Private MD News

University offers cash for deliberate weight gain

Category: General Wellness

Harkening back to the 2004 documentary Super Size Me, wherein filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's for a month, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are paying study participants as much as $3,500 to consume a diet that will surely increase the results of their cholesterol testing.

According to ABC News, Dr. Samuel Klein is investigating the development of diabetes and hypertension in overweight and obese individuals by asking people to sign up to consume 1,000 extra calories worth of fast food every day for three months in order to gain 5 to 6 percent of their original body mass.

Those who volunteered for the research were paid $50 to lose whatever weight they gained after the study was complete. ABC News reported that one woman gained 16 pounds after eight weeks of extra fast food, and reported feeling "awful" two weeks in. A man who already weighed almost 250 pounds told the new source that his knees and ankles began to ache after four weeks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that dangerously high blood cholesterol is asymptomatic. Therefore, it is important to routinely undergo cholesterol testing to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.