Day one meant a 140-burger drive-thru order, no buns, and Dr. Mike sitting down to the first of 20 burgers a day for 30 days straight. This is day 1 of a 30-day series told here on the blog — day 30, and the bloodwork that closed it out, is only in the film.
What does 20 burgers a day actually mean?
The film shows Dr. Michael Brandon stating the protocol directly on camera: twenty Burger King burger patties per day, water only, no seasonings, no bun, nothing else, for 30 days. That’s 600 burgers total if he made it the full distance — the film shows the running counts on camera rather than a single number stated up front.
The plan wasn’t improvised meal to meal. The film shows a single weekly order of 140 burgers picked up at the Lincroft, NJ Burger King, meant to cover seven days at 20 a day. Day one itself split into 12 burgers for lunch and 8 for dinner, according to the film.
What did the first order look like on camera?
The film shows the crew placing that first 140-burger order and getting quizzed by the staff, who asked repeatedly what exactly had been ordered — it took about 30 minutes to get out the drive-thru window, per the film. That single order came to a fixed weekly total the film states on camera, and it became the routine for the rest of week one.
In my experience, the ordering logistics turned out to be as much a part of the story as the eating itself. A fast-food counter isn’t built to sell someone 140 identical burgers in one visit, and that friction shows up on camera before a single patty gets eaten.
If you aren't testing, you're guessing. I wanted to quantify literally everything.
What are the rules of the experiment?
Burger King patties only, no bun, water as the only drink — that’s the whole protocol, as the film states it. No condiments, no sides, no cheat meals. Bloodwork was drawn before day one started, a baseline the book and film both point to without giving away what it showed.
The rules stayed rigid because the point was to isolate one variable. If you want the broader comparison of what this protocol was testing against other approaches, that’s covered separately in Keto vs Carnivore: What the 600-Burger Experiment Tested.
Why film a doctor eating burgers instead of an average person?
I wanted a baseline that started from health, not from an already-struggling metabolism. Dr. Mike came in fit, with a documented training history, which meant any change over the month would be harder to explain away as someone already trending in a bad direction. If you aren’t testing, you’re guessing, and I wanted a subject whose starting point was as clean as I could get it.
That decision also let us run performance and strength testing throughout, not just labs — a piece the film builds on across the month. The full list of who was in the room evaluating him, and what each argued, is broken down in Every Expert in The Keto Project and What Each Argued.
What did day one feel like on camera?
The film shows the first 20 patties going down without incident — no symptoms reported yet, no complaints, just a man eating burgers in a parking lot on a hot day. That calm didn’t last through the week; headaches, sleep changes and stomach discomfort all show up later in the series, but day one is quiet.
The experts asked on camera whether a person can survive 30 days on burgers alone, and nobody had a confident answer yet. That tension — plausible on paper, untested in practice — is what the whole month was built to resolve.
What did the crew ask at the end of day one?
The film shows the crew’s question that night wasn’t about weight or cholesterol — it was about his gut. Twenty burgers with no bun, no fiber source, no vegetables, is a very different load than a normal fast-food meal, and nobody on set knew how his digestion would hold up over a week, let alone a month.
That question turned out to matter more than expected as the days went on. It doesn’t get answered on day one — it gets answered, gradually, across the rest of the series and finally in the film’s closing bloodwork.
Frequently asked questions
How many burgers did Dr. Mike eat on day one?
The film shows 20 burgers eaten on day one, split as 12 for lunch and 8 for dinner.
Did he eat the buns too?
No — the protocol the film states was burger patties only, no bun, water only.
How much did the first burger order cost?
That figure is covered in a later post in the series, not day one.
Is day 30 covered in this blog series?
No. Days 1 through 29 are told here on the blog; day 30 and the final bloodwork only appear in the film.
Why was a fit doctor chosen instead of an average eater?
In my experience, starting from a healthy baseline made any change over the month harder to dismiss as pre-existing decline.
The Bottom Line
Day one was calm — the order placed, the rules set, 20 burgers eaten without a symptom in sight. It didn’t stay that way, and what changed week to week is covered day by day here on the blog, but the bloodwork that closes the experiment is only in the film.
Individual results vary, and none of this is medical advice. Watch The Keto Project on Amazon, and read the book that started it, 600 Burgers in 30 Days.
This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Individual results vary. Speak to a qualified clinician before changing how you eat.
The whole experiment is in the film. 600 burgers, 30 days, every blood test — and the ending we never post.
Watch The Keto Project on Amazon