An Iowa teacher and his students are drawing international attention for their so-called “McDonald’s Diet” that helped the teacher lose 37 pounds in three months. Science teacher John Cisna made a short video of the project.
“I made arrangements with Joe and his crews at the local McDonald’s, which is about five minutes from school. Each day I stop in on my way to school and pick up both my breakfast and lunch,” Cisna said. “Then on my way home I stop to pick up dinner and usually end that part of my day reading the newspaper while I enjoy my McDonald’s.”
Three sophomores in Cisna’s biology class at Colo-Nesco planned his diet as a class project. They aimed for 2,000 calories a day and adhered to nutritional guidelines like limiting carbs. Cisna explained the project in his video.
“We are going to try to replicate the ‘Super-Size Me’ documentary that was done, only do it exactly opposite in the way it was done several years ago,” Cisna said. “Instead of starting with somebody that is in shape, that is exercising, whose blood work is very good, we’re going to start from the other end of the spectrum — voila! Mr. Cisna.”
On day one, Cisna weighed 280 pounds and he went for a 30 minute walk.
“Well, I’ll tell you what: my mind says, ‘Yes.’ My body says, ‘Holy buckets, Batman!'” Cisna said. “…This is kind of tough carrying this kind of weight around.”
Cisna soon was walking 45 minutes a day. Cisna weighed 243 on day 90 — 37 pounds less than on day one. The owner of the local McDonald’s was so interested in Cisna’s class experiment that he gave Cisna three meals a day for free. Cisna generally ate egg white delight “McMuffins” and oatmeal for breakfast, salads for lunch and then a “Value Meal” for dinner.