40 Fun Facts About Super Size Me

What happens to Morgan Spurlock in the parking lot after his first Super Size meal in Super Size Me?

He vomits after spending 22 minutes on a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Super Size fries and a 42-ounce Coca-Cola. It was only the second day of the experiment.

In Super Size Me, a doctor compares Morgan Spurlock's diet to the fate of Nicolas Cage's character in which film?

Leaving Las Vegas won Cage an Oscar for playing a man bent on destroying himself within weeks. Dr. Daryl Isaacs made the comparison on day 21, when he urged Spurlock to quit.

In Super Size Me, what is the profession of Morgan Spurlock's girlfriend, who later takes charge of his recovery?

A vegan chef shared his home, so before the experiment Spurlock's dinners were always free of animal products. She advised him against the whole plan.

By day 21 of Super Size Me, doctors warned Morgan Spurlock that his diet was damaging which organ?

Liver tests looked so bad that his physician told him to stop at once. Spurlock carried on to the end of the month anyway.

In 2017, what did Morgan Spurlock admit he had hidden from his doctors while filming Super Size Me?

Heavy drinking never came up in the film, and Spurlock had told his doctors he did not drink. Critics now ask how much of his health scare was really down to burgers.

Whose lawsuit blaming McDonald's for their obesity gave Morgan Spurlock the idea for Super Size Me?

Two teenage girls from New York said they had not known how fattening the food was. Spurlock saw the story on television and wondered what a month of nothing else would do.

Super Size Me argues that fast food chains deserve the same criticism once aimed at which other industry?

Tobacco is the film's parallel: Spurlock argues that fast food, like cigarettes, is both physiologically addictive and physically harmful.

Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock later made a 3D concert film in 2013 about which boy band?

One Direction: This Is Us, released by TriStar Pictures, was a glossy studio job for a director who made his name attacking a corporation.

Don Gorske, interviewed in Super Size Me, holds a Guinness World Record for eating the most of which McDonald's item?

Big Mac devotee Gorske has eaten one almost every day since 1972 and passed 35,000 in 2025. He says he stays trim by skipping sides and walking six miles a day.

Under his own rules for Super Size Me, when did Morgan Spurlock have to order the Super Size option?

Only if offered by the cashier, and never at his own request: the rule that gave the film its title. It came up nine times in the month.

Which blood measurement of Morgan Spurlock's rose to 230 during his Super Size Me month?

Cholesterol of 230 mg/dL was a shock for a man his trainer had rated in above-average shape. He also reported mood swings and a vanishing sex drive.

Roughly how much weight did Morgan Spurlock gain during his month of McDonald's food in Super Size Me?

About 25 pounds went on, a 13 percent rise from where he started. Getting back to his old weight took him 14 months.

In which New York City borough, dense with McDonald's outlets, did Morgan Spurlock live while making Super Size Me?

Manhattan had an average of four McDonald's per square mile, so he could begin day one with breakfast close to home.

During which holiday at his parents' house did Morgan Spurlock see the TV news report that inspired Super Size Me?

Thanksgiving dinner was barely over when the story aired. Spurlock went on to pay for the film out of his own pocket.

At which film festival did Super Size Me premiere in January 2004, earning Morgan Spurlock a directing prize?

Sundance gave the film its launch, and the buzz was loud enough that McDonald's was issuing statements about it before it reached cinemas.

The epilogue of Super Size Me warns that which lighter-sounding McDonald's choice can out-calorie a burger?

Salads can beat burgers for calories once a customer piles on the cheese and dressing, the film's epilogue points out.

Which cable network aired 30 Days, the reality series Morgan Spurlock created after Super Size Me?

FX ran the show for three seasons from 2005. Each episode dropped someone into an unfamiliar life for a month, starting with Spurlock himself on the minimum wage.

What does Morgan Spurlock's own fast food outlet sell in Super Size Me 2, his sequel about industry marketing?

Chicken sandwiches were the product at Holy Chicken, which Spurlock opened to show that fast food's healthier image is more perception than reality.

After Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's second feature documentary followed his search for which wanted man?

Osama bin Laden was the quarry in his 2008 film, which hears from people on both sides of the fight against terrorism along the way.

Super Size Me lost the Best Documentary Feature Oscar to which film co-directed by photographer Zana Briski?

Born into Brothels follows children in Kolkata's red light district who were handed cameras and taught photography. Both films had premiered at the same festival.

Which Hollywood union gave its first ever documentary award to Morgan Spurlock for Super Size Me?

The Writers Guild of America had never honoured a documentary script before. Spurlock beat five other nominees, including Control Room.

What reason did McDonald's give for dropping its Super Size portions weeks after Super Size Me premiered?

Menu simplification was the official line, and a spokesman insisted the change had nothing to do with the film. He added that few Supersize fries were being sold anyway.

Morgan Spurlock ate nine Super Size meals during Super Size Me; in which state did he eat most of them?

Texas accounts for five of the nine, with the other four eaten in New York, where the experiment began.

What happened in 2003 to the obesity lawsuit against McDonald's that inspired Super Size Me?

A judge dismissed it, ruling that the law is not there to protect people from their own excesses. An appeal revived part of the case, which finally failed in 2010.

Why did Morgan Spurlock cap himself at 5,000 steps a day during Super Size Me?

To match typical US habits, he cut his walking to the distance the average American covers. Before the experiment he had been walking about twice as far.

Which record of his Super Size Me month did Morgan Spurlock never publish, fuelling doubts about his calorie claims?

His food log was never released, so nobody could check the 5,000 calories a day the film claims. One rival filmmaker asked for it and was turned away.

Which 2009 reply documentary by comedian Tom Naughton set out to refute the claims of Super Size Me?

Fat Head has Naughton eat mostly McDonald's for a month too, but he holds himself to about 2,000 calories a day and ends up lighter.

Which comedian stars in Super High Me, the 2007 documentary that copies Super Size Me but swaps burgers for cannabis?

Doug Benson went without cannabis for a month, then used it every day for the next. His doctor found the effects on his health generally inconsequential.

Which 2011 documentary about plant-based eating was conceived as the reverse of Super Size Me?

Forks Over Knives flips the premise: its director adopts the diet on camera and his health improves instead of collapsing.

In which country did a university replicate Super Size Me by feeding students 6,000 calories a day for a month?

Sweden's Linköping University ran the trial, handing out free bus passes so volunteers would not walk. None came close to the dangerous readings Spurlock reported.

Which title did Morgan Spurlock give his 2005 written follow-up to Super Size Me about the nation's diet?

Don't Eat This Book expands on the film with the story of how McDonald's began. Kirkus Reviews found it even more disturbing than the documentary.

Who wrote The Great American Detox Diet, based on the plan that helped Morgan Spurlock recover after Super Size Me?

Alex Jamieson, his girlfriend during filming, designed the regime that took the weight back off. The two married in 2006.

In which Ohio city does Morgan Spurlock open his own fast food outlet in the sequel Super Size Me 2?

Columbus hosted the grand opening, which the sequel shows first in a burst of news reels. The film reached cinemas two years after its festival debut.

Which streaming service bought the sequel to Super Size Me for $3.5 million in 2017, then dropped it months later?

YouTube Red pulled out after Spurlock published a confession of past sexual misconduct. Samuel Goldwyn Films released the film in cinemas in 2019 instead.

Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock made a 20th anniversary TV special for which long-running animated series?

The Simpsons marked two decades on air with a Spurlock-directed special whose tongue-in-cheek title promised it in 3-D and on ice.

Which juice brand's name leads the full title of The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, from Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock?

POM Wonderful bought top billing in a documentary about product placement that was itself reportedly financed by product placement.

Which comedian co-hosted The Supersizers, the BBC food history series inspired by Super Size Me, with Giles Coren?

Sue Perkins and Coren ate their way through past eras a week at a time, with medical tests before and after, a format lifted from Spurlock.

During Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock claimed his headaches and low moods eased whenever he did what?

He ate again and felt better: the symptoms lifted after each McDonald's sitting, which led one of his doctors to describe him as addicted.

Which news network aired Inside Man, the documentary series hosted by Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock from 2013?

CNN ran Morgan Spurlock Inside Man from June 2013 to August 2016, with Spurlock as both host and producer.

In which Appalachian state did Morgan Spurlock, the director and star of Super Size Me, grow up?

West Virginia was home: Spurlock grew up in Beckley and later went back to the state to film a coal mining episode of his TV series.