Woman loses 37 pounds on McDonalds' Diet
 

Updated: 07:39 PM EDT
People Try to Lose Weight at McDonald's
By VALERIE BAUMAN, AP

RALEIGH, N.C. (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, 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.

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."


08/11/05 19:36 EDT


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You can also lose weight eating sh*t sandwiches, but it still doesn’t make it good for you.

Seriously, losing weight is a simple matter of burning more calories than you take in. You can do this with most any food source, but nutrition is also a factor in terms of a healthy diet. In other words, if the calories you take in are not balanced in terms of their nutritional value, you will lose (more than just weight!) in the end. :)

it says she ate both french fries and burgers. Well those burgers may only have 400 calories in them but I'm sure they're loaded with hydrogenated oils, sugar (in the buns), and other crap. The fries? Deep fried fat right there. Oh and those salads. Yum, week old iceberg lettuce or CANDIED (yes coated in sugar) walnuts. I enjoyed Super Size Me, especially when he visited the school cafeterias. Our country's sense of nutrition is going straight to hell. I also respect what she was trying to point out though in that it's all in the choices we make. Just never choose McDonald's ;)

What you don't seem to want to acknowledge is that if you watch the totals, you can control your weight on literally any food there is. Saying "yeah, but she still ate hydrogenated oils and starches, so there!" doesn't refute her point. Her point is that Morgan Spurlock won fame and fortune (and a TV pilot) for supposedly pointing out the evil callousness of a big, bad corporation that didn't care if it was causing people to be obese.
He did NOT expose what he claimed to, but he still got the fame and fortune, and McDonald's (and thousands of McD's employees) took the fall. Having had some experience with being beaten up by Michael Moore (not personally, only as an NRA member, shooter, etc.) I can tell you that it's not quite so funny when someone is lying about you and everyone reacts by saying "yeah, but, come on, you must be doing something evil!"

There is no way that she lost 36 lbs on a McDonald's diet. Come on! The article didn't say that she ate McDonald's food AND rode in the Tour de France? She's a normal person and normal people don't lost 37 lbs at McDonald's.

It's no wonder she lost so much weight. She was only eating no more than 1,400 calories a day! I eat more calories than that for lunch! She was starving herself.

I'd like to see how much she weighs a year from now. She'll probably be back to 227 lbs or more.

:roflmao: That just made my night. Thanks.

huh? I'm not refuting that at all. I know all too well that someone can eat any kind of food and lose weight as long as they maintain a caloric loss. What I was saying is that what she was eating may have helped her lose weight, but she can't really say she was healthy. Trans fat, high amounts of sugar, saturated fat, etc. were all present in her "diet". Eventually if she kept on with that diet, she would become diabetic or would need bypass surgery. I mean, you can be a bean pole and still have clogged arteries as long as you eat hamburgers and french fries. Same thing with high amounts of sugar. Diabetes doesn't discriminate against skinny people.

And I even said what she was trying to get across is a good message. It's just unfortunate that people may see what she did and think the Walnut Salad or Apple Dippers are a healthy option when in fact, they aren't.

My wife recently quit working for McDonald's which was a running joke in our family as we are both avid vegetarians (very close to being vegan actually) and we found that the only thing on the entire menu that was edible was their fruit salad, minus the yogurt and the candied walnuts.

Our theory: If you actively monitored your intake 24 hours a day on a diet consisting only of McDonald's and used endurance-type aerobic activity (probably no less than 1 hour a day at extremely slow speeds) which are well known to burn fat, not calories then yes, even the most obese of folks could lose weight. The reality is, as others have said, that the weight loss would be, and is fleeting.

Lifestyle change is the only way to permanently manage weight loss. One of the more difficult things I've faced now that I'm back to normal as I define it (under 180) is keeping a variety of foods that are nutritious and taste good in my diet.

I'm 100% positive that if I added any fast food back into my diet I'd gain weight fast!

I'll give the weight of my backing to Super Size Me, its far more accurate based off what I see on a daily basis as far as people's habits of eating; I have yet to meet someone who is so committed to losing weight that they monitor everything and thing ahead enough to come up with menus, etc. to keep on top of their weight.

you should meet me :D I'm already thinking of what I'm gonna have for lunch tomorrow. :lol:

But Cheeba, your the exception - not the norm :)

The average person just rolls through the day stuffing their face, and if they're slightly active, might actually put in a mile or 2 'jog' or walk.

Maybe I should mention to them my 3500-4000 calorie a day diet and I haven't gained a single pound and convinently leave out the fact that I bike 25 miles a day.

I'm so glad she did that! The corporate giants need defending.

wow, I do the exact same thing. 25 miles a day, 3500 calories a day. Good to know I have a twin :D

It also says she was a "construction worker", which implies that she has a MUCH more active lifestyle than the typical American. (The daily hell of raising two kids on the side may contribute in that way, as well.)

That is a very interesting point. Why would someone with no vested interest in McDonalds do this? My sceptical mind tells me there may be more to this story.

what person would want to defend Mcd's anyway well besides lawyers (G)

Was she payed?? I think Supper Size Me is much more the norm of what Americans do when they eat out. I would love to see sales data from McD's to the contrary, Showing that what this woman did was the norm.

As my Air Force Father always says "Liers can Figure and Figurers Can Lie" I see this more as a McD's PR.

I'd second this assessment.

And yet still 225 lbs. Imagine if she were a desk worker...

My old man was always worried about getting an upset stomach at school (he's retired and takes classes for fun - I think he just wants to oogle at the college girls :) ) and ate a low calorie diet. He walked every day and lost weight... The problem is that he didn't get the proper nutrition from the foods he ate and ended up in the hospital this month with diverticulitis and had major surgery to remove part of his colon. :eek:

I'm all for free-market and free-enterprise, but our country has gone way, way, way beyond that with politicians backing special-interest groups, etc. Most of the advertising we see today is nothing but lies, lies, lies.

no crap...do you think Morgan Spurlock overate and didn't exercise "for money"
?
LOL

Geee...we wouldn't want ayone making an independant film now would we?? LOL!! :rolleyes:

Yes, it's McDonald's fault that people stuff their fat faces...LOL

What percentage of daily McDonald's customer count their calories?

I wouldn't be surprised if Merab Morgan quietly regained her 37 lost pounds...and then some.