Alright folks. Today is day 1 of our multi-day, multi-blog coverage of something so disturbing, so revolting, so… excessive, it couldn’t be contained in a single intraweb page. As you might have guessed it, I’m talking about the mega-burger trend.

People actually order this... in a combo.

I was taking in a double feature with some friends last week and the movie theatre has a Burger King in it. It proudly displays a new burger being offered: The Quad BK Stacker. This burger has no vegetables, it is simply: 8 strips of bacon, 4 patties of something that resembles beef, and 4 pieces of processed cheese between a bun.

I was enamored.

I could not believe something like this would – heck, COULD – be created, let alone marketable. Burger King’s senior vice president and chief concept officer explains:

The BK Stacker is simple and built with the very ingredients our restaurant guests love best—meat, cheese and bacon … We’re satisfying the serious meat lovers by leaving off the produce and letting them decide exactly how much meat and cheese they can handle.

I was floored, and not solely at their flippant use of the word “restaurant”.

Upon some investigation, I discovered an equal: The Baconator. Wendy’s offering into the mega-burger foray. A burger of somewhat less giant proportions but still battle worthy in the nutritional realm. Needing a third and not being a fast food aficionado, we went with the standard fast-food giant McDonalds. I knew from the beginning that McDonalds biggest offering, the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, won’t quite stack up to the level of the other mega burgers, but I believe it’s a good baseline.

Tomorrow I will look at the nutritional aspects of these three burgers and break it down for y’all. After that, I will cover and interview some guinea pigs who volunteered to eat and discuss each burger. Suffice to say, there will be no winners.

This adventure is in conjuction with Alan Stremel over at The Middle Part.

Update: Next in the series – Mega Burgers Pt 2: The Trifecta of Obesity