16 Nov 2010

Mark Haub, a nutrition professor at Kansas State University went on a diet made up of eating mostly junk food such as Twinkies, powdered donuts, Doritos and Oreos. Though his weight loss may seem surprising, it shouldn't. He stuck by the rule of calorie restriction and lost weight. Is this diet ideal? No, but it does show that cutting your calories will lead to weight loss.

| Nutrition | Articles | FAQs | Free Diets | Forums | Guides | Recipes | Top 5 | Archived Posts |

The Twinkie Diet

Though the name makes it sound like he ate nothing but Twinkies, that wasn't the case. Everyday, Haub limited himself to 1,800 calories, two thirds of which came from junk food. He mixed up the junk food to include Twinkies, Oreo cookies, powdered donuts and Doritos. Each day, he also had a cup of milk and a protein shake. He also ate some vegetables and took a daily multivitamin.

What were his results?

For the first two months on this diet, Haub lost 27 pounds. His BMI dropped from 28.8 which is overweight, to 24.9 which is normal. These results were expected. What he was surprised at was that some other measures of health also improved.

His LDL cholesterol (bad kind) dropped by 20% and his HDL cholesterol (good kind) increased by 20%. His triglyceride levels also dropped by 39%.

Why did he lose weight?

The basic rule of losing weight is eating less calories than you burn. When you do this over a prolonged period of time, your body turns to fat stores to make up the calorie deficit and the result is weight loss.

Mark Haub lost weight because he was on a calorie restricted diet. He was on a very unhealthy calorie restricted diet but losing weight isn't the same as being healthy. This is why unhealthy routes such as low carb or detox diets work, they restrict calories and you lose weight.

Should I go on a Twinkie diet?

With all the benefits of the Twinkie diet (lower bad cholesterol, higher good cholesterol, weight loss, lower triglycerides), it would seem that going on it is a good idea. Remember that losing weight isn't the same as being healthy. You can lose weight and still be unhealthy. Haub points out that even though some signs pointed to a healthy results, it was impossible to measure other signs such as how eating sugary foods over a long period of time can affect the risk for heart disease or certain types of cancer in the future.

How does this help anyone?

If you're thinking about trying the Twinkie diet, don't. There are healthier ways to lose weight and the whole point of this experiment was to prove that losing weight and being healthy aren't related. If you're looking to lose weight, use this experiment as inspiration. If Haub lost weight eating junk food, you'll be able to lose weight a lot easier and with healthier results than he did.