What To Order At Domino’s For Fat Loss (Men Over 40) - 151

Coach Brian Parana (0:17.322) A whole large pepperoni pizza from Domino's runs anywhere from 2300 calories to 3,000 calories. It really depends on how much your pizza maker put on cheese on top of it, or multiple cheeses, or how many of those pepperoni discs got placed around the top there. Coach Brian Parana (0:42.424) Split it between two guys, and we're like 1200, 1300, 1500 calories roughly. And this is before you even touch a wing or another piece of cheesy bread, which can start to multiply the calories pretty quick. I'd bet you would not have guessed that number within even 500 calories. A lot of people don't realize that's how many calories are in a pizza. Even a cheese pizza can be 2,000. Alright. Coach Brian Parana (1:10.046) The problem is that you are constantly ordering the go-to pizza that you have that you really enjoy, but there is no conscious awareness around the actual calorie cost. And by the end of our show today, you'll know exactly what to order at Domino's instead of running the order on autopilot. Welcome back for Driven for Health, episode 151. Coach Brian Parana (1:38.701) This is Coach Brian. I hope that you've been enjoying the What To Order series. It's going to keep going on. I will throw a little teaser in — next time, ideally tomorrow, is going to be Taco Bell. So there you go. Fourth meal coming at you. Just want to throw that out there. I had gotten prepared a little bit ahead of time for this so that you know. The 150th episode is the seventh stop. Coach Brian Parana (2:6.402) And Domino's is, honestly I was kind of shocked here, one of the most searched pizza chains in the country. And the app — I'm guilty as charged, I do have the app, and we do go to Domino's more than any other place. I can get a $6.99 two-topping medium pizza, and that can go pretty far for a family of six, meaning we get more than just one, but everyone ends up getting a pizza, and then we end up Coach Brian Parana (2:36.162) having some leftovers for the next day, because that does happen on a Friday night or Saturday or a random super busy day. Guilty as charged. We do eat pizza in-house, but we need a pizza strategy, and that's super duper important. And there's so many other reasons how pizza does fall into your lap. In a sense, even my wife took my two younger kids to their pre-orientation groups Coach Brian Parana (3:4.312) for school, because school starts. My older two started today. [NAMES REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION — minors] are back at high school, and the other two are going to start next week. But they had their little pre-meeting and there's pizza at it. There's always pizza around. So let's figure it out and make it an actual better situation for you than not. And it's a really easy one, because pizza can go pretty far. It's relatively cheap food to feed a lot of people. Coach Brian Parana (3:32.823) Now, pizza isn't off the table here. The crust you pick and what you order alongside it can decide how much the calories on this thing stack up against you or not. Most guys who order have a saved favorite on their app already. I will be honest, my first go-to if I'm splitting with my wife, we're gonna go medium. It's pan Coach Brian Parana (4:2.860) roasted — excuse me, it's handmade in a pan and cooked, and it's delicious. We get pepperoni and bacon when we do, but that's something that we do occasionally, and we end up splitting. Now, my personal go-to ends up being a thin crust Coach Brian Parana (4:32.206) and jalapeno and some other protein, bacon, chicken, whatnot. I don't really get a lot of chicken, say, on my pizza per se, because I eat a lot of chicken otherwise. And I will just make sure that I hit my protein goals in other ways and keep calories in check in other ways as we go here. And we just again need to pump the brakes and make sure that that Coach Brian Parana (5:0.512) default order is something that still moves you into what your goals are. Going through the tiers list again — it seems to be a popular one, we're getting a bunch of emails about it and I appreciate the commentary that you guys are giving me. It's very helpful to making sure I keep improving these episodes for you. We're going worst to best because we want to stack that suspense. The number one challenging Coach Brian Parana (5:29.804) one you probably want to stay away from is the stuffed cheesy bread. So it's like cheese with bread with cheese in it. Bam. It's an eight-piece order. We're gonna go two out of ten on this. One piece is only 150, times ten. We're looking at over a thousand calories, and the bread and the cheese are the only ingredients really in there. And so it stacks up pretty darn fast, Coach Brian Parana (5:56.473) being upwards of a thousand to twelve hundred calories with 56 grams of fat if you were to eat the whole thing, before a single slice of pizza. This is probably the worst item on the entire Domino's menu that isn't pizza. Number two is the deep dish. So good, but also calorie dense. Why? It's thick. It's got a lot of inches to it, in a sense. So pepperoni, two slices of deep dish, three out of ten. The highest Coach Brian Parana (6:26.530) fat of any crust on the menu. And all the other ones aren't even close. One topping, a slice runs 350, possibly 400 calories with 15 grams of fat. That is a whopper of a slice, in a sense — and not a Burger King Whopper. We'll get to Burger King at some point I'm sure. But 15 grams of fat, two slices over 700 calories, 30 grams of fat, and Coach Brian Parana (6:55.298) bam, the box is still mostly full of pizza. And this crust gets fried right in the pan on the way to the oven. So it gives that crystallized crunchiness to it. And that's why the fat jumps up so much. This crust shows up in the box looking like dinner. And you can eat it like that too. It's just a lot of food Coach Brian Parana (7:23.182) if you've ever had deep dish. Now, if I am gonna have deep dish, I'm probably not going to Domino's. I'm probably gonna go to Chicago. Right? Let's get to Chicago to have the deep dish instead. Next up, the hand tossed pepperoni with three slices. This is a default crust, typical, normal, that you would do. And a large pepperoni pizza is gonna run — unless you get a deal Coach Brian Parana (7:52.461) there or a coupon, they have them in the app, I know because I use it — 250 calories roughly a slice, eight grams of fat. Three slices puts you at 750 calories, 30 grams of protein, which is a lot better than what the deep dish is gonna cost, because that is just so high in fat and calories, in a sense. Coach Brian Parana (8:19.842) It will add up, because most guys will just have this as the main strategy for the meal. And it just adds and adds and adds. Number four is the hot buffalo wings. An eight-piece order. Let's rank this about five out of ten. Four wings alone can have 1500 milligrams of sodium, and 2000 is our recommended amount. If we have eight, we start to add up a lot of calories, and even more so Coach Brian Parana (8:49.452) the sodium — that's 3,000 milligrams of sodium. Just for simple math, I like to say a wing is about 100 calories. They technically can be a little bit less, but with the sauce and breading and such, it just makes it really easy to understand how fast the calories add up. So if you have a dozen wings, 1200 calories. Really simple that way. Alright. Number five, the New York style Coach Brian Parana (9:19.224) pepperoni. These are the big slices. They have a lighter crust with the really big thick triangles — or wide, I should say, not that wide triangles. Three slices runs about 600 calories. We're looking about 200-ish calories per slice. Most slices, unless they're thin cut, like the thin crust, they're gonna have 200, 300, possibly more calories in a slice. That's just how it goes. Coach Brian Parana (9:48.313) These will have about 21 grams of protein for the three slices, 16 grams of fat. Still a lot of fat for that option, obviously because of the cheese. And that's where a lot of the protein comes from as well. Coach Brian Parana (10:4.470) Next up, boneless chicken wings. Six piece, seven out of ten. Three hundred and forty calories for the six pieces. So what is that? Quick math. That is about 55, 60 calories per piece. So you're getting more. You want to be conscious of these. With the boneless chicken, they have the breading on them. Same with the wings, could have some breading on them. If that Coach Brian Parana (10:34.622) is the case, it's gonna have more carb calories and more fat calories in it, because the breading on the wing will hold in more oil and ultimately more calories. So this can be a decent protein source for you at 18 grams of protein, but it still has 14 grams of fat because of the way they cook it. They're not necessarily baking it, they are going to be frying it, in a sense. So Coach Brian Parana (11:3.770) that's how it was pre-made when it came to the store. So then they heat it up in the oven. Now, this is one of the items under the mix and match deal. It's like have two or more off of this menu. That's where the medium two-topping pizza comes, and that I get, and that's $6.99. So you have to get two or more of those things, and this ends up Coach Brian Parana (11:33.315) being a potential calorie thing to have, with a little bit more protein in it. But to be honest, I would prefer to eat my protein at other times of the day and pass on the boneless wings. Thin crust is coming in at seven. Three slices again — it's an eight out of ten. This is the smallest, lightest amount of crust as a base on the whole menu, Coach Brian Parana (12:1.580) which is good. So three slices can run you up to about 400 calories. So we're now at about 125-ish, 130 calories as an example. 12 grams of protein, and there could be a lot of fat on the pepperoni one because it has pepperoni. You could obviously skip that. But if it had pepperoni, it could have upwards of 20 grams of fat in those three slices, because pepperoni is a fatty meat. If we lower the calories, Coach Brian Parana (12:31.628) then almost everything else drops. Meaning if we take the pepperoni off and put on a vegetable, in a sense, or pineapple — I could do pineapple and jalapeno instead. That could be a really good one, and just have protein on the side. That works for me. Number eight, the chicken Caesar salad. We're getting into something that's not a pizza, and this ends up being a winner. 220 calories, 19 grams of protein, Coach Brian Parana (13:0.980) eight grams of fat, and a lot of that could be coming from the dressing that you want to make sure that you keep on the side. This menu item is roughly about seven dollars and fifty cents, roughly, and can be some of the best protein that you'll get on the menu as well. There's the list. I'm gonna go with — if I'm personally doing this, or would recommend a client, if this was the only thing they were gonna eat — Coach Brian Parana (13:29.762) chicken Caesar salad just on the side with two or three slices of pizza is going to be a win. Getting the crunchy thin crust on the mix and match medium at $6.99 is going to be a really good option for you. Do we need pepperoni? Pepperoni is a classic pizza topping, but we don't really need to Coach Brian Parana (13:54.297) do that. And you can save some of it and reheat it in an air fryer the next day, for example, or in the oven, to get it crispy again. And that'd be the win. Something interesting on just the company, I like to share a little bit about it. Back in the 2000s, Domino's stock had fallen from over $30 a share to three. And Brand Keys surveys ranked them last among the national pizza chains for taste. Coach Brian Parana (14:23.296) A lot of Domino's came to fame for their speed of delivery, but their food just didn't taste good. The biggest complaint is that it tasted like cardboard, the sauce tasted like ketchup, and the cheese tasted fake. So they were skimping on the actual ingredients. In 2009, Domino's rebuilt the whole menu from scratch: new crust, new sauce, new cheese. They ran ads showing Coach Brian Parana (14:51.436) the real negative feedback before showing off the new pizza. And this is important — if you ever get a challenge and you just admit to it and say, hey, we're gonna do better. There comes a time when you know you got to make a change. And if people are literally saying that your pizza tastes like cardboard, we need to change it. So revenue grew in that first year and then had a huge jump in the last decade. So they are more on the Coach Brian Parana (15:21.144) track to where they are, and finally in 2021, Domino's grew from about 9,000 to 17,000 locations. It's one of the world's largest pizza chains by 2017. I like Domino's. The whole environment looks somewhat fun in there. The boxes are always fun and silly. I grew up on the Noid as well. And so very interesting, because they did double down Coach Brian Parana (15:51.091) on their quality and it tastes better. I mean, if you're listening to this, it's because you like pizza, obviously. And you're gonna eat pizza in your life. So we just have to figure it out. So as soon as the company admitted that the food was just bad and then they fixed it, then people responded really, really well. Coming into just the standard about pizza: the thicker the crust, the more calories. The more toppings, the more calories. The Coach Brian Parana (16:21.378) more fatty meat on there, the more calories. Cheese stuffed crust, more calories. Larger slices, more calories. Just have to pay attention to it. And just look up what the pizza that you order costs calorie wise, and that will help save it. Alright, Fast Five. Let's jump in. Why does thin crust matter? Coach Brian Parana (16:50.466) A cheese slice of thin crust can run about 100 calories. The same slice of the deep dish can run over 300. So that's like three times more for what is there. Number two, does a mix and match deal save money? $6.99 an item when you order two or more. It covers two medium pizzas, cheesy bread — which we want to pass on — boneless chicken, bread twists, a Coach Brian Parana (17:19.784) pasta in a tin, excuse me, and a cookie brownie. So some of those things probably not gonna do it, but the boneless chicken and a medium pizza could make for an interesting fun evening that you can just portion control and fit into your day without overdoing it. Number three, what's the real story behind the pizza turnaround ad? Well, Domino's put its customers first and they shared the challenges that they were facing and they made Coach Brian Parana (17:48.909) changes, and that's really the best way to go about anything in life. Just admit to it, own up, and change and make sure things get better. Number four, is there a real low-carb move at Domino's? Yes, the chicken Caesar salad would be that low-carb move for you to eat. Number five, how many Domino's locations — this is a silly one. There's over 22,000 now, Coach Brian Parana (18:16.446) and 7,000 are in the US. So there are a lot abroad as well. Hope this Fast Five was helpful for you. Closing out, you will always have a pizza night. Pizza's not going anywhere. In any culture, people love bread. They love cheese. They love the combination of bread with cheese on it. So we have to just find that out. Inside my Eating On The Go guide — that's at go.brianparana.com/eatingonthego. Coach Brian Parana (18:45.794) You can find that there. And just the same with the other episodes that we've done — Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, Subway. If you want an actual system and a process to manage how you literally can change the way you think about eating at a restaurant, then that's the Call To Rise. It's my 100 day fat loss challenge for men. And we focus on five pillars. One is the Call, it's your identity. Coach Brian Parana (19:14.146) Why are you even doing it in the first place? Why is this important to you? Number two is the Forge. It's the exercise, build muscle, burn fat. Three is the Fuel. This is eating the right foods at the right times and the right amounts. Heavy, heavy amounts of nutrition conversation goes on in my program to educate you so that you make right decisions. Even from this podcast, there's a heavy amount of food conversation. And number four is the Code. Coach Brian Parana (19:41.485) The mindset of how you think and feel and act in certain situations, and decide things and choices that you make in the day. And we have to change those through behavior change, habits, routines, and all that. Then last is the Brotherhood. These guys are high flyers. They are in the trenches with work, providing fathers, husbands. They are working hard in their everyday life. And Coach Brian Parana (20:11.884) they don't have their health together and they don't have a strong support system around their health. And this can be a game changer. Multiple guys didn't realize that this key factor was a huge component that they were missing, once they got it behind the scenes and started doing the work and seeing other guys were doing it. It dragged them. Literally, I just got off the roundtable last week. The guys challenged us, everyone that was on the call. Hey, let's Coach Brian Parana (20:40.600) avoid one thing that might come up this week for you. So it's not Lent. It was just one item. It wasn't restrictive or anything. I picked cookies, period. We had two guys pick some candy, we had some others pick some sugary drinks, and there's a couple other things that got picked. Coach Brian Parana (21:4.786) All the guys stepped up and did not have those. I even had my daughter — she made them, and man, I had to pass, because I said I wouldn't do it to the guys, or everyone was going to do a five-minute squat hold, which was gonna be a lot. Alright, that's wrapping it up. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. Next up, we're gonna be headed to Taco Bell and going through the fourth meal that actually came back Coach Brian Parana (21:33.086) out of 2006 — the fourth meal was a big thing and presented. So I remember that. I always joke about the fourth meal. But the fourth meal can actually be really costly, whatever you order. So we're gonna go over that. That's it for this episode of Driven for Health. If you enjoyed it, pass it on, leave a review, send me an email and let me know how things are going. I would love to hear. Let's train hard, Coach Brian Parana (22:3.050) eat smart and I'll see you in the next one.