Health

Twinkie Diet Helps Professor Lose 27 Pounds in Two Months

by Amy Judd | November 8, 2010 at 10:12 am

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How Could Eating Twinkies, Doritos Chips, Oreos and Hostess Cakes Help You Lose 27 Pounds?

This is a challenge taken on by a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, Mark Haub, who ate one sugary cake or snack every three hours instead of a proper meal. He wanted to explore the idea that when it comes to weight loss, what matters most is counting calories and not the nutritional value of the food.

However, he only consumed no more than 1,800 calories a day, when a man of his size should consume about 2,600 a day. Even though his body mass index went from 28.8 to 24.9, which is considered normal, no other aspects of his health seemed to suffer.

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?"

So should you try the Twinkie diet the next time you want to lose weight?

Mr. Haub would not necessarily recommend this diet for everyone, but said he couldn't really give a concrete answer.

Aside from the snack cakes he also took a multivitamin pill, drank a protein shakes and ate some vegetables every day.

"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."

This may not be the answer to being healthy, but it does provide information for the argument that when it comes to weight loss, calories count.

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gts2525 (not verified)

at 13:31 on November 9th, 2010

There are many aspects to the diet that are not discussed and this gentleman can only partake in such an exercise because he has such a solid nutritional basis to begin with.

alika12

at 23:14 on November 12th, 2010

Research may be conducted to understand even a particular portion like in this story. However, what counts are the "mixture" of all factors contributing to not only weight loss, but to the general health too. Altogether, these factors and actions can really make miracles; it's a matter of strong willing and patience combined with the right knowledge.