Wisconsin man eats 25,000th Big Mac

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (WLUK) - Some people measure life's milestones in pictures. Don Gorske does it with Big Macs.

“I met (wife) Mary at 1,146 Big Macs, we got married at 2,025 Big Macs,” Gorske said. “It's stuff like that, that sticks in my head.”

The 57-year-old Fond du Lac, Wis., man first tasted the two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun 39 years ago. He liked it so much he ate nine – and never stopped.

Gorske averages two Big Macs a day. And since 1972, he's only gone eight days without eating one.

“First Big Mac was the best one I've ever had in my life, so it's like I had to eat them from then on.”

To the tune of 25,000.

Tuesday, Gorske celebrated the milestone on the anniversary of eating his first. A sizable crowd watched in awe.

“Where does he put it all?” one observer remarked. “I mean, like, he's skinny.”

Gorske admits his affinity for the burger is a bit of an obsession. He keeps count with calendars, stores the empty boxes in the attic and can pull out nearly every receipt.

“I'm compulsive counting something and it's just like holy mackerel, I'm at 25,000 already, but it did take 39 years,” Gorske said.

The retired prison guard knows some worry for his health, even his sanity. But he claims he's got a fast metabolism. Why not eat his favorite food every day?

“I asked him once, don't you ever get sick of them?” Gorske’s brother-in-law, John Zeleske, said. “Donny said, ‘once in a while I eat one upside down. It tastes different.’”

So how does a man top 25,000 Big Macs? Perhaps a record with milkshakes or French fries? Gorske wants none of that.

“I just keep going: 25,001 and 25,002, it's like I'm not going to stop.”

Fifty thousand may be out of reach, but Gorske says he'll enjoy the tasty ride, bite by bite.

Some local math students did a few calculations about Gorske's feat. They found it took 125 gallons of special sauce, 1,500 heads of lettuce, 2,000 pickles and more than 8,700,000 sesame seeds to make the burgers that Gorske has consumed.