Anyone seen that movie, SuperSize Me?

It's a docudrama about obesity in America.

A guy decides to eat nothing but McDonald's for 30 days straight and see how it affects his body. He had to order each item on the menu at least once, and if they asked him if he wanted it supersized, he had to say yes.

I haven't watched the conclusion of it yet, but I'll post after I do. It's pretty interesting so far.

Anyone else seen it? Any comments?

*Just the thought of eating McDonald's for 30 days is enough to make me sick. I'm not a Big Mac fan.*

We had a talk about this in our nutrition training course a few days back. I believe he gained like 40 lbs.? Its not rocket science to know that if you eat all those calories you have to burn them or pay the price.

Let us know how you liked the movie, we havent seen it yet because I didnt think it would be any good.

Heather

Mr. P, I couldn't imagine eating at MD's for 30 days straight. I try to advoid eating there, which is pretty hard considering its the only fast food joint in my town and I have a 9 and 11 year old. They are still in the stages of when you ask where they want to eat, they say MDs. I so long for a BK, taco bell, wendys in my town, something besides MDs.

The movie is a must see in my opinion.

-Mod

Okay, I finished watching the movie.

The guy was a very healthy 185 lbs and was a good weight for his height. (don't recall if he said his age)

He gained 24.5 lbs in 30 days. Now I agree with the Mod, this movie is worth seeing and won't bore you.

I disagree on the way the guy did things. First off, we have nothing to compare his eating habits to, before or after the McD's tour.
We do find out he likes to eat meat, but his girlfriend is a vegan chef, so he eats that when she cooks for him.

What I disagree with is that one part he gorged himself--not a necessary thing to prove his point in my opinion. Another thing, he went to see a nutritionist before he started, who informed him that to maintain his normal weight, he should eat 2500 calories a day. He started out eating a minimum of 4500 per day.
(It takes 3500 calories to make a pound.) He could have not ordered two drinks at a time and he could have not had milkshakes and desserts and he didn't need to order the double cheeseburger combo, supersized the second time around, but he wanted to.

I'm saying he could have tried to stay near the 2500 calorie limit for the most part, but he didn't bother.

He claims it took him 13 months to lose that 24.5 lbs he gained. He never said if he tried to lose it or waited for it to fall off naturally.

In my opinion, he shouldn't have taken a trip around the country to visit upteen McDonald's; he should have maintained his current lifestyle as best as possible.(I can understand how it broke up the monotony somewhat.)

He stated that Detroit was the fattest city in the USA. He got asked to supersize 9 times and 5 of those times were in Texas.

Different McDonald's had some different menu items.

He found 4 McDonald's in a square mile radius, I think in New York.

I only noticed him eating salad twice that it showed. He could have had salad every day, but he wanted the cholestrol. LOL

He claimed he didn't feel good, that he was depressed and that he was tired. He had a hard time climbing the stairs about halfway thru his tour. For the most part, it seemed he gained the weight in his belly.

That's about the jist of it. It was interesting to me because it is about a national epidemic. 60% of Americans are overweight, and most of them a lot overweight. When children have to be put on diets, there is definitely a real problem here.

Anyone else see it? Comments?

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Originally posted by Educator:

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Originally posted by mr pit bull:
Anyone seen that movie, SuperSize Me?

It's a docudrama about obesity in America.

A guy decides to eat nothing but McDonald's for 30 days straight and see how it affects his body. He had to order each item on the menu at least once, and if they asked him if he wanted it supersized, he had to say yes.

I haven't watched the conclusion of it yet, but I'll post after I do. It's pretty interesting so far.

Anyone else seen it? Any comments?

*Just the thought of eating McDonald's for 30 days is enough to make me sick. I'm not a Big Mac fan.*

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Well with my metabolism if it was a contest I would have to be a contestant. I have weighed 135#s for 30 years no matter how much or how little I eat.

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You can't just count your head size TT, how much is the rest of your body?

I have to admit I dont cook and never eat at home. We eat out every night. I only weigh 125 lbs, which is a little overweight for my height, but have weighed 110 most of my life up until last year when I quit smoking. I also am pretty active and walk about 10 miles a day.

I am going to rent the movie and watch it tonight if I find time. I havent done much of my X mas shopping yet and need to do that today. *sigh* I hate shopping!!

Actually im pretty sure in the beginning and ending of the movie they showed his wife talk about how she cooks for him and what kind of foods she cooks for him. It souneded like she was a health junkie, so Im sure he ate the same way as she did. * thats what I remember, but i watched taht movie awhile ago, and I dont remmeber things that clearly because I watch so many movies (most of the time when im falling asleep lol )

I have to say something about the whole trying to stay near the 2500 calories, I think it would be very hard to do , if u ever looked at a nutrition sheet for a fast food place, everything has a very high amount of calories.

I personally think he made a bad example, only because the majority of us do not eat every meal everyday at mcd's or any other fast food place.

Personally everyone thinks eating salads is just wonderful, but do u ever notice those people just load the dressing on. Dressing is not exactly the most nutritious thing for u, so I dont think in his case eating salads would have helped a whole lot because he probably would have loaded the thing with dressing.

It was a pretty gross movie, it made me sick. It also made me tired, it was kind of boring. I know it has facts, but not enough of them. Do u know how many reports an exercise science major has to write about obesity and exercise lol... I feel sorry for the nutrition majors.

There are lots of people who eat fastfood everyday or some delivery food at least once a day of sorts. I know because I have been one of those people with two small children who would rather just get something quick when you have a super busy day. I did gain weight and became heavier then I had ever been * even heavier then while pregnant*. Mc Donalds and the like havent turned into multi billion dollar buisnesses based on Ameirca popping in once in awhile.

Well, he wasn't married. His girlfriend was a vegan chef. They even had a conversation where she was trying to talk him into not eating meat. He disagreed with her thinking on that one.

I think they did do a comparison salad thing on there and even McDonald's salads contain sugar. Go figure. I'm thinking they stated that eating one of their salads was as bad as eating one of their big macs. Of course, he could have left off the salad dressing, the sugared pecans, etc to make it less sugary.

I don't think I could live on 2500 calories a day at a fast food place either (in reality), I was just saying he should have tried to stay more near his normal calorie intake, but he didn't. Like he ordered cheese on everything (not a necessary option) and he had two drinks and two burgers and fries (not necessary), etc.

Oh man!! And anyone who eats those chicken mcnuggets...you may never eat them again after seeing how they are made. They show a cartoon resemblence of the process.

He made the example out of McDonald's due to the lawsuit filed by two children's parents who are overweight (the kids), grossly overweight; and the parents blamed McDonald's for making their children fat. Of course they lost the lawsuit because they could not prove that McDonald's food made their kids fat. (pretty ridiculous lawsuit in my opinion because no one forced those kids to eat at McDonald's. The fact is if anyone is to blame, it would be the parents--they were the ones feeding them junk.)

It was interesting to me because I am always fascinated by the changes in the American people over the years. Obesity is a major problem, not a new problem, but it's worse than it ever has been. This flik reveals a few clues as to why Americans have become overweight.

Of course there are plenty of other reasons to add to that. I would say removing gym class and recess from schools adds to the problem.
Having soda and snack machines in schools and the changes in school cafeterias, etc.

Everyone watching tv and staying on the pc's adds to the problem because they neglect the exercise part of life. People don't walk much unless they live in New York. (So now I'm wondering if New Yorker's are healthier than people who live in Chicago. *wink*)

People are just more sedentary than they used to be. Lots of people have office jobs that don't require them to move around very much. Most of us eat fast food quite often because we don't have the time to cook it homemade or else we get lazy and just plain don't want to. Not that I see anything wrong with that, but it does add to the problem of being overweight.


There are some people who do not have a tendency to gain weight and I consider them the priviledged few. I don't have a problem with my weight, but I make sure I don't go hog wild except on Thanksgiving and Christmas (hehe) and I exercise every day just because I like it. I do understand the people with weight problems. The more you weigh, the harder it is to lose. You must increase your metabolism to lose weight.

It's a fact that it's much easier for a person who needs to lose 10 lbs to increase their metabolism than it is for the person who needs to lose 100 lbs. The bigger you are, the slower you move and the more it takes to increase your metabolsim. It makes sense.

I honestly don't believe that people want to be overweight. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to be overweight, but to become obese is dangerous to one's health. I also think it must take an enormous effort to lose a lot of weight. 10 lbs would be easy to lose. 100 lbs would take a year or more to do it properly. That's a lot effort in my opinion. It doesn't help that there is temptation on every corner.

What's the first thing that happens when you tell someone you are on a diet? They start offering you food or want to take you out to dinner. It's true. Then you have food places all over. You have vending machines all over. And it's easy to drive thru just about anyplace.
Then you have television and what's on the majority of the commercials. My gosh, I counted the pizza (just pizza) commercials one night while watching Tv for 2 hours. There were 10. Unreal!! Now even I start thinking that pizza is looking pretty good. Yep, it's hard to resist things when they are right in front of you on a constant basis.

Just my opinin folks. I welcome others.

Another thing in the movie that caught my attention.

They had a group of adults who couldn't say the pledge of allegiance, but they could recite the McD's tune, two all beef patties, special sauce.....

Then a group of young children who didn't have a clue who Jesus Christ or President Bush was, but they all knew who Ronald McDonald was.

Shows you something there. The message I see the kids recieving--FOOD is the important thing in life. Ronald is king. BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

And of course, McDonald's has the most restuarants of any other chain in the world. Burger King and Taco Bell are small in
comparison.

One more tidbit, they did ask some people how often they ate fast food. I doubt they were being honest. I agree with Christina, McD's didn't get where it is today from people just stopping in once in a while.

I have a friend whom I took a trip from Canada to Texas with one year and he must have eaten at McDonald's 75% of the time. Not me, I tried a couple of times and that was enough. I'm not a fan of the great Mickey D's to begin with, but I believe he is more of the example of people who frequent fast food places than I would ever be.

This got me curious so I went over to my neighbor's house, and I asked him about eating at McD's. He said he eats there about once a week and even twice a week at times, but he usually orders the same thing.

He also stated he eats fast food probably 5 times a week, or maybe even 6. I'd say that is more honest than the people on the movie that said "once in a while" or once or twice a week.

I am also sure they don't count just driving thru for a milkshake or a soda as a "fast food stop", but it really is.

I wanted to add I in no way blame any fast food spot for my weight. I dont think that anyone should. Its not like they are misleading anyone * except their pictures of food versus what you actually get *. As an adult you are responsible for choices, if you choose to eat Mc Donalds, you choose to consume those calories and what nutrients you are or are not getting. Now I gotta stop talking about Mc Donalds, I am craving a crispy chicken... mmmm lol And for the record I wont get one because I have made a conscious decision to feed my body better.

Yay!! Bravo!!


I think a person can get overweight just by overeating food made at home as well. That is, if they are sedentary. Doubtful it would be as fast as eating at McDonald's every day. LOL

There is no quik fix cure for weight loss and some people do have a tendency to retain fat cells more so than others.

There are a couple of people in my family that have seriously tried losing weight and suceeded only to fall back into thier old routines and regain the weight, plus more.

A change of lifestyle and eating habits is a must for a person to lose weight and it has to be acceptable to that person.

I was able to eat anything & not gain weight. Then after my 3rd child, I have gained 25lbs. I feel Im more active than before with 3 children, but up until a year ago, I was always 120, even after my first 2 babies. 145 is ideal for my height, but I do feel the extra pounds. We eat out occaionally.

I read somewhere that a woman's metabolsim slows down a little each time she gets pregnant. I think it's true.

I think its true also ..lol

They also say that the older you get the slower your metabolism is.

I don't think that being overweight is necessarily bad. There are plenty of people who don't fit the charts)height/weight) who are in great physical condition. Good cholestrol levels, and all those important things. But they just can't seem to shed those extra pounds.

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Originally posted by BRD:
I don't think that being overweight is necessarily bad. There are plenty of people who don't fit the charts)height/weight) who are in great physical condition. Good cholestrol levels, and all those important things. But they just can't seem to shed those extra pounds.

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I agree with you, BRD. It's when a person becomes obese that it affects their health and makes is so very difficult to lose any weight.
Besides, women look better with a little meat on their bones!