The day after - Monday 20 September

I've lost weight, as expected. I started the diet at 15 stone (210lb) and ended it at 14st 11.5lb (207.5lb). Not exactly Slimmer of the Year but not bad for one week when I only occasionally felt hungry, I even had one blow-out and I ate a reasonably balanced diet.

I celebrated in the proper manner: with a bacon butty for breakfast. But this was on wholemeal bread. I never thought I'd miss fibre...

I'm sure that a week of burgers, fries, coke and milkshakes would be rather boring, stodgy and mildly nauseating. But you could survive for a very long time on it. But the coverage of fast food seems to conclude that as soon as you eat it you'll be sick, your cholesterol will go through the roof, you'll be at death's door in days. Take this seven-day McDiet in the Observer recently:

Diary of a fast food virgin, Observer, 11 July 2004.

Fast-food virgin? Where has this man been living?

Day seven - Sunday 19 September: thank god it's only one more day...

McDonald's food is fine. The introduction of salads and fruit has given it the semblance of variety and nutritional value, but it is still a limited menu. I crave variety. Spices might be nice.

Anyway, another dash to Lady Bay drive-thru for a Big Breakfast. Justine is nobly letting me buy her food so she can support me. Then we hit the pictures, took in Collateral, then down to Castle Marina. Which was mobbed. McDonald's on the weekend is a private sector wing of the child minding industry. Even when the kids aren't in a birthday party, there is plenty of entertainment value is a hamburger.

Evening time and I'm desperately short of interesting options. It's chicken flatbread, salad and fruit again. But it's the last supper, and I've stuck to my diet and kept the calories down.

Calorie count:

Big Breakfast - 591
Big Mac - 493
French Fries (medium) - 293
Diet Coke (medium) - 2
Fruit & Yogurt - 150
Grilled Chicken Flatbread - 298
Garden Side Salad - 13
Fruit Bag - 43

Totals - 1883

Day six - Saturday 18 September: a country walk is called for

It's a nice day for a walk. It's cool, overcast and breezy, but dry. I leap out of bed at 9am and drive to the McDonalds at Lady Bay for a breakfast takeaway, shared in bed with the missus. I select the Double Bacon and Egg McMuffin - which doesn't seem terribly different from the regular Bacon and Egg McMuffin. It still gets scoffed happily, though.

Then, after months of good intentions, we set off on a country walk. We drive about 10 miles north-east of Nottingham and have a walk through fields and meadows by the Trent for a little under two hours. Justine has brought the pedometer which tells us that she has taken over 10,000 steps. We feel a bit tired but no more than you would after an afternoon's shopping.

However, we have not brought food or water with us which is a mistake. Within a couple of minutes of getting back into the car I feel a bit carsick and my head is throbbing. We have no cash and our first port of call (Lady Bay again) doesn't take cards. Justine gets the sirens on and we dash down to Castle Marina. After all this, I take it easy, get two chicken salads. I have a yogurt for dessert, she fancies something chocolatey.

But the first thing entering my mouth when I get home is two Nurofen...

Calorie count:

Dbl Bacon & Egg McMuffin - 412
Crispy Chicken Ranch Salad with dressing - 501
Fruit & Yogurt - 150
Grilled Chicken Flatbread - 298
French Fries (large) - 412

Total - 1773

Day five - Friday 17 September: time to gross out

I feel I've been wimping out up until now. None of the food so far has provided a proper McDonalds saturated fat gross-out. So, I marched into the store today and helped myself to a Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin. Which, actually, was okay. Not as good as a Bacon and Egg McMuffin, but really quite palatable. But breakfast time really is the moment to go for something artery-clogging because you know you will burn it off.

Here's another article, this time a review of Super Size Me by Spiked colleague Brendan O'Neill. It draws out the anti-masses implications of Spurlock's film:

spiked-culture | Article | Bashing the McMasses

Calorie count:

Dbl Sausage & Egg McMuffin - 573
Hash Brown - 138
Grilled Chicken Flatbread - 298
Garden Side Salad With Balsamic Dressing - 43
Big Mac - 493
Fruit Bag - 43
Milkshake – Banana (regular) - 396

Total - 1984

Day four - Thursday 16 September: I may already have lost some weight!

Stood on the scales this morning and I seem to be two pounds lighter than when I started. But one swallow does not make a summer. And two pounds don't make a slimmer.

Another delayed train this morning, but I don't seem to be craving food madly as I did before. Maybe my stomach now realises that 9.30am is breakfast time. Had the Big Breakfast which is in fact just a Sausage and Egg McMuffin by any other name with a hash brown. Still, it was tasty enough. For lunch, I had a McChicken Sandwich and another Chicken Ranch Salad. Sounds a lot - and it is - but surprisingly few calories. I'm stuffed.

Just to illustrate the utter lack of originality of this site, here's another article about another McDieter:

"Soso Whaley lost ten pounds while eating three meals a day for 30 days at McDonalds! She says she feels great. Her secret: she limited herself to 1,800 calories a day. Sometimes she ate the Big Mac, but for lots of meals she ate the Chicken Caesar Salad."

McDiet: Losing Weight On Fast Food? - Center for Global Food Issues (CGFI)

Calorie count:

Big Breakfast - 591
Grilled Chicken Ranch Salad with dressing - 396
McChicken Sandwich - 375
Filet-O-Fish - 385
French Fries (medium) - 293

Total - 2040

Day three - Wednesday 15 September: McDonalds food is okay, but the pedometers suck

Had a reasonable stretch of the legs this morning getting back to civilisation from Tottenham - a couple of miles at least. Stopped off for a Sausage and Egg McMuffin, which I scoffed with a cup of tea back at the Spiked office. Lunch was a Quorn McPremiere, McD's current veggie alternative. Like a Chicken Premiere, only with all the flavour surgically removed. Fries and a yogurt for dessert - it went down very nicely.

In fact, I have no complaints about my diet so far, except that I'm missing out on other tasty alternatives. The smell of tandoori from the Raj next to McD's in Farringdon was very tempting, and I was a bit jealous at the thought of the missus at home chomping on gnocchi carbonara, a personal favourite.

I bought a pedometer for 99p in McD's on Tuesday. It is crap. Stick to burgers, guys.

Thought I would start to link to one or articles about Super Size Me while I write. This one is by Ruth Kava from the American Council on Science and Health. It's from Tech Central Station, a free-market website which you just knew was going to defend McDonald's on principle. I don't much care for the free-market philosophy but they can present themselves as the defenders of rationality if others are just going to blame individual companies for the ills of society. I personally stacked on the pounds through too much curry and carbonara - but nobody is demanding the closure of Indian and Italian restaurants!

TCS: Tech Central Station - A Supersized Distortion: Mr. Spurlock is simply following an old Hollywood tradition -- gaining weight to suit a movie role

Calorie count:

Sausage & Egg McMuffin - 427
Quorn Premiere - 311
French Fries (medium) - 293
Diet Coke (medium) - 2
Quarter Pounder with Cheese - 516
Apple Pie - 230

Total - 1779

Day two - Tuesday 14 September: back to work, and off the wagon

Had to dash into work today as I was doing a spot on Newstalk 106, a Dublin radio station. I did however manage to get to Mickey D's at Farringdon in time to grab a Bacon and Egg McMuffin and a cup of tea. Lovely.

Lunch continued the culture shock of the McDonalds salad. I had the Crispy Chicken Ranch Salad (Crispy being a euphemism for fried), with another cup of tea. Fries clearly don't work with salads, so the charge that one of these salads is the same as a Big Mac calorie-wise is a bit misleading. If you pour the extremely generous sachet of dressing over the salad (a process known generally as 'drowning') then it is the same number of calories as a Big Mac without the fries. But who eats the Big Macs on their own?

However, the wheels will come off tonight as I'm invited round for dinner by my maternity-leaving commissioning editor Jennie Bristow. A roast dinner is planned. I'll have to have a detox of a Big Breakfast tomorrow...

Calorie count:

Bacon & Egg McMuffin(TM) - 346
Chicken Ranch Salad - 501

Total (@ McD's) - 847

Day one - Monday 13 September: a travel disaster

I live in Nottingham but commute to London most days - a trip which usually takes a little under two hours. However, Monday was a disaster. The trains were completely screwed up and I eventually just turned tale and went home, having completed an utterly pointless round-trip of five hours.

I still hadn't eaten, more to the point. So I headed to McDonalds in Nottingham city centre and had my first supper: a Chicken McPremiere meal with diet coke. Which was surprisingly nice, although my mother did always say that hunger was the best sauce.

Dinner was a bit of a culture shock. With Big Macs you now get the choice of fries or salad. What happened to tradition and the American Way? Anyhow, I had the salad, with a fruit yogurt for dessert.

Calorie count:

McChicken Premiere - 481
French Fries - 293
Diet Coke (medium) - 2
Big Mac - 493
Garden Side Salad - 13
Fruit & Yogurt - 150

Total - 1,432