McDonald's diet? Some say it works

[Spartan_X]

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- Inspired by the documentary "Super Size Me," Merab Morgan decided to give a fast-food-only diet a try. The construction worker and mother of two ate only at McDonald's for 90 days -- and dropped 37 pounds in the process.

It was a vastly different outcome than what happened in the documentary to filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who put on 30 pounds and saw his health deteriorate after 5,000 calories a day of nothing but McDonald's food.

Morgan, from Raleigh, thought the documentary had unfairly targeted the world's largest restaurant company, implying that the obese were victims of a careless corporate giant. People are responsible for what they eat, she said, not restaurants. The problem with a McDonald's-only diet isn't what's on the menu, but the choices made from it, she said.

"I thought it's two birds with one stone -- to lose weight and to prove a point for the little fat people," Morgan said. "Just because they accidentally put an apple pie in my bag instead of my apple dippers doesn't mean I'm going to say, 'Oh, I can eat the apple pie."'

Spurlock, who turned his surprise-hit movie into a TV show on the FX network, isn't talking about Morgan or the many other McDieters who have criticized his film and found success losing weight by eating healthy foods off the McDonald's menu, said his publicist, David Magdael.

One person went so far as to make her own independent film about dieting at McDonald's. "Me and Mickey D" follows Soso Whaley, of Kensington, New Hampshire, as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, eating 2,000 calories-a-day at McDonald's.

"I had to think about what I was eating," Whaley said. "I couldn't just walk in there and say 'I'll take a cinnamon bun and a Diet Coke.' ... I know a lot of people are really turned off by the whole thought of monitoring what they are eating, but that's part of the problem."

As might be expected, McDonald's also objected to the impressions left by Spurlock's film. Walt Riker, the company's vice president of corporate communications, said Oak Brook, Illinois-based company is pleased -- but not surprised -- that some customers have lost weight eating only at the fast-food giant.

Spurlock's film "really spurred a backlash based on common sense," Riker said.

Morgan used nutritional information downloaded from McDonald's Web site to create meal plans of no more than 1,400 calories a day. She only ate french fries twice, usually choosing burgers and salads. Those choices are a stark contrast with those made by Spurlock, who ate every menu item at least once.

At the end of the 90 days, she had dropped from 227 to 190 pounds.

"It feels great," she said. "Because, the truth of the matter is that beauty is power, and if you're fat, or your overweight, then people don't really take you seriously."

Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, agreed that a low-calorie, McDonald's-only diet can help people lose weight but said it may not offer enough long-term variety. Whatever an individual does to lose weight, they need to do for the rest of their life, she said.

Morgan said she hasn't decided if she will stick with the McDonald's-only plan to reach her goal of 150 pounds. But she does have one complaint about McDonald's.

"If I could suggest anything to McDonald's, I would suggest the McMargarita," Morgan said. "Dine-in only, of course."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Source: CNN

[Tobb555]

Your forgetting that muscle weighs more then fat. So they most likely got fatter and weaker.

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

wow hard to beleive but this might be true

the article doenst mention is har activities where the same before and after the diet

it's a just a matter of balance betwen cal you eat and energy you use for daily activities..

anyway, good for her (Y)

[scumdogmillionaire]

you have no idea what would be spewing from my ass after 90 days of mcDonalds. that's probably how they dropped so many pounds though. nothing lubes up the bowels quite like a big mac and a cup of coffee... that my friends is fierce.

[gigapixels Veteran]

"It feels great," she said. "Because, the truth of the matter is that beauty is power, and if you're fat, or your overweight, then people don't really take you seriously."

OMG What is this world coming to when even CNN is starting to make these mistakes? This is getting ridiculous...

-----

Anyway, sounds cool. I'm going to tell a couple of my friends about this who were so against McDonalds after that stupid movie came out. I knew it couldn't be that bad.

[Nexus]

Her point is to eat healthy foods off of McDonalds menu. The problem with her results in comparison to "filmmaker Morgan Spurlock" is that she ate salads and other healthy foods off the menu but the majority of visitors to franchise don't eat healthy. Innstead its a "give me 2 Big Macs with cheese and mayonaisse and super size it, and throw in a diet coke." She attributes eat healthy at McDonalds to her weight lose. So what, she couln't eat healthy at home and lose that weight?

[illicit]

As hard as it is to believe, it looks like it works. I don't think I would be able to do it though.

[John Veteran]

Your forgetting that muscle weighs more then fat. So they most likely got fatter and weaker.

586367403[/snapback]

Oh please :rolleyes:

[gigapixels Veteran]

Her point is to eat healthy foods off of McDonalds menu. The problem with her results in comparison to "filmmaker Morgan Spurlock" is that she ate salads and other healthy foods off the menu but the majority of visitors to franchise don't eat healthy. Innstead its a "give me 2 Big Macs with cheese and mayonaisse and super size it, and throw in a diet coke." She attributes eat healthy at McDonalds to her weight lose. So what, she couln't eat healthy at home and lose that weight?

586367444[/snapback]

She's just proving that, if you watch what you eat, McDonalds isn't a bad thing. It also said that she DID choose burgers often, so she wasn't just having salads...

[+vlsi0n Subscriber¹]

the movie "super-size Me" and this are different, in the movie, if they asked if he wanted a super size, he'd have to take it, he had to try everything on the menu at least once, he had to eat there 3 meals a day, nothing that didnt come from McDonals he didnt eat. She had different way of doing this, eating the healthier side of the menu, and not over-sizeing or super size (lol).

[n30w1n]

Umm you know, I saw the Super Size Me guy on The Daily Show once, after the movie came out... He was talking to John Stewart, and he told him how after about three weeks he was gonna quit, because he "felt like he was dying", and his doctors were telling him "you have to stop or you're going to die", and so on... Then he said "And then I talked to my brother, and he's the one who motivated me to finish the movie. He said the most sensible thing of all. He told me "Man, people eat this sh*t their entire lives and don't get sick, and you think another week is going to kill you?"

Personally, on one of my trips to Australia, I've eaten McDonalds for 3 weeks... Didn't do anything to me. Their beef is better over there, mind you, but still, I think Super Size Me is a drama more than anything...

[stanneh]

I know of another way take a very sharp knife and cut chunks of fat off your body it works and is probably less lethal than mcdonalds food.

for that matter you could just eat a normal amount of food over a long period of time and do some excersise but its not as glamorous i know.

[mattmatik]

Stupid. Has common sense gone out the ****ing window in this country?

Everybody learns in high school biology that if you burn more calories than you intake, you lose weight. However, calories are energy, which I'm willing to bet this woman has none of.

Not to mention, just because you are losing weight doesn't mean you are healthy. All fast-foods are high in sodium, sugar, and fat. Just because she's losing the weight on the scale doesn't mean her internal organs are reaping the benefits - hopefully, they'll keep us updated when she starts experiencing chest pains and high blood pressure.

Talk about irresponsible journalism.

edit: Didn't the movie "Super Size Me" force McDonald's to kill their super size menu? I could have sworn the last time I ate there (I think it was in February) they didn't have a super size menu.

Edited August 12, 2005 by soloredd

[bathead]

you have no idea what would be spewing from my ass after 90 days of mcDonalds. that's probably how they dropped so many pounds though. nothing lubes up the bowels quite like a big mac and a cup of coffee... that my friends is fierce.

lol. nice :D

Edited August 12, 2005 by bathead

[msntrev]

that is crazy!!

I used to work at mcdonalds and i had 1 free meal (but i ate more!!hehe) a day everyday i was working (5 days a week for about 3 1/2 months and then 2 days a week for another month and i put on weight...im not sure how much weight but i still put it on!

And now im sick of mcd's...i really hate it!

[+Peewee210 Subscriber¹]

Wow! 90 Days!

In "Super Size Me" The Doctors Strongly warned him not to do it for another month becos he wanted too.

Played to Her anyways (Y)

[Tobb555]

Oh please :rolleyes:

586367459[/snapback]

its true, choose to belive it or not

[lav-chan]

There was like a 3- or 4-month period last year when i ate almost NOTHING but McDonald's. (Because i usually only eat one or two meals a day at home, and my job interfered with the 'normal' eating time my family has, so i had to get my own food.) When i started my 'diet' i was like 135-ish pounds. When i stopped, i was 119 pounds.

Not to say that i was on any kind of healthy diet -- i'm sure it was loaded with bad cholesterol and lots of salt and grease and junk like that, and i certainly didn't tone any muscles or anything. But clearly eating at McDonald's doesn't make you over-weight unless you're some kind of slob (or unless you already have a health condition that interferes with your ability to stay thin for whatever reason).

[dior_addict]

I would never feed my body McDonalds or any other fast food item more than twice a month. We don't NEED anything that fast food places pack in their meals. I can get a better meal going to trader joes with the money I can spend there.

But good for her if she's losing weight. I personally would never do such a thing, but to each their own.

[Hitman2000]

What is thie misconception everyone has that being skinny=healthy, people who are skinny and eat lots of fastfood have a quick metabolism and dont store the fat however they still get the bad cholestrol and his sodium directly into their bloodstream which is very dangerous and leads to heart problems and liver problems.

Anyways this lady ate off the healty menu and limited her calorie intake, I could eat KFC for a whole year and eat only 1 piece everyday and i waould also lose 100pounds. lol but ill probably die due to the highly saturated fats.

[rvbfan]

Worked for me.

See pic

Edited August 13, 2005 by keratosis

[rvbfan]

OOOOPPPSSSS!!!!!

[Deadlydread]

Stupid. Has common sense gone out the ****ing window in this country?

Everybody learns in high school biology that if you burn more calories than you intake, you lose weight. However, calories are energy, which I'm willing to bet this woman has none of.

Not to mention, just because you are losing weight doesn't mean you are healthy. All fast-foods are high in sodium, sugar, and fat. Just because she's losing the weight on the scale doesn't mean her internal organs are reaping the benefits - hopefully, they'll keep us updated when she starts experiencing chest pains and high blood pressure.

Talk about irresponsible journalism.

edit: Didn't the movie "Super Size Me" force McDonald's to kill their super size menu? I could have sworn the last time I ate there (I think it was in February) they didn't have a super size menu.

586367471[/snapback]

That in itself is idiocy and you need to research the facts. Mcdonalds does serve Diet drinks and Salads you know :p :p :p :p

[Hitman2000]

QUOTE(soloredd @ Aug 12 2005, 20:00)

Stupid. Has common sense gone out the ****ing window in this country?

Everybody learns in high school biology that if you burn more calories than you intake, you lose weight. However, calories are energy, which I'm willing to bet this woman has none of.

Not to mention, just because you are losing weight doesn't mean you are healthy. All fast-foods are high in sodium, sugar, and fat. Just because she's losing the weight on the scale doesn't mean her internal organs are reaping the benefits - hopefully, they'll keep us updated when she starts experiencing chest pains and high blood pressure.

Talk about irresponsible journalism.

edit: Didn't the movie "Super Size Me" force McDonald's to kill their super size menu? I could have sworn the last time I ate there (I think it was in February) they didn't have a super size menu.

That in itself is idiocy and you need to research the facts. Mcdonalds does serve Diet drinks and Salads you know :p :p :p :p

Dosent matter if you lose weight if you are eating foods high in cholestrol and saturated fats you increase your risks of cardiovascular disease.

According to information gathered from the McDonald's Australia website, a Roast Chicken Salad derives 27.58% of its kJ from fat, versus 45.84% for a Big Mac. Why didn't they just say that? Is it because getting 28% of your calories from fat IN A SALAD seems a bit ridiculous?

http://reilly.typepad.com/cameronreilly/20...alds_dodge.html

Also about diet soft drinks:

Two New Studies on Aspartame and Diet Drinks Confirm Source of Obesity, Cancer/Malignant Brain Tumor Epidemics (press release)

http://www.newstarget.com/009807.html

You are truly and idiot if you beleive Mcdonalds is in any way sahpe or form healty for you.

[Hitman2000]

There i did some research and proved you wrong, apart from that it would be common sense not to eat fatty food, ANd i repeat being skinny does not mean you are healthy.