![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fpbMcDonald's diet works for her
BY VICKI CHENG
RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER
July 11, 2005
There are many reasons Merab Morgan decided in April to eat nothing but McDonald's fast food for 90 days. There's her weakness for the Filet-O-Fish, slathered with tartar sauce and cheese. And there was that documentary, "Super Size Me," which she thought insulted the intelligence of fat people by implying that they couldn't resist the offer of a gargantuan portion for a few cents extra.
But mainly, the 35-year-old Henderson, N. C., woman concocted this unorthodox diet for herself -- she's memorized the calories in almost every menu item, and limits herself to 1,400 calories a day -- because it fits her life.
At a cost of $9 to $11 for three meals, the single mother of two can afford it. She travels throughout the Raleigh area working construction jobs, and she has never failed to find a McDonald's somewhere. The whole process of ordering and eating a meal takes maybe 5 minutes, and she mostly eats in her car. Sometimes she hits the drive-through only once, ordering enough food to last the whole day.
"It's kind of like the poor man's diet," said Morgan, who has tried Weight Watchers and Atkins but failed because of the time and money those plans required. She logged onto www.eDiets.com but lied to the computer about her weight, then gave up when a chicken recipe called for ingredients she didn't have at home.
Since April 22, when Morgan launched her diet with a Sausage Burrito and a medium Diet Coke, she's lost 33 pounds, putting her at about 195 pounds. At 5 feet, 9 inches tall, she's dropped from a size 22 or 24 to a size 15. The size 2X and 3X T-shirts she used to wear look like dresses on her. And despite her friends' fears about skyrocketing cholesterol, she feels great.
Barry Popkin, director of the Interdisciplinary Obesity Center at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a professor of nutrition and public health, has studied the relationship between large fast-food portions and the obesity epidemic.
Eating only at McDonald's isn't healthy, he said. He worries that Morgan will need more vitamins, minerals, fiber and dairy. But on the plus side, she's doing a good job of limiting her calories and, consequently, she's losing weight.
"She's created, for her lifestyle, a very smart diet," Popkin said. "The moral of the story for every person is, you've got to work out a plan that fits your lifestyle. ... I really admire her restraint. The problem is, it's a lifetime issue."
Morgan dreams of becoming the McDonald's Corp.'s Jared Fogle, the Subway weight-loss poster boy. She figures she might as well find a way to make some money from the experience. So she's been faithfully documenting her diet, stapling receipts in a spiral-bound notebook and propping up her Sony Handycam on the dash, filming herself at each meal. She's been courting the attention of local newspapers and TV stations, inviting reporters to her home and to the McDonald's/Citgo gas station in Henderson, where she picks up many of her meals.
Still, she knows about McDonald's Unsolicited Idea Policy. "We love you, my public. But unless you're a franchise owner, we appreciate all your good ideas, but keep them to yourself," Morgan paraphrased.
Morgan's goal is to lose 40 to 60 pounds. By Day 67, she had lost 33.
Nothing at the restaurant is off limits, although she's only eaten french fries twice -- you're better off eating two cheeseburgers, she said. It hasn't been easy. She'd been consuming about 3,500 calories a day, and cutting that down to a third left her feeling hungry for the first few weeks.
Morgan doesn't have a recommendation for others who might want to try the diet.
"I think other people should do what works for them," she said.
Copyright © 2005 Detroit Free Press Inc.
BY VICKI CHENG
RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER
July 11, 2005
There are many reasons Merab Morgan decided in April to eat nothing but McDonald's fast food for 90 days. There's her weakness for the Filet-O-Fish, slathered with tartar sauce and cheese. And there was that documentary, "Super Size Me," which she thought insulted the intelligence of fat people by implying that they couldn't resist the offer of a gargantuan portion for a few cents extra.
But mainly, the 35-year-old Henderson, N. C., woman concocted this unorthodox diet for herself -- she's memorized the calories in almost every menu item, and limits herself to 1,400 calories a day -- because it fits her life.
At a cost of $9 to $11 for three meals, the single mother of two can afford it. She travels throughout the Raleigh area working construction jobs, and she has never failed to find a McDonald's somewhere. The whole process of ordering and eating a meal takes maybe 5 minutes, and she mostly eats in her car. Sometimes she hits the drive-through only once, ordering enough food to last the whole day.
"It's kind of like the poor man's diet," said Morgan, who has tried Weight Watchers and Atkins but failed because of the time and money those plans required. She logged onto www.eDiets.com but lied to the computer about her weight, then gave up when a chicken recipe called for ingredients she didn't have at home.
Since April 22, when Morgan launched her diet with a Sausage Burrito and a medium Diet Coke, she's lost 33 pounds, putting her at about 195 pounds. At 5 feet, 9 inches tall, she's dropped from a size 22 or 24 to a size 15. The size 2X and 3X T-shirts she used to wear look like dresses on her. And despite her friends' fears about skyrocketing cholesterol, she feels great.
Barry Popkin, director of the Interdisciplinary Obesity Center at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a professor of nutrition and public health, has studied the relationship between large fast-food portions and the obesity epidemic.
Eating only at McDonald's isn't healthy, he said. He worries that Morgan will need more vitamins, minerals, fiber and dairy. But on the plus side, she's doing a good job of limiting her calories and, consequently, she's losing weight.
"She's created, for her lifestyle, a very smart diet," Popkin said. "The moral of the story for every person is, you've got to work out a plan that fits your lifestyle. ... I really admire her restraint. The problem is, it's a lifetime issue."
Morgan dreams of becoming the McDonald's Corp.'s Jared Fogle, the Subway weight-loss poster boy. She figures she might as well find a way to make some money from the experience. So she's been faithfully documenting her diet, stapling receipts in a spiral-bound notebook and propping up her Sony Handycam on the dash, filming herself at each meal. She's been courting the attention of local newspapers and TV stations, inviting reporters to her home and to the McDonald's/Citgo gas station in Henderson, where she picks up many of her meals.
Still, she knows about McDonald's Unsolicited Idea Policy. "We love you, my public. But unless you're a franchise owner, we appreciate all your good ideas, but keep them to yourself," Morgan paraphrased.
Morgan's goal is to lose 40 to 60 pounds. By Day 67, she had lost 33.
Nothing at the restaurant is off limits, although she's only eaten french fries twice -- you're better off eating two cheeseburgers, she said. It hasn't been easy. She'd been consuming about 3,500 calories a day, and cutting that down to a third left her feeling hungry for the first few weeks.
Morgan doesn't have a recommendation for others who might want to try the diet.
"I think other people should do what works for them," she said.
Copyright © 2005 Detroit Free Press Inc.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
hangover food
Date: 2005-08-14 09:26 pm (UTC)