An Irish personal trainer is eating McDonalds every day for two weeks to prove that, when it comes to losing weight, it’s not what you eat but how much of it.
Westmeath fitness instructor Oisin Mulligan has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on his Instagram and TikTok pages since beginning the challenge eight days ago.
On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, he said the challenge was about showing people they don’t need to cut out the foods they enjoy if they want to lose weight.
He said he is not encouraging anyone to eat fast food every day – but is trying to show that, “even if you did, it is not necessarily going to affect your weight in a negative way.”
“I am eating McDonalds – well one item from the menu – every single day for two weeks and losing weight at the same time,” he said.
“I’m doing it by staying in a calorie deficit. Essentially, our body burns so many calories per day or utilises so much energy every day and if you just eat a little bit less than that, no matter what you eat, within that you will lose weight.
“That’s what I am trying to show everyone – that you don’t have to cut out the foods you enjoy.”
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As a personal trainer, Mr Mulligan uses exercises five or six times a week; however, he is cutting that out for the duration of the challenge to show that, provided he maintains a calorie deficit, he won’t gain weight.
“I think a lot of people have taken a lot from it,” he said. “People feel afraid of certain foods or feel like they can’t consume the foods they enjoy and lose weight at the same time.
“If someone calls your food bad or says McDonalds is inherently bad or your chocolate bar is bad, when you consume that food, it makes you feel bad.
“So, I’m trying to remove that and a lot of people have been interacting with me saying Jesus, you opened my eyes to that food isn’t going to inherently make me put on weight.
“It is the amount of food or how many calories I intake – not necessarily the type of food.”
@mulligainz_fitnessNo single food is going to make you gain weight 😵 ##caloriedeficit ##cc ##diet ##fit ##fitness ##fat ##fatloss ##abs ##fyp ##xyz ##keto ##detox ##women ##skinny ##A♬ Hold Me Like You Used To - Zoe Wees
He said he still aims to do 10,000 steps per day and, outside of his daily trip to McDonalds, he is eating healthy foods.
“I actually cut back my training completely to show people that you don’t actually have to do extreme exercise to lose weight either,” he said. “Your body will burn calories lying in your bed.
“If you were to go into a coma - it is called your basic metabolic rate - essentially you would burn calories in that coma and the hospital would have to feed you so many calories to keep you going.”
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