So Super Size Me is somewhat well-done; the vast majority of the info is talking with experts like a normal documentary, the “experiment” is mostly just communicated as a framing device for unrelated discussion. (This is not 100% true because one convo with an expert is with his sexual partner, describing how the “saturated fats have gotten to his penis” and how she “always has to be on top now” due to his diet.)
However I do think it's clear in how it's framed that we're meant to categorize his McDonald's experience as informative, holding out that this experiment has some connection to the consequences we might experience from eating McDonald’s, and the problem is that he doesn't conduct the experiment in a realistic way. He was to be frank intentionally trying to generate the biggest possible weight gain in 30 days that he could. If you look carefully when he lays out his food in front of you, you'll see both a full-calorie soda AND a shake or ice cream at each meal, in addition to the super-size fries and the sandwich. The folks in the movie who saw his food log say he was consuming 5000 kcal/day, which I think is being sold as “oh my gosh I had no idea it was this easy to overeat at McDonald's.” That sentiment is not correct given the context—qnd the numbers are likely an underestimate because like folks have said, he took it seriously that he was meant to only “eat McDonald's” but gave himself latitude to drink non-McDonalds.
>one convo with an expert is with his sexual partner, describing how the “saturated fats have gotten to his penis” and how she “always has to be on top now” due to his diet.
Huh. The teacher either fast forwarded through that "interview", or the school version was strategically condensed.
Alas, if only it was that easy. Forget fast food, McDonald's would be a trillion dollar industry for men everywhere.
>If you look carefully when he lays out his food in front of you, you'll see both a full-calorie soda AND a shake or ice cream at each meal, in addition to the super-size fries and the sandwich.
That may sound unrealistic, but that's not outside the realm of how some people eat. Maybe not all each meal, but throughout a day of eating. 5000 can make sense for a month to attempt to "prototype" the difference, because 3000 a day for years will show the results are much worse than any short experiment.
However I do think it's clear in how it's framed that we're meant to categorize his McDonald's experience as informative, holding out that this experiment has some connection to the consequences we might experience from eating McDonald’s, and the problem is that he doesn't conduct the experiment in a realistic way. He was to be frank intentionally trying to generate the biggest possible weight gain in 30 days that he could. If you look carefully when he lays out his food in front of you, you'll see both a full-calorie soda AND a shake or ice cream at each meal, in addition to the super-size fries and the sandwich. The folks in the movie who saw his food log say he was consuming 5000 kcal/day, which I think is being sold as “oh my gosh I had no idea it was this easy to overeat at McDonald's.” That sentiment is not correct given the context—qnd the numbers are likely an underestimate because like folks have said, he took it seriously that he was meant to only “eat McDonald's” but gave himself latitude to drink non-McDonalds.
For these reasons and more, people since the wild success of the movie have struggled to replicate his results. See e.g. https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/2022/03/supersize-me-failed-rep... for some quick excerpts from some of these different folks.