04:51 PM Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, September 14, 2004

By Brandy Aguilar / NewsChannel 3 producer

Kevin O'Connor has been eating McDonald's for breakfast, lunch and dinner since July 1.

O'Connor said after seeing the movie "Supersize Me" where filmmaker Morgan Spurlock documents the effects of eating only meals from McDonald's for a month, he wanted to try it for himself.

"After seeing the movie, I was offended by his position and what he portrayed fat people or obese people to be," he said. "So, trying to get the government to regulate things for us, I was offended by that because I think people should be responsible for their own actions and what they consume."

O'Connor calls his eating plan my McDiet, which includes premium salads, Big Macs, chicken sandwiches and Chicken Selects.

He stays away from buns and mayo, though, and drinks water instead of soda.

To burn off the calories, O'Connor walks an average of 40 miles a week.

In fact, to get to the nearest McDonald's restaurant, O'Connor often walks the eight-mile distance.

"I'm fairly surprised by what's happened because no one really expected that I would be losing 5 pounds every week, but it did slow down," he said.

When O'Connor started his diet, he weighed 312 pounds.

He says he's lost 34.4 pounds, weighing 278.4 pounds.

Dr. Frank Agnone is monitoring O'Connor throughout his experiment. So far, O'Connor's blood pressure and cholesterol levels are all in the normal range.

"In conjunction with his vitamins, the meat and the food he's taking in at McDonald's is adequate nutrition for the short term," Agnone said. "So some of the vitamins he's not getting in the long term would be a problem."

O'Connor said as soon as the 90 days are up, he'll cut back on fast food, but when it comes to exercising, there's no chance of cutting back.

"What we eat is our decision. It should be our right to eat whatever we want, but at the same time we need to be responsible and understand that we have to go out and walk and take action to offset those calories," O'Connor said.

The McDonald's Corporation in Phoenix had no comment.

And with all the walking O'Connor is doing, he's decided to raise money to enter the three-day walk to benefit research for breast cancer.