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Ankeny, IOWA — With the help of his students, a science teacher in Iowa managed to lose 37 pounds on a diet consisting solely of meals from McDonald's.
Curious about how only eating McDonald's would affect someone's health after watching the documentary "Super Size Me," John Cisna enlisted the help of his high school class to embark on a 90-day experiment and make his own amateur film about the experience.
"The point behind this documentary is, ‘Hey, it's (a) choice. We all have choices. It's our choices that make us fat, not McDonald's," Cisna told local TV station KCCI.
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"I can eat any food at McDonald's (that) I want as long as I'm smart for the rest of the day with what I balance it out with," he said.
Cisna would typically eat two egg white delights and a bowl of maple oatmeal for breakfast, a salad for lunch and a more traditional value meal for dinner. He didn't shy away from the occasional sundae or ice cream cone, as long as it fit within his nutritional limits.
I can eat any food at McDonald's (that) I want as long as I'm smart for the rest of the day with what I balance it out with.
–John Cisna
In addition to watching what he ate, Cisna also started walking 45 minutes per day. At the end of his experiment he had lost 37 pounds and his cholesterol dropped to 170 from 249.
Cisna said he wasn't surprised by the results, because he wasn't managing his weight or exercising before the McDonald's diet. He said he wanted to show the importance of watching what you eat, regardless of where it comes from.
Similarly, McDonald's CEO Don Thompson claimed he lost 20 pounds by improving his excercise regiment while still eating food from his company every day.
In "Super Size Me," released in 2004, Morgan Spurlock documented the decline of his health as he ordered every meal from McDonald's for 30 days. He never turned down a suggestion to supersize his meal.
