Super Size Me

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-16-2005
Super Size Me
8
Mon, 03-07-2005 - 11:07pm

How many of you have seen this documentary?

It's Showtime's free week and it was on Showtime this evening. I had heard about this movie but had never watched it before.


For everyone that is unfamiliar with it, as an experiment a VERY healthy man (6'2", 185 lbs, 11% Body Fat, low cholesteral, very healthy in general) went on a 30 day McDonald's diet.


The rules were simple:


1) No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!)
2) No supersizing unless offered
3) No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once


In 30 days he gained over 25 pounds. Additionally he was in extremely poor health at the end. Even his doctors (three of them!) had no idea that it would effect his this badly. It took him close to a year to lose the weight he gained during this experiment and 8 weeks just to get his blood work back to normal.


The movie covered other things as well such as the lunches in schools today, lack of physical education of our youth, etc.


I strongly recommend this movie to everyone. I am making my 14 year olds watch this tomorrow. I really think it is a major eye opener.

~Crystal


aka p001ha11princess


Member of:


Getting Fit in Your 30's

Never Say Diet

Book Reviews


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 6:38am

Thanks for the review Crystal. I haven't seen this "movie"....wonder how much money that man got paid to do the "experiment", and if he felt it was worth it in the end??


Don't know if I'd be interested in watching it though- can't understand why someone would want to put themselves through something SO ridiculous!!

~IslandGirl


:~:~: Moderation is Key :~:~:

Getting Fit In Your 30's
cl-vi_islandgirl

_____________________________________________________

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2004
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 6:45am
Nobody paid him to do it, it was a documentary. He thought of it after McDonald's had that lawsuit against them for the fat children, and a McDonald's spokesperson stated on TV that you could eat it everyday, that it was healthy. I think the spokesperson mispoke, so he decided to do an experiment with it.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-21-2005
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 7:56am

I don't have cable, so I haven't seen that. I would like to though. And I was told by someone (didn't read it or see it myself) that some lady did a mcdonalds diet for a month or two and she *lost* weight...but I am pretty sure she was counting calories. Seems like she had an egg mcmuffin every morning...but I can't remember the rest. I did not hear about her arteries and blood work or anything though...I really wonder how that turned out. I wonder if Super Size Me will be in the movie rental stores at some point?

Kim

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2004
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 8:42am

If he only ate their salad and an egg mcmuffin and a hamburger no fries and a diet soda you could probably lose weight. But he had to eat everything on the menu at least once, and if they asked him if he wanted to supersize he would.

Its gross to be sure, but I looked up mcdonald's salads online, and nutritionally they aren't too bad, as long as you stick with the grilled chicken. Wendy's aren't bad either, Papa Ginos on the other hand, stay away. Not much is good on their menu. Their chicken Caesar pocket has 962 calories and way too much sodium.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-16-2005
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 10:08am
I know my local Blockbuster has it in the new release section.

~Crystal


aka p001ha11princess


Member of:


Getting Fit in Your 30's

Never Say Diet

Book Reviews


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 11:27am
I didn't realize that he didn't get paid....interesting that he took this upon himself!!
~IslandGirl


:~:~: Moderation is Key :~:~:

Getting Fit In Your 30's
cl-vi_islandgirl

_____________________________________________________

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2004
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 11:47am

When I called my friend Scott Ambrozy (the DP for the film) on Thanksgiving 2002 and told him my idea for Super Size Me, he laughed uncontrollably and said, “Wow, that’s a really great bad idea.” That would go on to be our mantra, especially during the month when I found myself feeling worse than I ever thought possible: “This is a great bad idea.”

Leading up to my sadistic epiphany, you couldn’t turn on the TV without hearing about the “obesity epidemic in America” or of the girls who were suing McDonald’s. It seemed as though all of America and the world had suddenly gotten “Fat Happy.”

We went into pre-production immediately, calling experts and doctors, setting up interviews and scheduling travel. Two months from the day I called Scott we were in full production. And that’s the wonderful thing about video, if you can pull together the elements, you can make a movie quickly and cheaply.

I had always wanted my first feature film to be something different, off-center, original. We found all of the above and more with Super Size Me. It started off as such a fun experience, you can see the jubilation on my face on Day One, but as the days pass, the reality of what this food does to you really comes across on screen. The days couldn’t go by fast enough for me … I just wanted this experience to be over.

Post-production was happening simultaneously with production, Stela Georgieva, our lead editor, began logging tapes, and cataloging footage immediately. She hired a staff of interns to help transcribe the footage and by the time the assembly edit began and the majority of production was complete, around mid-July, nearly all of the first 200 hours of footage had been reviewed.

All in, we shot more than 250 hours worth of footage, spent less than $75,000, traveled more than 25,000 miles and managed to make a movie, from concept to fruition, in less than one year – and it helped push McDonald’s to end Super Sizing before it even hit the theatres! I’m pretty proud of that. I hope you enjoy it – a lot of pain and suffering (mostly by me) was endured to create it.

Found at www.supersizeme.com

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-04-2003
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 1:57pm

I know my son's sports excel class actually had to watch this as an informative piece at school.