cutting or bulking?

[Throttle]

if you scroll down the wikipedia article you linked to, you will notice that people who consume only mcd's but avoid the fries and/or sugar-based sodas are able to lose significant bodyfat. i've done it myself in the past (3 lunches per week, no fries or sugar soda).

he ate signficant quantities of hash brown or fries at basically every sitting, and drank lots of sugar soda (since he always got a 'meal')

that he sampled every menu item once is irrelevant. he had only one major source of protein in any one sitting, and nearly always had some sort of potato & some sort of sugary drink along with -- most mcd's offer only diet option to 6 or 7 sugar options on their soda fountains.

it was the carbs that did him in, and fried stuff to a lesser extent. guys who need calories should grab a double cheeseburger or two, and avoid piling up fries & Cokes. mcd's burgers (not to mention all their chicken sandwiches) are not signficantly more fat laden than most other burgers. the only way to explain all the weight he gained (nearly 1 lb/day!) is an overabundance of calories (~3k extra per day), in part from forcing himself to eat when not hungry, and finishing those ridiculous supersize portions that have since been discontinued.

tell me, what makes a particular protein source "quality protein"?

 

[Throttle]

Here are the quality protein sources that I consume: tuna (zero fat and carbs); chicken breast (ditto); cottage cheese (low carbs and low fat obtainable); Nature's Best Isopure Whey Isolate (no carbs); black beans, lima beans ( no fat)

this is the real source of our disagreement. you're equating very low fat protein with quality protein, and i'm going to mostly disagree. i think that the rush to lower fat intake is something of a mistake. i'm not wholly convinced myself (those who preach the low-fat gospel are very convincing, backed up by significant science, and culturally we've assimilated their message almost entirely, even if we don't always act on it), but i'm coming to the conclusion that consuming a balance of fats, while eliminating transfats, is much more important than drastically reducing saturated fat intake. a balance of sat, mono, poly, and omega-3s seems to be emerging as the healthiest approach.

now that's really tough...it's actually quite difficult to get omega-3s in a standard american diet (which is why many of us take fish and/or flax oil in an attempt -- mostly untested -- to make up the difference). but I think that identifying saturated fat as the primary bad guy is a mistake. refined carbs are a much bigger problem -- and therefore it's the bun, not the low-quality beef, that makes mcd's burgers relatively unhealthy. but young, active guys can burn through those carbs w/ ease, and so my prescription for them would be quite different than my recommendation to someone less active or who is desperately trying to lose bodyfat (i said you can lose bf on mcd's, because i have -- but i'd hardly recommend it to anyone). frankly, when i'm working out hard & eating well, i have little desire to go there.....