{"id":457871,"date":"2026-03-04T23:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457871\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:06:08","slug":"mcdonalds-big-arch-burger-is-two-thirds-of-your-daily-caloric-intake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457871\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s \u2018Big Arch\u2019 burger is two-thirds of your daily caloric intake"},"content":{"rendered":"

McDonald\u2019s launched its new burger in summer 2024 at all of its 205 Portugal restaurants. It includes two beef patties \u201cperfectly layered with melting cheese, crispy toppings, and a tangy McDonald\u2019s sauce,\u201d Chris Kempczinski, chairman and CEO of McDonald\u2019s, said during an earnings call<\/a> that year. The Big Arch burger (a limited-time offering) just launched in the U.S. this week.<\/p>\n

The burger\u2014and Kempczinski\u2014are also making headlines because the CEO posted a taste-test video of himself eating the massive Big Arch for lunch.<\/p>\n

What was a seemingly mundane and playful video and a look into what the CEO does in his free time became a massive internet meme, with social media users mocking Kempczinski and claiming he doesn\u2019t look like he\u2019s actually enjoying it. People said it felt inauthentic because he referred to the burger as a \u201cproduct.\u201d Other fast-food chain executives, including Burger King\u2019s Tom Curtis, joined in on poking fun<\/a> at Kempczinski\u2019s video.<\/p>\n

About the Big Arch burger<\/p>\n

The Big Arch is a whopping 1,020 calories, according to the menu listing<\/a>. Adult women typically require just 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day, according to the 2020\u201325 Dietary Guidelines for Americans<\/a>, while adult men require about 2,200 to 3,000 calories. That means the burger could take up more than two-thirds of one\u2019s daily caloric intake\u2014and that\u2019s before adding fries and a drink to wash it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team of chefs from around the world have created a more satiating burger to meet customer demand and to deliver on our ongoing commitment to menu innovation,\u201d a McDonald\u2019s spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune in 2024.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s piloted the new menu item across three international markets in 2024, and started testing it in Portugal, Canada, and Germany later that year. Kempczinski had hinted about a bigger burger hitting McDonald\u2019s stores back in a December 2023 interview with CNN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the U.S., in a number of markets, around the world, having a larger burger is an opportunity,\u201d Kempczinski told CNN. \u201cWe\u2019re working on that. That is something that you should expect in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is bigger really better?<\/p>\n

The goal in launching the Big Arch is to \u201caddress unmet customer needs with a more satiating burger that will provide great value for money,\u201d Kempczinski said during the 2024 earnings call. The Big Arch undoubtedly does that since it contains 36% more calories than the Double Big Mac and has more calories than anything else on the McDonald\u2019s menu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In terms of providing \u201cgreat value for money,\u201d that\u2019s somewhat hard to tell, considering McDonald\u2019s franchises set their own prices, which can vary by restaurant and market. Reports<\/a> indicate the\u00a0price can range from $6.89 to $10.19 for just the burger, and a combo meal with fries and soda will likely range from $11.09 to $14.29. <\/p>\n

Looking beyond the calories, the Big Arch also contains 65 grams of fat, which is about 96% of the recommended daily fat intake for adults, Melissa Boufounos, sports nutritionist and owner of MB Performance Nutrition in Canada, told Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a sports nutritionist, I\u2019m big on people eating an optimal amount of protein. With two beef patties, the Big Arch provides a whopping [53] grams of protein,\u201d Boufounos said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean I recommend rushing out to order one. There\u2019s truly no need for a menu item to serve up [1,020] calories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even more so than the calories, the fat content of the menu item is \u201cworrisome\u201d to Boufounos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEating too much highly processed and fatty animal-based protein can contribute to high cholesterol, heart disease, and other chronic health conditions,\u201d she said. \u201cHeart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., with someone suffering from a heart attack every 40 seconds. To me, this burger is a step in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Kempczinski insists it\u2019s a \u201cquintessential McDonald\u2019s burger with a twist on our iconic familiar flavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this story was originally published on Fortune.com on July 30, 2024.<\/p>\n

More on McDonald\u2019s:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s launched its new burger in summer 2024 at all of its 205 Portugal restaurants. It includes two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[616,12055,136472,612,102,3102,63884,6636,3783,3965,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-457871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-diet","tag-earnings","tag-evergreen-refresh","tag-food-and-drink","tag-health","tag-mcdonalds","tag-no-copyright","tag-nutrition","tag-restaurants","tag-sales","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}