegetables without extra cost. There are no heat lamps or microwaves; food is cooked to order.
McDonald’s uses a more processed approach. Their beef patties are frozen before cooking. Buns contain more additives and preservatives. Some menu items include artificial colors or flavors that Five Guys avoids. For people who prioritize whole, minimally processed ingredients, Five Guys offers a cleaner product.
But “cleaner ingredients” and “healthier” aren’t the same thing. A burger made with fresh beef and cooked in peanut oil is still an 840-calorie burger. Ingredient quality affects what you’re putting into your body at a molecular level, but your waistline and cardiovascular system also care about total calories, sodium, and saturated fat, all of which are higher at Five Guys per meal.
How a Typical Meal Stacks Up
Consider what most people actually order. A common Five Guys meal of a cheeseburger, regular fries, and a regular drink lands somewhere between 1,500 and 1,800 calories. Add a milkshake instead of a soda and you could clear 2,500 calories in one sitting. That’s more than most adults need in an entire day.
A McDonald’s meal of a Big Mac, medium fries, and a medium Coke comes in around 1,080 calories. Still not light by any means, but roughly 500 to 700 calories less than a comparable Five Guys order. If you opt for a McChicken or a basic cheeseburger at McDonald’s, you can keep a full meal under 800 calories without much effort.
McDonald’s also offers options that Five Guys simply doesn’t have: salads, apple slices, grilled chicken sandwiches, and smaller portion sizes across the board. Five Guys’ menu is essentially burgers, hot dogs, fries, and shakes. There’s no low-calorie pivot available.
Making Either Option Work
If you’re at Five Guys and watching your intake, the best strategy is ordering a Little Hamburger or Little Cheeseburger (540 to 610 calories), skipping the fries or splitting them, and drinking water. Load up on the free vegetable toppings: mushrooms, green peppers, onions, lettuce, and tomatoes all add flavor and nutrients without adding many calories. You can also order your burger “bunless” in a lettuce wrap to cut another 120 or so calories.
At McDonald’s, a grilled chicken sandwich, side salad, or even a basic hamburger keeps you in a much lower calorie range. The variety of portion sizes gives you more control.
The bottom line: Five Guys uses better-quality ingredients and simpler recipes, but the portions are so large that a standard meal delivers far more calories, fat, and sodium than McDonald’s. If “healthier” means fewer calories and more menu flexibility, McDonald’s wins. If it means fewer artificial ingredients and fresher preparation, Five Guys has the edge. For most people concerned about their overall diet, portion size matters more than oil type, and that’s where Five Guys consistently comes up short.