Oh, brother…
A new study at Washington University in St. Louis is looking for participants who would be willing to eat only fast food for 3 months! And they’re paying folks $3,500 to do it!
The researchers want to study obesity and why some overweight people develop certain diseases like diabetes or cardiovascular conditions.
This seems like a really bad idea, but if you’re interested, I’ve got all the details:
You’ve got to be between 18 and 65 years old, a non-smoker, and non-diabetic. Lastly, you must already be at least 30 pounds overweight.
During the study, the participants can only eat at McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and Burger King. Plus, you have to gain at least 5% of your body weight during the study.
I think I could live off of those 7-layer burritos at Taco Bell for a few days, but after that I’d be screwed.
I suppose the one positive aspect of the study is that they will enroll you in a weight loss program after the study has been completed.
You can apply to participate in the study here.
Between this and the NASA study that is paying people $5,000/month to not get out of bed for 90 days, we think the “Wall-E” version of the human race’s future might not be that far off….
Good luck Penny Hoarders!
Would you be a dear and Stumble this article?
This is awesome and kind of sad all at once. It’s awesome because it sounds like an interesting way to make a few extra bucks but I can’t imagine it’s going to be a pleasant experience. Even the not getting out of bed for 90 days sounds tough. I think something like this could be interesting if you were a road warrior type and always travelling. I think the major things to consider besides your health is the benefit the extra cash will have over the cost of these meals on the rest of your life – something to think about is that the majority of our socialization happens with food involved.
$3,500 certainly isn’t anything to sneeze at, but no thanks. Eating only fast food for three months sounds pretty awesome in theory, but you’ve gotta gain 5% of your body weight. If you’re already 30 pounds overweight, imagine how difficult it’ll be to get back to a healthy weight.
I wouldn’t do it. $3500 isn’t nearly enough for me to destroy my health and, admittedly, my body/beauty. It would take forever to burn off, and the worst part is fast food is addictive, so who knows if the people in the study will be able to stop eating it after the study is over.
What scientific study has determined that fast food is addictive????
I never heard anything more ridiculous…….
Anything that is not good for your health is usually addictive. Common sense and life experience is more important sometimes then scientific studies. You must be a master of fast food yourself if you want to determine a scientific study about fast food consumption to be 100% reliable.
Either of thee scenarios is likely to make test subjects very sick, indeed. That evidently is the reason for the apparently startling honorarium. In fact, what they’re offering is peanuts. If you stay prone in bed, you will begin to suffer osteoporosis and a host of other unpleasant ailments. And we all know what stuffing ourselves with greasy, salty fast food is likely to do to us.
Anyone who would take risks like these for $3,500 or $5,000 needs to have his (or her!) IQ points tested.
Ugh! TRIPLE super-size me!
This sounds fabulous and is pretty much what i already do If only i could afford to maintain my fast food addiction… Not 30lbs overweight though… i wonder if they factor in people who DO eat nothing but fast food and gain no weight…
This would have been perfect for me since I am 8 months pregnant. Too bad I’ll have my baby in 1 month not 3. lol I will suggest this for other expectant moms who are early in their pregnancies and can afford to gain lots of weight!
What about the health of your child? I don’t think you want your child to be born with an open spine or something equally terrible due to lack of vitamins like folic acid.
Getting fat because of natural reasons is not a reason to eat around.
3500 is not even going be enough to cover the long term health care costs.
this has already been tried? who was the US guy who did the program about it?
his doctor got really worried about him.