Les Sayer took a challenge from his students, after tossing off a casual remark about the documentary “Supersize Me”. He said he could probably lose weight on a McDonald’s diet. After 29 days, he has. He’s lost 17 pounds and his blood pressure has dropped significantly. He ate from the full menu (sans fish), and nothing else – but decided to conduct the experiment on the basis of sensible eating – no “supersizing” , and he kept up a regular exercise routine.
Les Sayer hasn’t cheated on his McDonald’s-only diet. Not an apple, an orange, a cantaloupe or grapes in 17 days. Sayer, a teacher at NorQuest College and Metro Continuing Education, wanted to drive home the point to students that Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Supersize Me, was an opinion piece. He said he could eat McDonald’s food for a month and lose weight, not gain it.
“The main reason for doing this is because my students thought (Supersize Me) was an objective piece,” the 39-year-old Sayer said yesterday.
Les’s website is here.
Via John Gormley Live. No *ahem* link.
Les can next try the Tim Horton’s diet, in case Maude Barlow or Linda McQuaig take umbrage with him eating ‘mercan food.
Hmm.. looking at his site, it appears that he always drank a large diet coke. If that had been switched to a non-diet coke, it would have been 360 calories x 18 (the number of days in his diary) to equal 6480 calories or about 2 lbs in weight.
I didn’t really read in his diary but was he this active before he started the experiment? If not, I think his experiment would say this… If you’re going to go on a diet consisting mainly of fast food, you had better up your exercise intake a lot. To prove otherwise, he would have to go on a ‘lots of veggies, less carbs, less meat’ diet and prove that it made him gain weight while being inactive.
An interesting, if ultimately pointless exercise as Spurlock’s was itself.
An interesting, if ultimately pointless exercise as Spurlock’s was itself.
Actually, I think that is the whole point of Les’s experiment, to prove how pointless both his experiment and Spurlock’s experiments are. In that sense, Les’s experiment is probably less pointless than Spurlock’s.
Actually Les’s served the point of pointing out how pointless Spurlock’s point was.
To cap the point, Spurlock’s pointless and Les’s to the point.
Also there’s this
Oh pointy bird
Oh pointy ,pointy
Anoint mine head
Anointy , nointy
Steve Martin
Even McDonald’s doesn’t suggest you eat at their restaurant three times a day, 7 times a week. I doubt you get the full nutritional value you need by their food alone. Les’s experiment doesn’t prove that to me at all.
It was a very elaborate way of saying, “so what?”
I don’t recall nutrition ever being a part of it, for either the movie or the experiment. Les found out his students believed the movie was a documentary and factual, that the whole message was “eat at McDonald’s and you’ll get fat”.
Les’s point was “eat sensibly”. Go into McDonald’s three times a day, order two of their biggest items, a large fries and a milk shake and yes, you’ll get fat. Eat normal meals and you won’t.
The movie could just as easily have been titled “Tofu Me” – pack ten pounds of tofu (or anything) away every day and you’ll get fat, there has to be a little moderation shown.
actually it wasn’t the weight gain that was of importance it was the elevation of liver funtion numbers. had the diet continued, the man would have dioed of lipid induced liver failure.
I thought his point was that the MSM parades around as the legit truth on matters they report on, but it only takes a high school experiment to expose them as the lefty fuctards they really are.
It WAS about the weight gain:
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Sayer, a teacher at NorQuest College and Metro Continuing Education, wanted to drive home the point to students that Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Supersize Me, was an opinion piece. He said he could eat McDonald’s food for a month and lose weight, not gain it.
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The experiment was all about weight gain, nothing else. Tho to agree with Richfisher, the actual “lesson learned” for the students was just because something claims to be a documentary doesn’t mean it’s true – have none of those kids ever seen a horror movie that said “based on a true story” or similar crap?
Geez, put that or “based on actual events” in front of “Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein” and kids these days will believe it.
Okay, I should say people – there was that whole War of the Worlds radio show thing.
I’ll say this for “Supersize Me” – it’s one film about big corporations that Michael Moore could NOT have made with any vestige of credibility…
heh heh.
the subject of “supersize me” had well documented dangerous increases in his liver enzymes consistent with lipd induced hepatic disfunction.thats not an opinion my friend. people who have unsupported “opinions” about large fast food restuarants like Mcdonalds, find themselves in court. this is also not an opinion, but fact.