The Great Fast-Food Pig-Out

By Richard Woodbury/Houston

As he prepared to tackle a Double Whopper with Cheese and a large French fries at a downtown Houston Burger King last week, Daniel Minturn, a stocky shipping clerk, paused a moment to reflect on the possible consequences: "I do my best off and on to keep to a diet," Minturn sighed. "But everywhere you turn, it's a warning for this and a warning for that. So what's wrong with just now and then going out and enjoying what you want?"

Nothing wrong at all, agree the giants of the fast-food business, who are paying renewed attention to faithful customers like Minturn. After years of putting "lean" and "light" items on menus in a largely futile effort to attract dieters and the health conscious, the industry is focused again on its original mission of delivering loads of yummy, juicy calories as quickly and cheaply as possible. Challenged by competition from new steakhouses, ethnic eateries and drive-through restaurants, the fast-food chains are offering -- and customers are buying -- more generous portions of traditional favorites: bigger burgers, heftier pizzas, and fries piled higher than ever. Says Lisa Bertagnoli, managing editor of Restaurants & Institutions magazine: "People are seeing fast food again for what it always was -- something that fills you up and tastes good when you don't have a lot of time."

At industry leader McDonald's, which has quietly dropped the unpopular McLean Deluxe from its advertising campaigns, the "burger of the month" is the triple cheeseburger. With 4.8 oz. of beef (and 540 calories), it makes the famed 3.2-oz. Big Mac look puny. And other behemoth burgers are being given regional tryouts. In Texas, McDonald's is testing the Double Texas Homestyle Burger, with 8 oz. of beef, and Washington, D.C., outlets are featuring the Mega Mac, which stacks up two quarter-pound patties with cheese, lettuce, pickles and special sauce on a sesame-seed bun, of course. Appropriately, the chain's current promotional tie-in is with the movie Jurassic Park: ads tout "Dino-Size" fries and soft drinks fit for a Tyrannosaurus.

Wendy's lean burger never made it past the company's taste testers, but its double cheeseburger is selling well; in August the chain plans to unveil a Big Bacon Classic in new ads featuring portly founder Dave Thomas. Burger King, which saw its Weight Watchers line of meals flop, has enlarged its fish sandwich 45% and rechristened it "the Big Fish." Kentucky Fried Chicken, after a disastrous experience with skin-free chicken, is having far more success with Popcorn Chicken II, a breaded, calorie-packed, dark-meat appetizer.

The most frenzied mine-is-bigger-than-yours competition is among pizza makers. Domino's claims the largest entry with its Dominator -- a 30-in.-long, 2.08-sq.-ft., 30-slice slab of dough, cheese and toppings. It's the first Domino's pizza that won't be delivered by the company's swift red-and-blue- uniformed workers; customers will have to cart the monster home themselves. Fighting it out for second place are Little Caesar's Big! Big! Cheese and Pizza Hut's Bigfoot, both roughly 2 sq. ft. Says Rob Doughty, a Pizza Hut vice president for marketing: "Consumers were giving us a very simple message: they wanted something bigger and more fun for their money."

The chains are capitalizing on a backlash against diet plans that take pounds off but rarely keep them off. "People want their old favorites, and they're questioning the harsh diets more and more," observes Lynne Scott, director of the Baylor College of Medicine's Diet Modification Clinic. Says Lyn Almon, a dietitian at Emory University Hospital: "There are so many mixed messages bombarding dieters that some people are throwing up their hands and going back to their old eating habits. There's a feeling, 'If I'm going to lose the weight and then just regain it, why start?' " The fast-food companies are keeping salads on the menu and offering a greater variety of other items, but they have lost their illusions about attracting many people who still count calories. Admits Kentucky Fried Chicken vice president Steve Provost: "People just don't go to a fast-food restaurant if they're looking for a guiltless meal."