Five Guys bag and cup of fries with sandwich

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Five Guys is just as much about the fries as it is about the burgers. Its early signs advertised famous burgers and fries, not just burgers like so many other fast food restaurants. Five Guys has good reason to be passionate about its fries: they taste so good, they're frequently cited as some of the best fast food french fries.

But that delicious, fresh-potato taste comes at a cost: Five Guys fries are some of the least healthy fast food fries on the market. A regular serving of fries at Five Guys contains a whopping 953 calories, along with 41 total grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, and 962 milligrams of sodium. If you're upgrading to the large size, that increases to 1,314 calories, 57 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, and 1,327 milligrams of sodium.

How does that all compare to the recommended guidelines for nutrition? That's about half of your daily calories, which, for a typical adult, is about 2,000 a day. It's also half your daily saturated fat intake (the USDA recommends a maximum of 20 grams a day), your entire recommended fat intake for the day (generally 44 to 78 grams according to the Mayo Clinic), and nearly all of your sodium, which should be no more than 1,500 milligrams a day per the American Heart Association.

No fast food fries are exactly healthy, but Five Guys are among the unhealthiest

A meal with two foil-wrapped sandwiches, fries, and two drinks from Five Guys

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Truth be told, nobody goes for fast food french fries as a health food. Still, Five Guys is among the worst nutritionally. The largest size fries at McDonald's is only 480 calories, 23 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, and 400 milligrams of sodium. The large size fries at Burger King is 440 calories, Sonic's large is 470 calories, and even a sack of fries at White Castle, which the chain says serves three people, is only 770 calories.

There's one big reason Five Guys' fries have such staggering nutrition facts: The serving size is simply larger. A large serving of fries at Five Guys is 20 ounces while other restaurants' servings are much smaller. That sack at White Castle is about 12.5 ounces, and even the large fries at McDonald's are only a little over 5 ounces. While the fries at Five Guys aren't exactly the perfect health food, they do have simple ingredients: fresh potatoes (not frozen), peanut oil (giving them a signature, perfectly crispy texture), and salt.