Man Claims to Have Eaten Over 23,000 Big Macs In 36 Years
Posted September 10, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
You know those signs on the McDonald’s restaurants that claim ‘over 100 billion served?’
If you frequent the fast food outlet, you can only imagine how hard it would be for you to figure out how many they’d actually served you.
Unless you were Don Gorske. The 54-year-old Fond du Lac, Wisconsin man admits to being a little bit obsessive compulsive.
O.K., a lot obsessive compulsive.
His unfortunate psychological condition has led him to count the exact number of Big Macs he’s eaten over the years, beginning with his very first burger on May 17, 1972, the day he got his first car.
And the number will frighten weight watchers and cardiac specialists everywhere. The 54-year-old puts the number of huge hamburgers that have gone down his gullet over the past 36 years at 23,000 – and counting.
How does he know the amount?
Like many OCD patients, he keeps records. In fact, he has every receipt from every Big Mac he’s ever bought in a box for easy reference.
The corrections employee doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with him or his diet, and you wouldn’t know about his obsession to look at him. He’s 6’2″, weighs just 185 lbs., and walks as much as 20 kilometres a day.
“Sometimes people call me a freak but it doesn’t bother me,” he assures. “I just say respect people as they are. I just want to make sure people understand I’m not going to change.”
Gorske eats at least two of Mickey D’s specialties everyday, although he’s now cut back on fries to once a month for health reasons.
There have been only eight days since 1972 that he failed to satisfy his seemingly insatiable craving for the junk food.
He was stuck at work past midnight twice and lost the days; he couldn’t get out in a 1982 snowstorm to reach his local outlet; he gave it up on Thanksgiving Day 2002; he was travelling three different times and couldn’t find a McDonald’s; and he failed to eat one on the day of his mother’s funeral in 1988. “I made a promise to her and I always keep my promises,” he reveals.
Not that he’s taking any chances. Gorske now keeps a few of the burgers frozen in his basement, in case winter strikes again.
So the next time you see that number on the Golden Arches’ sign go up, be aware that at least one man is doing a lot to help feed it – and himself.
