Woman says 'McDonald's diet' took off weight

[kat11joe]

Woohoo! You CAN eat McDonalds every day and still lose weight! 8)

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8916080/

 

Woman says 'McDonald's diet' took off weight

 

Mother ate at restaurant chain for 90 days — and claims she lost 37 pounds

 

RALEIGH, N.C. - 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.'"

 

'I had to think about what I was eating'

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, N.H., 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, Ill.-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.

 

1,400 calories a day

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.”

 

 

McMargarita That would be pretty cool! 8)

[BiCoastal Kid]

Morgan Spurlock also ate what the average person eats when the go to McDonalds, though... and that's burgers.

[DenDen]

When I eat at Mickey-D's, I lose weight. I get the runs every time! So I could understand the concept.

[AllisonY2K]

Ok..well...seems sensible enough. She had a plan going into this and knew exactly what to eat and how often.

 

~Allison "I'm doing the KFC diet!" Y2K~

[ebl]

The key thing is that Spurlock controlled what he ate. Honestly, you can eat healthy at McDonald's. You don't need giant hamburgers and Super-sized fries like so many people eat.

 

You can order burgers without mayo/secret sauce (saves ten grams of fat and 100 calories) and you don't necessarily have to eat all of the bun. I get Big Macs without the sauce and pull the middle bun. If you put a bit of ketchup on it, it tastes exactly the same.

 

A small bag of fries will do, or you can substitute a good sized salad at no charge with combos. Drink water or diet drinks and you cut a lot of sugar. You can ask for fries without salt---they'll just give you a fresh order right out of the fryer and before they sprinkle the salt.

 

And this is true at so many places besides McDonald's as well. I always laugh at people who think that fast food is automatically bad for you just because it's fast food. You can eat poorly and overeat at home, too.

 

Eric

[Wes]

A woman watches what she eats and loses weight. Why is this news?

This is so retarded I can't even begin. Does she realize that she just hammered home the point of the entire movie? That people should eat sensibly and not just shovel food in their face?

The whole "I'm going to eat here for 30 days and see how fat I get" portion of the movie was merely a clever way to punctuate the movie's actual message that people should really monitor what the eff they put in their mouths.

This lady was able to lose weight by eating salads instead of french fries. HOLY SHIT. She really showed that film maker, who said you should probably eat salad instead of...wait.

[kat11joe]

A woman watches what she eats and loses weight. Why is this news?

 

 

Cause it involved McDonalds

[crispy]

I don't know it seems to me Spurlock ate worse than most would. He intentionally ate the worst food on the menu to make it seem that Mcdonalds food was bad

 

 

A moronic dumb ass could tell you that eating like that is bad, but most people, not even in fat ass america eat like that, it seems to me its very slanted, and tries to make you think Mcdonalds is somehow responsible for wht you eat, sorry, wrong, time to grow up and take responsibility for what you do to yourself

 

 

 

you have to love america, its always someone elses fault

[Imhotep]

These people making these movies about losing wait eating only McDs must not have watched Spurlocks movie. And if they did they must not have paid attention. I thought it was pretty clear that he came up with the idea to do this because of the lawsuit the two girls made against McDs making them extra chubby. McDs came back and said something along the lines of there is no evidence that exists that eating McDs for breakfast, lunch and dinner can cause any major health issues.

 

So, in what appeared to me like he answered a challenge instead of making one, he set out to see if McDs was right about that claim. You cant do that by eating salads and drinking water because thats not what those girls or the average 'heavy user' ate. In the mean time it was only expected he would point out the obesity epidemic and what kind of impact fast food has on it. In the end he was able to prove McDs claim was wrong, and paid a hefty price for it.

 

The reasons behind the movie to me seem pretty cut and dry. So if people want to prove Spurlock is wrong, they are missing the point Spurlock was trying to make IMO. Im sure he could have gone the other way and tried to prove those girls wrong and claim you could go to McDs and lose weight, but he decided to seek out if the girls could in fact be right.

 

At the same time, that doesnt justify the girls presenting a lawsuit to McDs, because it is after all your choice to use common sense to decide what you put in your body. I think that people that are plan on suing someone else for not making the right choices in their eating habits should be shipped off to a good old fashion fat camp for a wake up call!

[QuakerOaties]

Before I read through the entire article to see that she only ate 1400 calories a day I was going to claim that she had a tapeworm...

 

Mark "I'm in an 'eww mcdonalds' mood this week" Luskus

[FlyingScooter]

Please, I've dated plenty of women that can state eating mcdonalds made them lose weight. They were bulimic and had an easier time bringing it back up than other food chains. I'm not sure why or what the differance was, but they said mc'd works better than Syrup of Ipicac(sp?)

uhg...

[Imhotep]

^^^ woah.... funny, but woah....

[nursemelis374]

Yummmmmmmmm . . . I love McDonald's Diet Coke. I go there all the time and get a giant one for 59 cents and no food. It actually has been a part of my losing weight recently, but only because their Diet Coke is almost like a treat.

[BelizeIt]

Anyone will lose weight if they only intake 1400 calories a day. Whether those calories are from McDonalds, Burger King, or Pizza Hut it doesn't matter.

 

If your normal metabolism rate allows you to burn lets say, 2000 calories a day, and you intake less than that amount, Guess What? your weight will drop.

 

The big mistake most people make is that they skip meals (Especially Breakfast), this is a hugh mistake. You need to eat meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism running at maximum efficiently, skipping meals will only slow your metabolism down.

 

Though consuming food only from McDonalds will probably cause your sodium and cholesterol levels to spike!

[benzo41190]

This is soooooo cool!

 

One story Elissa would be proud of!