30 Day Dieters: The McDonald's Anomaly

Look at what they ate! Very low levels of fresh fruit and vegetables and very small portion overall. No wonder they lost weight - especially with higher levels of exercise than would be expected of the "general" population.

I would expect that saying "let's eat fast food and lose weight' pushed them to do their exercise. For many people the connection between exercise and food and portion size is not made. It is a lot easier to make that connection when you eat healthy food and not McDonalds cookies.

I think in this case people are focusing too much that he used mcdonalds. I think mcdonalds is a generic term for fast food and every day I thank god someone had the willpower to speak out to the masses of overweight obese americans and possibly wake up a few to the fact they are killing themselves although perhaps slowly.

From what I see from Lelsie's homepage he is exercised A LOT ... I mean such a lot that it probably doesn't matter if he eats a few hundred calories more per day... he'd probably just excercise that off... those are the calories that make the average people fat.

OK. here are a few things:
it frustrates me that people actually WANT to defend McDonald's. Yes, Spurlock's documentary was somewhat (alright, pretty damn) biased: HOWEVER the point was not to simply show that he gained weight by constantly eating McDonald's. Look at his declining health, all the research that went into making it, the general lack of concern from the fast food industry and the huge portion sizes. It was suppose to be an eye opener for everyone who previously ignored all this (or at least, that's what I, and the majority of the people I know took out of it).

Besides that: who cares if they lost weight? How good could a diet of reduced fresh foods and added processed junk possibly be for you? Not very if at all.

Last of all: there's no use in blaming anyone else -including the fast food industry; they're just doing their job- for being fat. If you really want to, you can find healthy options everywhere. Even a kids meal (yes, OK, it doesn't look as cool... if you ask me all that food is incredibly ugly anyways) is better and smaller in portions that the average combo.

What a gas! I laughed out loud when reading "30 Day Dieter" CHAZZ WEAVER. Quote: " I dropped eight pounds of body fat!" Then you look at the guys picture and then read he is President of "Truth in Fitness".

My question: So Chazz which is it...your picture is a lie or your claim is!

Truth in Fitness! HA!

What I've noticed is that all the people who do the 30-day fast food diets are actively thinking about their food. They're looking at the calories and figuring out how much they need to exercise. When I used to eat fast food, I did it because I didn't *have* to think about it. It was fast. I was hungry. I ate. I think that's also how the typical fast food customer views fast food too, which is why it's so easy to gain weight eating it.

It is amazing how far people will go to justify their life styles. Nobody ever wants to admit that they're wrong or made a mistake, they’d rather try to rationalize all the wrong things they do.

I can tell you that eating fast food everyday will just make you obese from personal experience. I ate that junk everyday and I just got to the point where I was fat, lazy, and the idea of eating out eventually just made me bored because I did not know what to eat any more. Since that day I’ve started to change my eating habits and exercise more I’ve manage to lose 23 pounds in about 6 weeks and I feel better then I ever did.

People choose fast food because it’s just that, fast, and requires almost no thinking on the person’s part. The fact that so many people eat fast food is, I think, indicative of the instant gratification movement that people are going through these days. Now instead of a 4-year college you go to technical schools, instead of exercising you take a pill and poof you're all better. No one wants to work for anything any more, not even his or her health. Nothing that comes easy is worth having because you'll never appreciate it once you have it.

I've said my peace, God Bless!

Gill

Well, my place was Wendy's. When I was out of the office on the road I would love to stop at Wendy's. Now Wendy's has gotten some healthier things and my husband eats the salads, but I tried the fruit one day and it was a smaller serving than the picture so I went back to the #1 combo, but did not biggie size. This was stupid, but a lot stupid thinking has gotten me to the weight I am today. I no longer go to Wendy's on the road and if I do got with my husband I get a baked potato or a salad myself.

I think my mindset was that I was not in Wendy's for salad. There are lots of great places to get salad. Duh. However, I do not consider this to be the fault of Wendy's, but the fault of me.

That's funny...I looked at the McLes website and I don't think he was exercising all that much. 25-30 minutes of cardio a day and he did't exercise for about six of the thirty days. Not that I'm condoning this particular diet, of course. It's just that he was exercising APPROPRIATELY, instead of not at all like most people.

After i watched SuperSizeMe, I stopped eating McDonald's and almost all fast foods joints. I can honestly say i don't miss it at all!

I just don't see the need for the hatred for McD's. If you want to attack something, attack the promotion of its fries or that nasty fruit salad with candied nuts. I have subsisted relatively well in my weight loss attempts with dinners of 2 dbl cheeseburgers with no bun only lettuce, mayo, & onion for lunch. While not a "30 day'er", Mc Donalds certainly was not a detriment to my 211 pounds lost. In the end, it comes down to food selection.

You can lose weight eating at McDonalds, and you can lose weight eating a low fat diet of home made food. Eh. (However, I'd love to see what a Mickey D's diet does to your cholesterol and triglycerides!)

The McDonalds Diet people were not eating like most people eat at McDonald's. They were counting calories and working out, not grabbing food in between picking up the kids from school, going back to work and fixing a broken webserver at 1 in the morning with no time to exercise or add up calories in a notebook.

In the end, you can lose weight by the typical calories in > calories out formula, regardless of whether you're eating at a burger joint every day or drinking wheatgrass juice. But losing weight *and* staying healthy is a different matter, and it takes varied diet and whole foods...

make that calories in

A closer look at McLes shows that he was eating standard McD's fare - burgers, fries, diet cokes - also with salads thrown in. While he was exercising more than the average joe - it was by no means excessive. His results are astonishing and based on the numbers, I would never have imagined he could lose weight doing what he did.

The point is this - fast food, by nature is very easy to overeat. They serve it fast, you eat it fast.

Good points, everyone. I agree with the fact that weight loss, as a matter of pure body mass, can be acheived on a fast food diet. Just eat a smaller amount of calories or exercise more like these 30 day McD dieters did. But health and body weight are very very different. One can be thin and still have elevated cholersterol or triglycerides from unhealthy food. Not to mention all the vitamins and phytochemicals you're not getting.

One other point: Morgan Spurlock was not allowed to eat any salads when he did the documentary. He was supposed to eat what the TYPICAL person eats when they go to a fast food joing (which usually isn't salad). Another good point that the SuperSize me documentary made: most people who go to fast food restaurants are in one of two categories: They either go there all the time or very infrequently. The people that go there all the time (4 times a week or more) are the ones gaining weight, not the folks who only go once a month or on vacations.

Though while watching the documentary "Super-Size Me" I cringed thinking about all that was wrong with the "experiement", I will say that at the time they were taping, there was not very many healthy choices at McDonalds. A lot of what they have now came about shortly after the documentary came out.

There is no reason why you can't lose weight through eating junk food. It is simple arithmetic, energy in has to be less than energy out. That is why people have success with Aitkins, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. It is the quality of life that is the question. Not getting all your vitamins and minerals in sufficient doses as well as the levels of saturated fat can make for a lean but unhappy person

Losing weight, reducing your waistline and generally shaping up is easy even for a 60-year-old "English gentleman". Get your hair dyed, your teeth scaled and polished and find yourself a new girl friend less than half your age. Say mid 20's, model girl looks, model girl figure. No problemo; literally 10 a penny here in Tokyo. But you're just too embarrassed to "consummate" the relationship until you've improved your shape. So you hit the gym for two hours everyday which seriously dulls your appetite. And rather than some salad-based wimp diet, go on a hunger strike over some crank cause. So the intake becomes:
Fish and chips x 0
Roast beef x 0
Apple pie and cream x 0
Milk shake x 0
Motivation is what it's all about. Consume less energy than you expend and your body will start to consume its own fat.
Hey, it worked for me.

I agree with eating McDonald's and weight loss! I am a junk food junkie and have been eating fast food all my life so far, and have a six pack stomach! When eating any kind of fast food being McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc. YOU MUST DO CARDIO! and be active and just eat small portions! Instead of a Super Size Meal go for the kids meal! I always order a Double Cheese Burger without the cheese, and then take one bun off and eat it that way. I also buy small fries once and a while instead of the Super Size. The key to losing weight is to eat small portions and to be ACTIVE!

Look people, wake up! Whether you want to believe it or not, McDonald's or any other fast food establishment, serves a need. It's fast food for people on the run. No one, except Morgan Spurlock, eats at McDonald's every day and SUPER SIZES to the point of vomiting!! Let's not forget this is all about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!!! So people want to blame McDonald's for making them fat...That's the way it is nowadays-- I'm fat, I'm stupid, I'm jobless, I injured someone, now who can I blame??....my parents, my boss, my teachers, big corporations...Remember no one shoves food down anyone's mouth, people do it to themselves! And by the way, I happen to know Soso and she didn't go full steam ahead with regard to exercising, she walked her dogs and did an exercise tape. Spurlock, in addition to ingesting more than 5,000 calories per day, STOPPED EXERCISIZING. He skewed the parameters to get the results he wanted. That's a documentary?? No people, that a perfect example of a "JUNKUMENTARY." Thank goodness the Academy voters saw through this and gave him a thumbs down!

As a long-time scientist, the Spurlock film did appear biased, to me. But I think that the film was made more to initiate discussion, than to prove a scientific point. Clearly as a "first person" presentation, there are no statistics, no control group, or any form of balance. In addition, the film covered only 30 days.

There were any number of alternatives that Mr. Spurlock could have eaten, and still have eaten ONLY McDonald's food for thirty days. He also could have had plain burgers, instead of cheeseburgers, smaller size fries, salads, etc. But he chose to put himself in harm's way by intentionally choosing the heaviest, fattiest, saltiest and most caloric of all the items available. But I feel that it was only for the purpose of discussion. And it did stimulate discussion.

The result of the film was that more people may be thinking about what they order at McDonald's - or any other fast food chain.

When I think of Spurlock's film, I try to balance it with images of "Jared" from the Subway ads. He made wise choices and walked every day. The result was that he LOST weight. It's all about making good choices. Spurlock could have made a better point - and maybe changed some bad behaviors in people - if he had shown that GOOD choices produced a good result.

There are no villains here. The movie started a national discussion, and there are now more healthful choices at fast food restaurants, than ever before.

Ultimately, people need to realize that we are responsible for ourselfs. Everything is an option, and with that comes other options. We are not forced to do anything we dont want to. Everything is based on moderations, if you want to go in excess, that is your problem noone elses. There are peole who are overwieght whom cannot control it, but if you cant control dont do anything to increase it, try to lose it, stay away from crap that maintains or increases. For those who have become overweight because of diet, laziness,(except for medical problem induced weight) just remember its your own damn fault. You didnt have to eat that or you didnt have to stop excercising. There are options. Thanks from an exlazy person, who ate out everyday. Oh, yeah I still eat Mcdonalds, Tacobell, and so forth just selective on what I eat from there. Remember the options.

Why does everyone care so much? What you eat and what you look like at the end of whatever stupid diet is all about how much you do for yourself. Maybe some people don't care that they are technically overweight because they value their food more, and maybe some people like eating jenny craig food all day to look like callista flockhart. Why is everyone's preferences and everyone's styles such a big deal? Why is everyone out to prove whoever's theory wrong? Just do it, find a better hobby them measuring weight compared to whatever food you eat. Seriously!

Spurious Spurlock striked again! I find him closely aligned with the Snake Oil Salesmen of Olde who went into each community simply looking for a fast buck. He (nor they) could have cared less about each individual they sold product to, as long as the checks clear. The instant I heard about what Spurlock was up to I smelled a huge rat and events since that time have proven me correct. Spurlock wants your money, pure and simple.

It's great to see some discussion on these subjects! I whole heartedly agree with Gill, Jewel & Ricky above. Everything in moderation and you have to be willing to take personal responsibility for the choices you make. As a working mother, my family and I are always on the run. While we do not indulge in McDonald's or Wendy's on a daily basis, it is a nice treat to be able to stop, eat and have the kids unload some energy in the local McDonald's playground.

I think that blaming any certain food, company or external factor for your personal choices in health or diet is ridiculous. Everyone has ultimate control over what they put into their body and how much they exercise.

My guess is that Spurlock just wanted to be in the lime light and create some sensationalism to sell his book and movie. I heard he didn't even exercise - Of course your going to gain weight - even my kids know that!

How stupid, really. So what's next the M&M diet. "I'm going to eat one M&M every day for a month to see if I lose weight". And then I'll smear the company's name when I'm alergic to chocolate. Then the next person will come along and say "I'm going to eat a large bag of M&M's every day to prove you can lose weight because I have no life."

For as busy as they say American's are... I think we found some who need a life and have a little too much time on their hands. What a joke this has turned into.

LOL... Just in time for Easter - Spurlock can try the Chocolate Bunny diet! Seriously though, if these 30 day dieters found something that balanced what they were eating with the amount of activity AND it worked for their bodies then great! At least they are trying something and taking responsibility for themselves. Spurlock is obviosly more of a fake than these dieter's - what did he expect at 5,000 calories a day and no exercise? He must not think much of the people he is trying to sell his book to...

Fast food in general is bad for your body, why would you want to go on a fast food diet? That is crazy! It is no diet at all, when you excercise that's what's working! You may think you look good on the outside, but from eating all that fast food on the inside you are not healthy! You are destroying your body eating all that junk, and then working out so much and calling it a diet! It's not the food it's the excercise!

ASHLEY......YOU GO GIRL! TOTALLY AGREE. I USED TO EAT WITH MY BOYFRIEND NOW FIANCEE OF 5 YEARS AT ALL THE CHAINS, JACK IN THE BOX, TACO BELL, YOU NAME IT. AND WE'D LOVE TO DO IT AT 2 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING! (SO BAD FOR YOU!) BUT I DID IT CUZ I LOVED TO EAT! AND FAST FOOD IS SOOOO GOOD! I LOST WEIGHT AND KEPT IT OFF BY MODERATION. AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT PEOPLE. EXERSIZE ALSO MAKES A BODY FEEL GOOD AND LOOK BETTER! :)

Fokes, Don't do that 30 day weight loss program.

Eat fruits and vegtables, nuts, and a variety of grass-fed meats, and go organic. Be sure to test your metabolic type.

Then you can cut down your portions and lose weight the healthy way.

I want to point out a mistake a previous poster had said- Morgan Spurlock DEFINITELY ate salads from McDonalds. There even was a scene where he talked about how much sugar was in the Newmans Own salad dressing that came with his "shake" of mainly iceberg lettuce.
I must add my own two cents: yes, you can lose weight eating only McDonalds as long as you take in less calories than you burn a day. But you WILL NOT BE HEALTHY. Corn syrup and saturated fat does not come with vitamins. Personally I think Americans would be better off if we followed the European example. Stick to foods that look like their original form. Enjoy food. Do not ban any kind of food, but everything in moderation.

They mayhave lost weight but it's all high prosseed foods even teh saids have stuff sprayed on them to make them look "nice and crisp" EWWW!

I think most of you are not seeing the big picture in this. Chazz Weaver simply is trying to let people know that its simple to lose weight. Everyone is making it out to be much harder and complicated than it really is. Its simple, Caloires in Calories out.....
If you notice his website, his claim is that you need to exercise to burn those calories off. The reason why people gain weight while eating fast food is they simply are not active enough to burn off the calories that they are eating. He seems to be tired of seeing a million diets claiming that they are the right way when the right way is simplly "dont eat as much as we as americans do"..... And if you find the need to do so, you better be willing to spend the time that it will take to burn those calories off.

omg..
is this thing for real?
i mean.. i certainly have a hard time to believe that there's such thing as McDonald's Diet - or so..
i'm in the middle of diet myself and if this is really happening, i'm considering to go back eating McD.. hahahaha...