Back in May 2012 I first started measuring my food when I did an experiment to lose fat only eating junk food such as chocolate, crisps etc. I was telling a friend about this and they said that is fine but there is no way you could do that just eating McDonalds! That sounded like an experiment. As I didn’t know what the results were going to be I wanted to wait until after I had done my serious dieting down to 4% body fat for competition. So before Christmas while I was out in Brazil for a couple of months I decided to give try it.
What did I do?
I know my formula for losing body fat from many weeks of doing it last year. It is simple, If I eat 2000 calories a day and move at least 20 000 steps I will lose fat. Though I prefer to aim for 30 000 steps for maximum results. The 2000 calories would be made up from tuna and potato mostly with maybe the odd protein shake and yoghurt meal. To this I would use the formula as shown in The Fitness Model Diet of 10% my calories for taste and 10% for a ‘treat” of whatever foods I wanted.
This experiment I stuck to the same formula yet the 2000 calories would all come from McDonalds burgers and French Fries. As I did this in Brasil where it was 30c most days while walking 20km plus a day I did end up having some McDonalds ice cream for fear of collapsing in the morning. This was because they didn’t serve Burgers until midday and I started walking 5.30am. I measured my body fat using the 10 point self measurement system I created which you would have seen already at the end of my blogs along with my recent eating. My movement was counted via Fit Bit
How Was The Experience? (The article continues below the video)
It was a fun experiment. I love dieting anyhow and have conditioned my mind to be very good at following plans. The meals had to be edited from your traditional Big Mac meal deal or similar as the calories in one of them is almost a days eating in itself. I would have trouble sticking the plan if just eating once/twice a day. I instead had a cheese burger (~300 cals) or a hamburger (~250 cals) with medium french fries (~300 cals) I did
this x 3 per day with room for a Mcdonalds ice cream (~200 calories). One issue was mcdonalds not opening until 12.30 with burgers and me liking to walk 12-15km before 8.30am. Plenty of water and the odd morning ice cream got me through this issue. Note, the Brazilian food data for Mcdonalds burgers varied slightly to the UK and USA’s but by their data I was eating 2000 cals. To hit the 30 000 steps per day I started walking the beach front 5.30am for 3 hours. I would then get the rest of the steps in from just walking to the nearest McDonalds (3000 step round trip) and wandering the beach at night or in the local shopping mall. It was certainly easier doing the steps in he UK where I did it naturally working with clients, waking the dog and playing sports. Luckily my IPod and some Tony Robbins CD’s got me through it. The food tasted ok to me though not how I remember eating it when I use to have them fairly regularly some 15 years ago. I liked them alot back then!
The average calorie intake was – 2050 cals, Protein – 64g , Carbs – 244g, Fat – 91g,
Macro Ratios – Protein – 12%, Carb – 48%, Fat – 40%
Movement average was – 32 000 steps / day = ~24 km
I went to the gym 6 times for a light all body workout and one frevo dance class which is very tough like a weights workout. Especially in the afternoon sun.
What were the Results???
At the end of the 7 day period I managed to lose body fat from 36 mm to 31 mm (~7% fat to 6% roughly). This rate of loss was faster than my other dieting periods during the year using tuna and potato. This experiment I lost fat at a speed of around 1% fat lost per week. The same body fat range pre competition in July I went from from 33mm to 30mm in 7 days.
I do not really use weight but it was 74.5 kg a couple days before I started the diet and 73.0 on the last day of it. I had lost weight but how much is difficult to say, If I trusted weight then that would be a 1.5kg weight loss but to me that means very little with reduced carbs and hydration affecting the data. I have discussed the issues of the weighing scales elsewhere.
I started sneezing after most of meals after about 3 days of eating the food. Energy levels were fine and had no trouble putting the steps in except for the heat involved with walking on the beach front.
Cravings wise I am fairly used to dieting and when my mind is switched on I resist most of the cravings. They were not too bad but it was not ideal waiting for midday to eat and having to walk loads early before the sun got too hot. It would have been much easier to have eaten my normal routine of 500 cals 8am, midday, 4pm and 8pm at night.
Conclusions
The experiment confirmed to me fat loss can happen eating Mcdonalds if you are able to eat at your ideal calorie intake for fat against a backdrop of exercise and movement. This suggests that the biggest and most significant factor for losing fat is calorie intake and not type of calories. This has been shown in many studies over the years including the McDonalds experiment which I read about after completing my own version of it.
On a practical level it is unlikely most normal people would be able to follow this Mcdonalds protocol to lose fat. I am awesome at dieting, I do not have much trouble waiting until midday to eat, most people do. I do not have that many problems walking 15km before I have had breakfast. I am also used to not having normal meals. There was no room for drinks to hit the goal calorie intake for example. If you were eating freely off the menu you would also go way over your target as the foods are so calorie dense. Likewise, my preferred formula has me eating 2000 calories a day to lose fat alongside a lot of movement. This calorie number is much more than most people would eat to lose fat which would restrict their eating options even further and/or increase the need to go longer without eating.
What the experiment does show is that you do not need to be perfect to lose fat. If losing fat can be done solely by eating awful food then it means you do not have to be perfect with your diet to get results. In my experience the quest to be perfect with your diet is up there as the number one reason no one can stick to it. In the Fitness Model Diet Transformation diet it ensures 10% of your calories are from taste and 10% from a treat. This experiment shows those numbers can go higher and still you would get results.
The experiment also showed how food affects your health, I was sneezing after most meals by day 3. Who knows what would have happened if I continued with the experiment longer term. The film supersize me explored this though the difference is he was trying to overeat while I was trying to undereat to lose fat.
I believe the speed of fat loss points towards a boy fat set point. Last summer pre body building shows my fat loss had been about 0.5% per week. when below 8%. I spent around 3 months below 6% boy fat from the end of July to mid-October (getting to 4% and coming back to 6%). I believe my body adapted to having these low levels as it seems to drop off much quicker than normal during this week.This would need more testing though as it could be I was just dieting harder than previously.
There were some good points to the experiment though. I lost the % of body fat I was looking to lose. Nothing worse than doing a diet yet not getting the results for your efforts. It was also good not eating in the house, it meant I could easily switch off mentally in much the same way as when I did the first 5 days of Ramadan these last couple of years. Another good point was having to walk to get my food to eat. It was around 2km round trip to get to the nearest McDonalds which meant automatically you had moved 6 km just to eat three times in the day.
An unplanned learning experience was seeing how McDonalds got kids into their product. I saw so many children come into the restaurant and the order of their attention was pretty much similar each time. First they wanted to go play in the big play area with slides and toys. After that their focus was on getting one of the happy meal toys, it was some princess and prince during this promotion. Then they finally they thought about food. But looking at the younger children especially they really didn’t care about the food much. It will not take too much time to get the pleasure of the play pen and toys linked to eating the food. I discussed this in the article “How to make your kids fats, unhappy and addicted to food”
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