Participants in Study Paid to Eat Fast Food, Gain Weight

The fast-food study is organized by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Participants will eat an extra 1,000 calories per day, which they will get from fast food meals. The experiment will serve diabetes research.

Researchers are set to observe the effects of ingesting fast food on different human metabolisms. The study is set to determine why gaining weight causes diabetes and hypertension in some people, while others do not suffer the same effects.

Dr. Samuel Klein, lead researcher in the study, explains he chose fast food meals as a basis for this experiment due to their carefully regulated calorie content.

If they go with fast food diets, professors get the added bonus of an inexpensive meal with a pre-set, verifiable composition.

“We know exactly the calories and macro-nutrient composition within fast food restaurants, so it's a very inexpensive, easy and tasteful way to give people extra calories," dr. Klein said.

The participants at the study will be served food from the McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC fast food chains, ABC News reports.

Once the research team advertised they were seeking for candidates to this unusual study, many came forward. Candidates stand to be paid up to $3,500 (€2,700) for their involvement in the testing session. During this process, they were required to gain weight.

The contract the study group members signed stipulated they had an obligation to gain 5 percent to 6 percent of their body weight in the allotted time frame.

Although excited at first, testimonials revealed that participants felt this put a lot of pressure on their bodies. After force feeding herself for 8 weeks, 50-year-old nurse Dawn Freeman said she "could hardly breathe anymore."

She was compensated with $2,650 (€2000) for her effort, and was given an extra $50 (€38) to help her lose the extra 16 pounds (7,25 kg) she had gained.