McDonald's, Dieticians Temper Enthusiasm For Man's Positive "McDiet" Results

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jun 18, 2008 5:40PM

It's a near certainty that people who eat at McDonald's on a regular basis, like Morgan Spurlock or Little Stay-Puf in the photo, can gain weight and have other potential health issues. But can someone eating nothing but McDonald's lose weight?

That's what Chris Coleson of Richmond, VA did. Eating nothing but the Golden Arches' salads, wraps and the occasional cheeseburger after his wife expressed skepticism that he could even maintain a diet, Coleson has lost 86 pounds since December. He's currently ten pounds from his target weight of 185, the weight he was when he married his wife ten years ago.

The key to Coleson's weight loss so far was limiting his caloric intake to between 1,200 and 1,400 calories a day (he doesn't eat breakfast). Dieticians call this a "starvation" diet and even McDonald's is slow to applaud Coleson's achievement, probably because he traded in one set of bad eating habits for another. Coleson's doctor noted in a recent checkup that he lost muscle mass, still maintains a pretty high cholesterol level and needs more variety in his diet. Makes one wonder if he has any other health issues like scurvy or some other disease that should have been eradicated in the Western world with the discovery of citrus.

Coleson plans on adding healthier foods to his diet, but says he'll stick to the diet otherwise.