twinkie.diet.professor
StaceyL76
Posts: 711 Member
(CNN) -- Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts.
For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.
His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.
The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.
For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.
His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.
But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.
Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.
"That's where the head scratching comes," Haub said. "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we're missing something?"
Haub's sample day
Espresso, Double: 6 calories; 0 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Centrum Advanced Formula From A To Zinc: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Little Debbie Star Crunch: 150 calories; 6 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Diet Mountain Dew: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Doritos Cool Ranch: 75 calories; 4 grams of fat
Kellogg's Corn Pops: 220 calories; 0 grams of fat
whole milk: 150 calories; 8 grams of fat
baby carrots: 18 calories; 0 grams of fat
Duncan Hines Family Style Brownie Chewy Fudge: 270 calories; 14 grams of fat
Little Debbie Zebra Cake: 160 calories; 8 grams of fat
Muscle Milk Protein Shake: 240 calories; 9 grams of fat
Totals: 1,589 calories and 59 grams of fat Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet.
"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," he said. "I'm stuck in the middle. I guess that's the frustrating part. I can't give a concrete answer. There's not enough information to do that."
Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.
Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.
"These foods are consumed by lots of people," he said. "It may be an issue of portion size and moderation rather than total removal. I just think it's unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic."
Haub's body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories?
His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian in Chicago, Illinois.
"It's a great reminder for weight loss that calories count," she said. "Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That's another story."
Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she's not surprised to hear Haub's health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.
Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.
How well are you managing your diabetes?
"When you lose weight, regardless of how you're doing it -- even if it's with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved," she said.
Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.
"There are things we can't measure," said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. "How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can't measure how diet changes affect our health."
I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much.
--Professor Mark Haub
The ultimate Twinkie diet RELATED TOPICS
Healthy Eating
Hostess Twinkies
Kansas State University
Weight Loss
Diet and Nutrition
On August 25, Haub, 41, started his cake diet focusing on portion control.
"I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away," he said.
He intended the trial to last a month as a teaching tool for his class. As he lost weight, Haub continued the diet until he reached a normal body mass index.
Before his Twinkie diet, he tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza.
"There seems to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy," Haub said. "It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much."
He maintained the same level of moderate physical activity as before going on the diet. (Haub does not have any ties to the snack cake companies.)
To avoid setting a bad example for his kids, Haub ate vegetables in front of his family. Away from the dinner table, he usually unwrapped his meals.
Study: U.S. obesity rate will hit 42 percent
Haub monitored his body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, and updated his progress on his Facebook page, Professor Haub's diet experiment.
To curb calories, he avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he started adding meat into the diet four weeks ago, his cholesterol level increased.
Haub plans to add about 300 calories to his daily intake now that he's done with the diet. But he's not ditching snack cakes altogether. Despite his weight loss, Haub feels ambivalence.
"I wish I could say the outcomes are unhealthy. I wish I could say it's healthy. I'm not confident enough in doing that. That frustrates a lot of people. One side says it's irresponsible. It is unhealthy, but the data doesn't say that."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Prof-Haubs-Diet-Experiments/152304481454281
For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.
His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.
The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.
For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.
His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.
But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.
Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.
"That's where the head scratching comes," Haub said. "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we're missing something?"
Haub's sample day
Espresso, Double: 6 calories; 0 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Centrum Advanced Formula From A To Zinc: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Little Debbie Star Crunch: 150 calories; 6 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Diet Mountain Dew: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Doritos Cool Ranch: 75 calories; 4 grams of fat
Kellogg's Corn Pops: 220 calories; 0 grams of fat
whole milk: 150 calories; 8 grams of fat
baby carrots: 18 calories; 0 grams of fat
Duncan Hines Family Style Brownie Chewy Fudge: 270 calories; 14 grams of fat
Little Debbie Zebra Cake: 160 calories; 8 grams of fat
Muscle Milk Protein Shake: 240 calories; 9 grams of fat
Totals: 1,589 calories and 59 grams of fat Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet.
"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," he said. "I'm stuck in the middle. I guess that's the frustrating part. I can't give a concrete answer. There's not enough information to do that."
Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.
Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.
"These foods are consumed by lots of people," he said. "It may be an issue of portion size and moderation rather than total removal. I just think it's unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic."
Haub's body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories?
His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian in Chicago, Illinois.
"It's a great reminder for weight loss that calories count," she said. "Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That's another story."
Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she's not surprised to hear Haub's health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.
Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.
How well are you managing your diabetes?
"When you lose weight, regardless of how you're doing it -- even if it's with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved," she said.
Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.
"There are things we can't measure," said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. "How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can't measure how diet changes affect our health."
I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much.
--Professor Mark Haub
The ultimate Twinkie diet RELATED TOPICS
Healthy Eating
Hostess Twinkies
Kansas State University
Weight Loss
Diet and Nutrition
On August 25, Haub, 41, started his cake diet focusing on portion control.
"I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away," he said.
He intended the trial to last a month as a teaching tool for his class. As he lost weight, Haub continued the diet until he reached a normal body mass index.
Before his Twinkie diet, he tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza.
"There seems to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy," Haub said. "It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much."
He maintained the same level of moderate physical activity as before going on the diet. (Haub does not have any ties to the snack cake companies.)
To avoid setting a bad example for his kids, Haub ate vegetables in front of his family. Away from the dinner table, he usually unwrapped his meals.
Study: U.S. obesity rate will hit 42 percent
Haub monitored his body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, and updated his progress on his Facebook page, Professor Haub's diet experiment.
To curb calories, he avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he started adding meat into the diet four weeks ago, his cholesterol level increased.
Haub plans to add about 300 calories to his daily intake now that he's done with the diet. But he's not ditching snack cakes altogether. Despite his weight loss, Haub feels ambivalence.
"I wish I could say the outcomes are unhealthy. I wish I could say it's healthy. I'm not confident enough in doing that. That frustrates a lot of people. One side says it's irresponsible. It is unhealthy, but the data doesn't say that."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Prof-Haubs-Diet-Experiments/152304481454281
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Replies
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interesting0
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I bet he lost a lot of muscle mass too.0
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Thanks for sharing. Very cool0
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I've come across this article before; most interesting. Sadly, I don't think an equivalent 'cheesecake diet' would yield quite the same results for me...not that I haven't tried
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Actually to his point, it would. He was only trying to prove caloric deficit is most important. Many people here preach the same thing. I think he also mentioned that it is extremely unhealthy and did not suggest to follow what he did. It was only a study. I think he did this in response to diet fads worrying about what you eat and making caloric deficit seem like it was the main factor in weight loss.I've come across this article before; most interesting. Sadly, I don't think an equivalent 'cheesecake diet' would yield quite the same results for me...not that I haven't tried0
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I bet he lost a lot of muscle mass too.
WEEK 10 Update: Body weight pre= 200.8 lb; post = 174.2 lb (-26.6 lbs);
Body fat pre= 33.4%; post =24.9% (-8.5%)...0 -
I've come across this article before; most interesting. Sadly, I don't think an equivalent 'cheesecake diet' would yield quite the same results for me...not that I haven't tried
Amen, sistah!!0 -
Losing Weight, and being healthy are completely different things.0
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I have some personal problems that I'm working on now but I have been living off of fast food and still staying in my calorie ranage. I lost 5 lbs in a week and kept it off. But I feel like crap. I just did a half marathon in the middle of October and was great. I went to a hockey game and climbed up 3 flights of stairs and was out of breath!
You can be skinny and not be healthy. I guess it's just all in what you want!0 -
Awesome article!! This has made my day, as I always thought it to be true.
Its scientific equation, eat less than you expend and you will lose weight!
I have sent this to a couple people who have argued that fact at my work, cant wait to see their faces.
Thanks a million for sharing.
GO Twinkies!~0 -
I have some personal problems that I'm working on now but I have been living off of fast food and still staying in my calorie ranage. I lost 5 lbs in a week and kept it off. But I feel like crap. I just did a half marathon in the middle of October and was great. I went to a hockey game and climbed up 3 flights of stairs and was out of breath!
You can be skinny and not be healthy. I guess it's just all in what you want!
I agree. I feel like crap when I eat crap. I found this article interesting and wanted to post it for that reason. I don't suggest doing this. I just know at times I get caught up in having to eat perfect or feeling guilty when I eat some junk food.
I am sure his insulin response was crazy off the charts.. I think this would impact your health in a serious manner if you tried to live this way. I just found it interesting that here is a guy that really wanted to see if it was the quality of calories mattered in weight loss. In his case it did not. In fact, some of his numbers improved. I think that is an interesting point too.
bottom line, I feel better when I eat nutritious food.0 -
Wonder if this will cause people to stop nitpicking over the minor details.
I doubt it.0 -
Well atleast he was drinking his protein shakes. :laugh:0
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probably not.Wonder if this will cause people to stop nitpicking over the minor details.
I doubt it.
but ill still be eating my cheetos today0 -
I don't see how he could feel full on that junk food diet.0
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On the one hand, Wow, what an impressive weight loss!!
On the other hand, I would think that some of his body's biochemistry became seriously out of whack.0 -
my prediction is, he was likely starving ALL.THE.TIME. Calorie-dense processed foods don't really fill you up very well. And you're hungry so soon afterwards.
On that basis alone, I'm impressed he was able to stick it out and complete this.0 -
I would be so grumpy. I would have a headache for that entire two months. Sugar and I are not a happy combo.0
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Just goes to show us humans can eat just about anything, which is why you find people nearly everywhere, from the equator to the arctic. However, I feel a lot better when I eat mostly healthful whole foods. But I like some junk in there too!0
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This showed up all over the blogosphere when it was released, I think what it shows is that weight loss has major health benefits that out weigh the benefits of different macro nutrient ratios especially in the short term. This is often a confounding variable when measuring the health benefits of different approaches to dieting. It's possible he might have had even better results with a "healthier" diet consisting of the same calorie intake, or maybe not. Ultimately the question would be could he stick to that caloric intake on that diet for his whole life and what would be the long term health impact of that diet? Ten weeks is fairly short term.
It's interesting that he drank a protein shake and ate a can of vegetables. The protein intake would have reduced his cravings and improved satiety and the fiber in the vegetables probably helped too.
To those who say this won't stop people obsessing over the details. You're right, they won't, because details matter, at least they do to me. It's how I stay focused over a long period of time. Plus, I need to know the details to determine what is the optimal diet for me in terms of weight loss, energy levels and overall health. Weight loss may appear simple when you look at losing a few pounds or even 20 or 30 pounds but now stretch it out and look at losing 100 lb. Losing 100 lb might take a couple of years to lose at a safe rate, it's gone from a simple exercise to an extreme endurance evident requiring extraordinary amounts of will power over a very long period of time. Perhaps obsessing over the right mix of foods that help you ultimately lose weight for whatever reason is what helps those people obtain their goals.0
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