1. Mike Gevons: The Fast Food Experiment
2. Motivation and Past Diets
3. The Documentary and the "MacDiet"
4. The Experiment: Ups and Downs
5. The Results and Takeaways

Mike Gevons: The Fast Food Experiment

Trying McDonald's for a Week, Three Times a Day

Mike Gevons, now 33 years old, embarked on a dietary experiment in which he consumed McDonald's three times a day for seven days. Surprisingly, he lost 2.27 kg. Over the period from March 21 to 28, 2018, Gevons visited McDonald's 21 times, indulging in everything from Bacon & Egg McMuffins to Quarter Pounders and Big Macs.

Motivation and Past Diets

Living in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, with his 28-year-old wife Grace, Gevons was motivated to try the "McDiet" as it fit into his series of unusual dietary challenges. "I've done a couple of weeks of really awful diets in the past," he explained, "so I'm always thinking about what's next."

"I've done a month of baby food, a month of tinned food, and a month of frozen stuff from Iceland, including weird stuff like chicken tikka lasagne." Gevons also mentioned that the worst diet he tried was a "Lose 6 Pounds in 7 Days," which consisted primarily of boiled eggs and grapefruit.

The Documentary and the "MacDiet"

Gevons was inspired to try the experiment after watching the 2004 documentary "Super Size Me," in which Morgan Spurlock ate McDonald's exclusively for three meals a day for 30 days. Spurlock gained 24.5 pounds during the experiment, a 11% increase in body weight.

"I think the documentary takes it to extremes," Gevons said. "If you're eating 5,000 calories a day, obviously you're going to put on weight and get ill health."

"I wanted to stick to government guidelines - for calories, fat, and salt - to see if it was possible to have a balanced diet from one outlet, and whether I would still be satisfied and full at the end of it."

The Experiment: Ups and Downs

Keeping a meticulous food diary to record the nutritional information of everything he ate, Gevons began his plan in March. A lover of fast food, he was excited at first but soon realized that the breakfast items - muffins, bagels, and porridge - were not enough to sustain him until lunch.

"I knew I was going to have a big burger for dinner, so I'd have a salad or a wrap for lunch," Gevons said. "But my energy levels crashed after that."

He added, "By the time I got to my evening meal, it was almost a bit of a high. It was like a fix for an addict. My relationship with food that week was weird. On the one hand, I got really bored of eating the same stuff, but on the other, I couldn't wait for my next burger."

By Day 3, Gevons developed stomach issues due to the high fat content of the food he was consuming. He believes the low-calorie sodas he drank also contributed to the problem.

"To keep within my calories, I had to cut out where I could," Gevons said. "The Diet Cokes were a lifesaver at first because there was so much fat in the food, but after a while I felt like they were making me ill. I felt quite sluggish and lethargic by the end."

The Results and Takeaways

By the end of the week, Gevons was craving healthy food and looking forward to the end of the experiment. Despite this, he managed to calculate his calories carefully enough to end the week with a "victory meal" of a Quarter Pounder with cheese.

To his surprise, the weigh-in revealed that he had lost weight during the week, from 217 pounds to 211.8 pounds.

Citizen