McDonald’s ‘Secret Menu’ items: How much fat, calories are in these creative splurges?

Have you ever been biting into your McDonald’s Big Mac and wished there were six additional beef patties inside? Or imagined what would happen if you stacked the chain’s Filet-O-Fish filet atop a McChicken cutlet and then, sandwiched both inside a Big Mac. Well, you’re not alone.

Earlier this month, an anonymous UK McDonald’s manager made waves when he mentioned the fast food giant’s “secret menu” during a Q&A session on the social networking site Reddit.

Although officially, McDonald’s denies the existence of a secret menu, Jeanette DeBartolo, a company spokeswoman, did say “we know our customers are really creative and they tell us all the time that they enjoy customizing our menu.”

So we put that to the test. Using the site hackthemenu.com, which lists so-called “secret menu” items that can be ordered at different chain outlets, we visited two Long Island McDonald’s and ordered nine items not on the official menu boards.

With some direction, (and McDonald’s employees who are patient and willing to accommodate) yes, it is possible to order “secret menu” items. Actually, it appears the real secret is that you can pretty much order whatever you want by tweaking and using combinations of McDonald’s staples.

But should you?

Using the customized meal nutrition facts on the McDonald’s website, we were able to do some rough calculations to figure out what a “Monster Mac” — that’s a Big Mac with eight beef patties — a McPie, which is made of McFlurry ice cream base with an Apple Pie swirled inside, and other creative orders would do to your diet.