This is my opinion on the film:
Morgan Spurlock is the star and director of Super Size Me. The entire film is outrageous and incredibly far-fetched. Morgan Spurlock tried to demonstrate that his health was deteriorating at an astronomical rate. His weight was rising quickly and rose almost twenty five pounds throughout the entire experiment. During the film it was specifically stated that “There are the heavy users, who eat at their restaurants once or twice a week, and there are super heavy users, who eat McDonald's three or more times a week.” Morgan ate McDonalds twenty one times a week (Three meals a day, seven days a week). That is seven times the average McDonald’s user who eats there often. Not only that, but his meals added up to over 5,000 calories a day. The recommended daily calories for an adult is around 2,300. His diet was over twice the recommended amount. To add to the exceedingly ridiculous diet, Morgan didn’t get any exercise. According to the movie, the average American walks 5,000 steps a day, which equates to roughly two miles. Morgan didn’t even remotely meet that standard. He barely moved at all throughout his entire experiment. The combination of the two dietary extremes resulted in entirely misconstrued data. Morgan Spurlock attempted to drive at the large number of obese children. His emotional attack didn’t work as he was coming from the wrong direction. Kids aren’t obese totally as a result of fast food, but rather from a lack of reasonably sized meals and proper exercise. Fast food is very bad for you, that’s not in question, and it will contribute to obesity when eaten, but almost any diet will do that. Any food consumed in too large amounts will cause one to grow fat. The only exception to this rule is water, which isn’t even a food. Any energy not used by consumed food is stored as fat, and that includes excess of known healthy foods such as broccoli. Fat children are overweight as a result of the large portions of food American’s are used to and lack of exercise. Although, it is sometimes acceptable to eat massive amounts of food if one has a high metabolic rate. Having a high metabolism is the result of proper exercise. The epitome of this is the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who consumes a whooping 12,000 calories a day. His rigorous training provides him with a metabolism equivalent to five or six people. Kids who play sports generally don’t have an issue with obesity even with an occasional Happy Meal. Despite the shocking results in Super Size Me, under close examination the actual legitimacy of Morgan Spurlock’s experiment doesn’t add up. The conditions of his diet were too extreme, way too little exercise and an outrageously high calorie intake. The slam on childhood obesity was presented as completely the result of fast food chains, when in fact obesity is obtained through a wide variety of bad habits. In a nutshell, Super Size Me is an exaggerated, opinion-based experiment, aimed to blame America’s obesity “epidemic” on the fast food giants such as McDonald’s instead of our own poor choices.

it was a good film

it wasn't exaggerated, it just showed what would or could happen to a person if they ate junk food every day, mcdonald's that is.

I personally don't mind junk food from time to time, but I don't like mcdonalds etc, and to eat it every day...yuk really.

aili : That's exactly what I'm talking about though, nobody eats McDonald's food every day.The conditions were too extreme and that caused it to be a poorly made experiment and doesn't provide conclusive data that McDonald's is the cause of obesity in America. I'm not saying you're wrong but it would be nice if you offered more support to your argument.

I liked the film but it stated the obvious. Too much of anything (especially Micky Deez) is bad for you. I would recommend the book Fast Food Nation. It goes much deeper than the movie.

I thought the film was both entertaining and informative. Nothing a little sense and a health class can't teach you though. Anyone see his other productions of the same reality movie documentary style?

ncstatefanrs : it wasn't an argument, I wasn't trying to convince you - it was merely my opinion.
Refresh my memory - did it say in the movie that mcdonalds is the cause of obesity in America? or that it is just one part of it? because it is one part, definitely.


the movie, like you said, was an experiment.
it gives us an idea to compare with reality. it is not reality itself.
an experiment.
I hope I offered more to my opinion now.
but it's interesting though, because junk food for some is already a subculture.

I kinda have to agree with the film and its message, although i admit he did go to the extreme to do it. Im not going to say that fast food or McDonalds is to blame entirely for Americas obesity problem, but it is a factor. As we progress as a country, many people turn to fast food instead of a healthy meal. I think him using Mcdonalds was a perfect example because of their dollar menu. They make it so cheap to eat their, while getting a healthy sandwhich at Subways costs like 7 dollars. I think that he had a good idea, but he didnt portray it in a good manner.

'Twas not scientific! He didn't approach the experiment realistically. Even if someone ordered McDonald's three times a day every day, they should at least have some sense to exercise. Also, nobody orders 15 items, eats until they throw up, and continues eating.

Watched it once in health class and everybody remembers it. It was horrible.

He pretty much attempted to make McDonald's, the richest chain food in the world, change something that ain't going to get changed. That's like trying to make Bill Gates stop being head of Microsoft.

Also, you can go to any fast food joint and get healthy food. It's not much but it's available. There was a middle school teacher who had a diet of only fast food restaurants, lost 30 pounds doing it, and showed that decisions can be made, even at the unhealthiests of restaurants.

I could eat at McDonald's, get certain foods, and be healthy. Sure, putting crap in your body is unhealthy but you can make decisions.

Actually the Healthy stuff in a lot of fast fiid restaurants came soon AFTER the movie came out. I think they to agreed it was gross.

You know that the patties and buns of a cheese burger at McDonalds NEVER rot. There is a lady who has had her cheese burger for 11 years, and shows it to her class when she teaches a certain unit in her school. It looks the same as it did when she got it. It's because they have so many preservatives in them.

I agree that you shouldn't eat there all the time. But it's still the concept of moderation.

It's like an episode of South Park where everybody starts spontaneously combusting because they didn't fart enough, but then they all started to fart non stop, and then the greenhouse gasses got to them and the farts all got on fire.

Reading a super long post at three am doesn't go well. all I remember is after watching the film I went out to eat McDonalds. OOOH MAN! It tasted soooo good. hopefully he makes a sequel eating Pizza Hut pizza. Boy do I love pizza.

IO work in fast good. There are people who eat at least once a day at the Wendy's... Some eat more than once every day. He was not exaggerating but showing it as kind of a time-lapse. I see him trying to warn people about their kids eating fast good as much as they do. The fast food industry targets children with their kid's meals. I know it seems obvious from the names but California has actually banned the sale of toys at places like McDonald's.

I agree, the only thing the guy was trying to convey to us in that documentary is the dangers of overeating at our favorite fast food joints. Our nation has become extremely obese, and this man wanted to show us how it happens first hand. I think that all of us really need to listen up, and change our ways. Otherwise were going to become a nation of fat pigs, if we aren't already.

We watched that film in gym class although we didn't finish it. It was overall a good film.






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Mostly, it's pretty informative on how stuff is made in their industry and how bad eating choices can really affect you. But I think it would have been better if they came up with a way where he can chose what he wants to eat, instead of always having certain things on the menu(from what I can remember). That way it would be a bit more realistic, and he can chose better stuff on their menu like stuff in their "healthy menu".

But the healthy menu is far from that. Salads at fast food places have high sodium and sugars. The only way to eat healthily is by not ordering dressing with that salad and not drinking soda at all.

Scorpyx : Actually it does happen. Bulimia is surprisingly common in America.

As for other claims of it being unrealistic... well, the average of walking 2 miles is so low because there are a lot of people that get almost no exercise at all. I know a lot of people like that.

At the same time, I can point to an example of a guy eating nothing but McDonalds every day for decades and not being overweight (two Big Macs a day, two diet sodas, moderate activity). In fact, he was featured in the movie according to Wikipedia. I think it is a good example of how portion control does have more effect than anything else. I remember reading a news article about him back in 2003 or so and it was shocking to me, but I think that is largely because I hate the BigMac and never liked them even when I did eat at McDonalds (I haven't for years).