I tried a TikToker's viral hack for getting a free burger at Five Guys, and ended up with 2 meals for the price of one

The regular burgers at Five Guys Burgers and Fries are made with two patties. If you want a single patty sandwich, you'll have to order a "little."

Food bloggers JP Lambiase and Julia Goolia figured out a way to turn those double servings of meat into two separate sandwiches for no extra charge.

They posted a video walking viewers through their hack on the HealthyJunkFood (@hellthyjunkfood) TikTok account. The video had 8.4 million views at the time of writing.

I usually order online for pickup when I'm testing out fast-food items to minimize time spent inside the restaurant. But for this trial, I thought it'd be best to do my ordering in person. I knew it would require a lot of personalization, which isn't always easy to do on an online order.

The employee working the register had to check with the rest of her team when I asked if I could get all of my toppings on the side.

She said an extra bun isn't something they usually give, but that they would let it slide this one time. I looked on my receipt and it wasn't listed on the ticket at all.

A regular cheeseburger cost me $9.39 at my New York City location, while a little cheeseburger would have cost me $8.19. If you split the cost of the double-stacked sandwich after dividing it, you'd wind up with two burgers that each cost $4.70 — a huge deal at Five Guys.

In my bag, I had a tray with pickles, lettuce, tomato, and onions, a separately wrapped toasted bun, and then a third tin foil package with my cheeseburger. I also asked for my sauces on the side, so I had two separate plastic containers of hot sauce and barbecue sauce.

The Five Guys team member who built my cheeseburger had stacked both slices of cheese in between the patties. This was the same way they were stacked in the TikTok video.

When I separated the two patties, one had way more cheese on it than the other. If I were using this hack to share lunch with someone, it would have resulted in an awkward conversation about who was OK with settling for less cheese on theirs.

After attempting this split myself, I think if the cheese and patties were stacked in an alternating pattern, it would make things more even in terms of cheese distribution.

One thing I love about Five Guys is its consistency on fresh-tasting, generously portioned toppings. By ordering my toppings for one burger on the side, I ended up with less of each item per sandwich.

Each of my burgers got one slice of tomato instead of two, around five small bits of crispy lettuce, and two small pickles. I was given a large helping of grilled onions, though, so I was able to load those on each bun.

This trick really comes down to whether you're able to procure an extra bun. If the people working at Five Guys decided to deny my request for spare bread, this whole experiment would have been a bust.

But if you can get your hands on the bun, and don't mind the inconsistency of the cheese or the possibility of having minimal toppings on your sandwiches, you can build yourself two cheeseburgers for the price of one.

Personally, I probably won't use this hack again. I think, for my own life, it's more effort than it's worth. However, if I were a student again on a budget and trying to stretch out meals as far as I could, then I'd probably work this into my monthly meal rotation.