Man Loses 37 Pounds Eating Only McDonald's

John Cisna stuck to strict dietary guidelines for 3 months, walked each day
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 6, 2014 5:03 AM CST

Want to lose some weight? Try eating nothing but McDonald's for 90 days. That's what science teacher John Cisna did, and he not only lost 37 pounds but also saw dramatic improvements in health markers like cholesterol. The Iowa man was inspired to try his experiment after watching Supersize Me, the documentary in which eating McDonald's for a month led Morgan Spurlock to weight gain and worse health. But in Cisna's case, he kept to strict limitations: 2,000 calories per day, while sticking close to the recommended dietary allowances for fat, cholesterol, and nutrients.

Cisna's students constructed their teacher's menu based on those guidelines, and the teacher didn't stick to just salads, oatmeal, and egg whites, although those were included: He typically ate traditional value meals for dinner, and tells KCCI, "I had the Big Macs, the quarter pounders with cheese. I had sundaes, I had ice cream cones." The lesson? "I can eat any food at McDonald's [that] I want" as long as it's balanced out with healthier options the rest of the day. (It probably also helps that Cisna started walking 45 minutes per day during his experiment.) Says Cisna, who made a mini-documentary about the experience, "It's [a] choice. We all have choices. It's our choices that make us fat, not McDonald's." (Amusingly, McDonald's itself recently warned workers that fast-food meals are often unhealthy.)

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