People have lost weight on an exclusive “McDonald’s Diet” before, where they basically show that calories-in/calories-out works on even the McDonald’s menu. It’s not very nutritious, and your health won’t improve much, outside of any weight you might lose.

A better McDonald’s-based diet would be the following:

1. All the McDonald’s hamburgers you can eat (240 cal/each)
2. You must add lots of veggies to each burger
3. You can eat all the additional fruit and veggies you want

This works as a healthy long-term diet, because you’ll get all the macronutrients (calories) you need from the hamburger and bun, but more importantly, you’ll get plenty of micronutrients and fiber from all the fruits and vegetables. The key to all successful diets is always the fruits and vegetables. Their micronutrients reduce inflammation throughout the body, and let the body heal and function correctly. The fiber fills you up, and keeps you from over-eating. You’ll stop eating hamburgers when you’re full.

Would anyone follow this diet? Probably not. Once you start buying produce, you’ll figure out that real food tastes a hundred times better than fast food. It’s just an example showing how we really derive our health from fruits and vegetables, and the macronutrient source doesn’t really matter.