I was chatting to one of our members the other day.
Let’s call her Claire.
Because that’s her name.
It’s the same Claire who tells her story at our monthly find out more meeting (that you can book in for here if you’re ready to stop yo-yoing and make some serious, lasting changes –>myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting).
She mentioned that she’d seen my step-daughter in McDonald’s with her Dad (Izzie’s not Claire’s, that would be random).
She then immediately looked guilty.
She’d just revealed to me that she’d been in McDonald’s.
We then made some joke about how she was only in there looking for directions on how to get away from there (like Principal Skinner and the burlesque house).
Before I pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with going to McDonald’s.
It’s what you do while there (like what you do in anywhere you eat food) that makes the difference.
In 2003 Morgan Spurlock gained 24.5lbs in one month and many health markers got worse by eating all his meals there.
Last year a guy called Ryan Williams did the same last year and lost 16lbs.
But Spurlock averaged over 5,000 calories a day and didn’t exercise.
Williams kept between 2,300 and 2,500 (he’s a biggish guy so that’s more than a smaller person could do it on for anyone that’s thinking that’s still quite a lot) and exercised regularly.
Now, I’m not advising either approach.
We don’t know about any other health markers for old Ry-dog.
And I would question how much will-power most people would requite to eat in a deficit when having a lot of food that’s designed to be ‘hyper-palatable’ (really moreish, easy to eat and, therefore to overdo).
But the point I’m making is that a bit of McDonald’s (other fast food establishments are available) here and there is fine.
If………..
The average of the week and month is sufficient to take you in the right direction.
That’s the key.
If we go to McDonald’s and think we’ve “failed” on our diet and go for a super sized meal with full fat coke, an apple pie and a McFlurry (1,698 calories innit)…………
And then use that as a justification to ‘write off’ the ‘diet’ for the rest of the weekend and pop a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and a bottle of wine (another 2,000 ish cals) on top of tea that night……….
And miss the next day’s workout………
And so on…………
Then, yeah, we’ll gain weight, etc.
If we go to McDonald’s and eat like a sensible grown up……..
And don’t let it affect any future eating or exercise choices……….
Or adjust a little if some ‘averaging out’ is then required………..
Then we’re golden (arches) 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Ronald’ Hall and Matt ‘Hamburglar’ Nicholson
P.S. Gotta be honest, I nicked this subject line from another blog I saw – wanted to see what it did to the open rate 🙂
