http://www.truthinfitness.org/projects/mcDonalds/journal.html

Sorry if this is old news, it's an old article, but I don't remember seeing it around here.

So yea, interesting article. I mean, it's obvious that stuff isn't GOOD for you, but it's nice to know it's not as bad as it seems.

Interesting stuff. I liked these quotes:

That's really interesting.

Not everyone has time to spend 2 hours a day exercising. You just have to look at the ammount of calories he eats on average. Somewhere between 4000 and 5000. That's grossly excessive. An average adult male should eat somewhere between 1500-2000 calories. I highly doubt his claims that his weight and colhesterol weren't affected. If he had continued for a couple of months, he'd most likely be dead. You can't compensate a bad diet with exercise. What you eat and when you eat is at least five times more important than how much exercise you do. In any case, I wouldn't trust an economist with dietary advice.

So yeah, listen to that guy if you want, then eat at McDonald's and kill yourself. Just the nutrient and calorie value of the meals he wrote should be enough to tell you McDonald's is probably the worst thing you can do to your body.

He complains that Sperlock was misinforming people to make money off the media - and here he is telling people it's safe to eat 5000 calories in a day.

Actually, Flex.. If you're that active, you'll eat that many calories because you have to make up for what you burned through exercise. I have had personal experience in this. When I exercise a lot, I eat a lot (4000 + calories a day). When I don't exercise much, I don't eat much (1500 ish calories a day). Either way, I'm not unhealthy. And I typically don't eat "healthy" food. I just eat a fairly balanced diet. Usually a Whopper for breakfast (no joke), something else after work around 2:30 or so, usually a bowl of cereal or something (I know I'm backwards), and then whatever I can scrounge up for dinner, which varies greatly. If I'm exercising, I'll throw in various other snacks, and maybe a couple more fast food burgers, or what have you. Also, I forgot to mention drinks, but it's usually nothing but milk (2%), Mountain Dew, and Water.

Also, it's not just calories that are the end all, it's nutrients, types of fats, and other values. I would tend to think McDonalds wouldn't exactly be a stellar source of vitamins and minerals, be particularly low on saturated fat, or just be "healthy" in a broad sense.

Additionally, weight gain, loss, muscle mass, ect, are all to some degree genetic. The problem with both this and supersize me is that both sample populations are 1. That can enter a wide range of variation. Neither of these studies should be taken at ANY value, they are as scientific as dare I say, Intellegent Design.

At my current weight and activity level, I need close to 3500 calories a day just to maintain my weight. The thing is, the 1500-2000 calorie a day diet is not entirely accurate. The basic forumla for caloric intake is (your weight*1.5)*10. That's the total number of calories you need for basic body function at your current weight (breathing, heart beat, metabolism, etc). Add in any kind of activity and you need more to maintain that weight. Fewer calories than that, and you'll drop weight, more and you'll gain.

You may think it's healthy, because you look and feel healthy, but it's really bad for you. The higher the calories you eat, the more you have to burn to achieve balance, and that's fine, but the higher both numbers (even if they're balanced), the higher your metabolic rate. Keeping your metabolic rate too high had damaging long-term effects. Think of it as overclocking a computer. Your CPU is designed to run at a certain speed. You can trick it to run faster, and it'll probably be fine, but if you overclock it too much, it goes sploot.

Avenger: 1500-2000 is for an "average" male. I was thinking around 160-170ish pounds. Bigger men might need as much as 3000 depending on how active they are - but it shouldn't go anywhere close to as 5000.

Flex, my point is, my eating habits adjust to reflect my activity level. If I exercise a lot, I eat a lot. If I don't exercise much, then I don't eat a lot. Naturally, I'm stronger when I exercise, but I'm not any less or more healthy.

Exactly. If you are extremely active, you jsut have to eat more. It's as simple as that. The human body is no different than a car in that sense, but I agree that gettting your calories from less than healthy foods is not going to be good in the long run.

If you dont, you should make time. A healthy person should spend an average of at least 1 hour a day doing vigorous exercize. Or so I've heard.

On a fruit juice-only intake (wasn't really a diet), I lost somewhere between 10-15 lbs in a week (maybe less).
Go me.

I used to weigh 210 about 3 years ago, then i got a job and had to walk to work 2 miles uphill every morning. I lost 40 pounds that year, now i'm at a normal weight i guess of 165. i'm 21, 5' 9" i wouldn't mind losing 15 more pounds.

If your pee isn't clear, you're not drinking enough water.

What if it's black?

then you're dead.

But dead people can't pee.

My girlfriend is making me do the South Beach Diet because she says I eat too much sugar. I do. But I'm not fat. She says it'll just make me healthier. Whatevah! I do what I want!

Too much guiness....

I still wanna lose a little flab and im 5'6" and 108 pounds

Yeah, and your car will last you five years instead of ten!

Your car wont last a year if you just let it sit in your driveway and never drive it.

It's a bad analogy anyways, exercize is important for the human body. If you arent getting any, there is a good chance that you actually are decreasing your life expectancy.

I didn't say exercise was bad. I said maintaining a very high metabolic rate was bad.

You don't have to. An hour of moderate exercise(i.e. walking for an hour) is suggested. The time can be cut down the more intense the work out is(a half hour of jogging will have the same effect).

1500 is too low for males, unless the male leads a sedentary lifestyle. As a rule of thumb, women tend to be 2000 calories and below, men tend to be 2000 calories and above.

That is grossly inaccurate. Diet is no more important than exercise is. If you are missing out on one of those things, you are are not nearly as healthy as you could be.

Exercise is bad if you go running...


...off a cliff.

And Flexor, the human body is different than other things in life. If you swing a gate back and forth, you are wearing it out and making it weaker. However, the human body is constantly rebuilding and every time you break it down with exercise, it rebuilds it even better than it was before, increasing both it's usefulness and longevity. And a metabolism increase is not a bad thing, as long as it stays in line with what you need.

If that was true, we'd be immortal.

Yes but that won't be anywhere near enough if you eat 5000 calories a day.

It is true, to a point- obviously, we arent immortal. Exercize causes tiny rips and tears in your muscles. When those rips and tears are repaired, your muscles are even stronger and better than before.

Ok, I have this to say... I have eaten nothing but McDonald's/Wendy's/Burger King for the past 3 years (since i moved to FL in 2002).. I havn't gained any weight, and I havn't been sick the entire time.

It is my understanding that the guy in 'supersize me' ate very healthy. He also worked out on a regular basis, and was active.... he STOPPED all of this when he started his "McD's" diet... I don't care WHO you are.. but a sudden change in diet like that wil make ANYONE become un healthy. He also stopped any activity and stopped working out. And when he ordered something, it didn't matter if he was full or not, he force fed himself until he ate everything he ordered...

There are too many factors that are uncontrolled in "Supersize Me".

In this other one though, he kept the same activity.. (Gym Time) and it wasn't a violent change in diet. it seems like it would be more accurate to me than the movie "Supersize Me".

That's my 2 cents.

But that wasn't my point.

Now I can't give you the exact terms unless you make me go dig out my biology books - but your metabolic rate does something to your DNA structure over time. The faster your metabolism, the faster that damage occurs. You might or might not have noticed that big athletes and body builders actually tend to die younger than people who live "balanced" lifestyles. Theoretically, if you could sustain your vital functions with 500 calories a day, you might easily live up to 200 years. Turtles are a good example of this. They eat very little and move very slowly, and some species can live up to 300 years.

But really what it is, they have a Gao'ould sarcophagus in their shell.

We'd probably die of cancer before then. :p

I think we need medical evidence to support that assumption.

And this is why my school should offer PE classes at least as electives... (PE is only offered up to grade 10) I'm too lazy to go out and exercise each day... I lose motivation pretty fast. Last week I spent 30 minutes a day riding the exercise bike... lasted 3 days before I lost all motivation.

I should've tried out for basketball... I'm beginning to miss the old days Would've kept me more or less in shape too.

Actually, those particular bodily functions can sometimes happen on reflex after you die. My uncle, who ran a funeral home, was kind enough to let me know about this little fact. I guess bringing a dead body to your place of business and finding it had crapped in the car wasn't all that pleasurable, but fairly common.

What i've read repeatedly:

Recommended Net Calorie Intake for Men with average amount of execise - 2,500

Recommened Net Calorie Intake for those who are trying to gain weight = 3,000

Recommended Net Calorie Intake for those trying to lose weight = 2,000

Reduce all values by 500 for women.

ie, the human body needs about 2,500 calories for the average person's day-to-day activies. The extra calories for gaining weight are so that when your muscles are rebuilding there is energy available to do the best conversion, so you gain muscle rather than fat. So you don't want to have a net intake of 3,000 if you're not going to be burning the extra 500 whilst asleep after exhausting your muscles.

carefule, too much sugar and u get diabetes.

That happened to my dad. Years and years of many soda days at work caught up with him.