Can You Lose Weight Eating At McDonald’s?

By Kenda - January, 7th 2014

I remember watching Super Size Me and thinking, “Well duh… he’s force-feeding himself to the point of almost throwing up and avoiding exercise. Of course he’s going to be fat and sick.”  Even after moving into a healthier eating lifestyle myself over the past year and learning a ton of information about diet, I’m still unconvinced that Morgan Spurlock’s film was scientific or balanced.

John Cisna (a high school science teacher in Ankeny, Iowa) wasn’t convinced either. He did his own version of the Super Size Me challenge with drastically different results. For 90 days he ate only foods offered at McDonald’s. However, he stayed within 2,000 calories and walked for 45 minutes each day. He ate burgers, fries, and ice cream – but he also switched it up with other items from the fast food chain’s menu such as oatmeal, 1% milk and egg white breakfasts. He didn’t force-feed himself and ate for hunger, not to empty the bag. The result? He lost 37 pounds and his cholesterol went down 79 points.

I don’t take my son to fast food places more than once in a blue moon simply because I don’t want him to start demanding that instead of eating at home. A child isn’t old enough to train their own eating habits so we, as their parents, have to make sure their first examples are good ones. But, I also can’t subscribe to the idea that fast food exists solely for the purpose of making us fat or is a subliminal super power training us to binge eat. I think we do that voluntarily – no matter where we go. I have seen how people eat at places like TGI Fridays, Applebee’s etc. Those menus are loaded with sodium, fat and preservatives as well. We have an independent home-style bbq place close by that serves dinners so large that they put it on a garbage can lid. We want so badly to believe that cutting out any place with a drive-thru is the key to health when, in reality, it’s our own approach to eating in general that is the real enemy.

I’m sure there are people who are thinking along the lines of Slate’s article and believe this is the exception to the rule. “Of course he lost weight – he was walking!” But, that’s the whole point. It’s not so much the food as it is how much we buy and what we do after we eat it.  Slate claims this experiment sets a bad example for others. I disagree. I think it sets a fantastic example as long as you pay attention to the details. Moderation. Exercise. These things matter. They aren’t the exception to the rule. They are the rule.

So, can you lose weight eating at McDonald’s? John Cisna did. But, I don’t know if everyone is as determined as Mr. Cisna (and even his own willpower may have an expiration date now that the test is over). That isn’t the fault of the menu, that’s our own inability to retrain ourselves. Unfortunately, this issue is now being met with the belief that as long as you are emotionally happy, physical health doesn’t matter. So, the cycle continues.

Side note: Of course eating healthy meals at home is the best solution and fast food (restaurant food at all) isn’t nutritionally ideal. But, the fact of the matter is, a lot of people eat it. 50 million people purchase fast food every day. That means roughly 15% of our population won’t be giving up their in-car treat any time soon.