The 13 Most Fattening Foods On Earth

Fat on fat on fat. A pounded steak is battered and fried, then topped with a cream-based gravy that very well might have sausage mixed in for good measure. The chicken-fried steak with sausage gravy served at IHOP, for example, contains 81 grams of fat, and if you decide to add eggs to it and call it breakfast, the fat content is boosted to a whopping 115 grams, making it the single most fattening menu item there. And the smaller, frozen version sold by Marie Callender's clocks in at 31 grams of fat.

To make pecan pie, you basically take a load of butter, mix in some corn syrup and pecans, and bake it until it sets. It's delicious but it's also insanely fattening. The pecan pie sold by Texas-based Goode Co., for example, contains 23 grams of fat in one slice. 

Beef, like all other types of meat, involves some fatty cuts and some lean cuts. But even the leanest cuts contain a lot of fat. For example at Longhorn Steakhouse their leanest cut, the flatiron steak, contains 16 grams of fat in a 7 ounce portion. The 8 ounce filet mignon contains 25 grams of fat, and the 29 ounce porterhouse tops the charts at 79 grams of fat. Some steakhouses drench their steaks in butter or beef fat before sending them out to the table, adding in even more artery-clogging goodness. 

Cheese is basically concentrated milk, and contains a very high amount of fat. So needless to say, if you take a bunch of it, melt it in a little pot, and serve it with little cubes of bread, it's going to be one of the most fattening foods around. At The Melting Pot, a fondue-based chain, one order of their traditional Swiss fondue contains 50 grams of fat. 

Ribmeat contains a ton of fat, and people tend to eat more of it because there isn't a whole lot of meat on the bones. So should you decide to head to your local Tony Roma's and order a full 1.5 pound rack of St. Louis ribs, which are meatier and fattier than Baby Backs, that'll set you back a whopping 94 grams of fat. The Baby Backs, at a still-excessive 38 grams of fat, seem light in comparison. And we wouldn't advise eating a full 6-piece slab of the beef ribs; those contain a completely absurd 189 grams of fat, not to mention 2,289 calories, making it the most fattening item on the menu. Might want to schedule a visit to the cardiologist on the way home. 

Oh, poutine. This delicacy from Montreal has found its way into the U.S. in recent years, because on the outside it looks like a pretty all-American food: fries topped with fresh cheese curds and rich brown gravy. This heart attack on a plate is sold by the Canadian chain Harvey's, and they've listed the nutrition info online: one order contains 64 grams of fat. The gravy that they use only contains 1 gram of fat, however, so if you were to use a more traditional gravy made with a fat-based roux, you could add about 10 more grams of fat to that final count. Fat + fat + fat = a whole lot of fat. 

So let's take a can of tuna, mix in a few tablespoons of mayo, pile it up on a toasted rye bread, then melt three slices of American cheese on top.  Now let's do some math: one can of tuna contains about 2 grams of fat, as do two slices of rye. Three tablespoons of mayo contains 30 grams of fat. Three slices of American cheese contains 24 grams of fat. If you want to go gourmet, you'll heat it all up in a pan with a tablespoon of butter, which contains 12 grams of fat. Add it all up and you've got a sandwich with 70 grams of fat. Congratulations!

Batter and fry anything and you're obviously loading it up with huge amounts of fat. Batter and fry a hot dog or a candy bar and you might just find your pants don't fit the next day. Carnival fare is some of the most fattening food on earth, customized for easy consumption by putting it on a stick. The average corn dog contains about 25 grams of fat, and you know those plate-sized funnel cakes? Those average about 45 grams of fat. Deep fry a Snickers bar and it'll set you back about 25 grams of fat. 

Super-premium ice creams, like those sold by Ben & Jerry's, for example, are the most fattening ones around because they contain so little air and contain a high level of butterfat. For example, half a cup (or 106 grams) of their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream contains 16 grams of fat, meaning that 15 percent of their ice cream is pure butterfat. And that right there is why it's so creamy and delicious. 

As mentioned earlier, a half-pound patty of 80/20 beef contains 45 grams of fat. Add on a few slices of cheese and a couple strips of bacon and you're reaching astronomical levels of fat. Let's look at the popular chain Cheeburger Cheeburger, for example. They use a higher ratio of fat in their burgers, closer to 25 percent, and a popular seller is the 10-ounce patty, dubbed 'The Serious.' Add American cheese and bacon, and you're pushing 66 grams of fat, 26 of which are saturated (not to mention 1,090 calories and 259 milligrams of cholesterol). Should you decide to go for their infamous pounder, the patty alone contains 69 grams of fat! Sounds about as serious as a heart attack. 

If you've ever seen sausage being made, it usually starts with not only a pork shoulder, one of the fattiest cuts on the pig, but also a hefty portion of fatback, or pure fat. One link of Johnsonville bratwurst, for example, weighs 82 grams, and contains 21 grams of fat. That means that this sausage, which is pretty representative of sausage as a whole, is pushing 26 percent fat, more fat than most burgers. One 45-gram classic Oscar Mayer weiner, in comparison, contains 9 grams of fat, clocking in at about 20 percent.  

Foie gras is the liver of a duck or goose that's been purposely fattened up, and it's rich, creamy , unctuous, and insanely decadent. It's also insanely high in fat: a 100 gram, 3.5-ounce portion contains 44 grams of fat, meaning that it's a full 44 percent fat. 

Ounce for ounce, nuts are the most fat-dense foods on earth, but thankfully the fat in them is very high in monounsaturated fat, which actually promotes overall health. A one-cup serving of almonds, for example, weighs 92 grams and contains 45 grams of fat, meaning it contains nearly 49 percent fat. Good thing it's a healthy fat!