"All Calories Are The Same" (Fat Loss Experiment)

Can you lose weight eating only junk? It sounds ridiculous, but we decided to put it to the test. For the next 30 days, I’ve convinced Brendan, my videographer, to eat only Mcdonalds every day to see if a weight loss diet that works really is as simple as calories in, calories out. Or, if the McDonald’s diet has consequences on his body and health that I never could’ve expected. To see the McDonalds diet effect on Brendan, he’ll not only be doing a DEXA scan to measure his body fat and muscle mass, but we’re also conducting pre and post-blood tests. We’ll also be testing Brendan’s strength before and after the experiment to give us another way to assess if he’s lost any of his hard-earned muscle and strength.

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But for now, it’s time to create a McDonald’s diet plan that'll help him lose weight. Based on Brendan’s current weight, he’ll need to eat a daily target of 2000 calories. But to avoid losing muscle and ending up weaker after the 30 days, he’ll also need to hit a bare minimum of 120 grams of protein. But Dr. Layne Norton explains that the diet may get monotonous after a while, which reduces satisfaction and adherence. So, using Layne’s advice, the meal plan I made for Brendan consists of 3 meals and 2 snacks per day. But rather than locking him into a strict meal plan, I gave him a few different options for each meal. He’ll be logging everything into our new BuiltWithScience+ app. So, as long as he stays within his daily calorie and protein targets, he can modify the meals however he likes.

However, as it turns out, not every healthy meal option I selected for his Mcdonald’s weight loss diet was available in Canada. So, he had to start getting creative — like making his own salad out of his wrap. Brendan also started complaining about his racing heart. Honestly, though, I don’t think Brendan’s racing heart has much to do with his new diet. That's because he’s not only been drinking extra coffee to help with his hunger, but he’s also pretty nervous about what this diet might do to his health. Almost every item on the McDonald’s item is full of saturated fat, highly refined, and stripped of pretty much everything that makes them good. As a result, aside from sodium, he’s not even close to getting even just 50% of most of his recommended nutrients every day.

On day 5, Brendan shared 2 common problems he ran into while eating McDonalds every day. He doesn't always get the order he requests, which means more calories. And he’s having some ... well, difficulties in the toilet. The recommended fiber intake for Brendan is about 35 grams a day. On his McDonald’s meal plan, however, he’s getting less than a third of this, barely reaching 10 grams daily. The “blockage” he’s experiencing has definitely made accurately tracking his weight loss a lot more difficult than anticipated. While Brendan was blaming his lack of progress on his low fiber intake, I wasn’t fully convinced.So I did some deeper investigation.
… and I came up with 2 reasons for why Brendan couldn’t lose weight eating only junk despite supposedly being in a calorie deficit. First, Mcdonald’s was severely under-reporting the calorie contents of their food. Second, the body absorbs more calories from a highly processed diet than a less processed one. So, with Brendan’s heavily processed diet, he may not be in the calorie deficit we initially thought he was, especially with the “hidden calories” that McDonald’s doesn’t seem to take into account. Which means… no more butter on his breakfast sandwiches and no sauces on his wraps and burgers.

So, what was the Mcdonalds diet effect on Brendan after 30 days? Overall, Brendan managed to gain 2 extra reps on his bench and pull-ups, and matched his deadlift strength although he forgot to wear wrist straps, limiting his strength. As for his blood work, The main things we’re looking for are his cholesterol levels, his HbA1c, which is the best blood marker for diabetes, his inflammation levels, and his liver health. Normally, all of these would be negatively impacted by a junk food diet. But what actually happened? Nothing. All his blood work stayed pretty much the same, which is surprising. It turns out weight loss alone is a major health booster and can “balance out” the negative effects you’d expect from a nutrient-deprived, junk food diet. Which now begs the question. What actually happened to Brendan’s weight, fat, and muscle mass? After only eating McDonald’s for 30 days, Brendan dropped 5lbs on the scale, lost three cm off his waistline and according to the results of his DEXA scan ... dropped from 23% body fat percentage to 22% BF. Ultimately, this shows fat loss really is a numbers game.