Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

Vive-ut-Vivas

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds:

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.

But the highlight, for LW-ers, comes at the end:

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."

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds:

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.

But the highlight, for LW-ers, comes at the end:

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."

The problem with dieting isn't calorie-counting or healthy eating. It's not feeling hungry while eating only as many calories as you need.

I've experience two types of hunger during this year of dieting, a normal hunger and a craving hunger. With normal hunger I feel good, I can focus on my work, and it is easy to wait for my scheduled meal. With the craving hunger I usually feel poor. I have trouble focusing on anything. I will crave something specific like a hamburger or a donut.

The controlling factor for this appears to be what I've eaten previously. If I eat a donut for breakfast I will crave a hamburger for lunch. If I eat a hamburger for lunch I will crave a soda or candy as a snack. I... (read more)

1Jack16y

I was surprised to find this wasn't a problem for me at all. I've lost 25+ lbs since the end of July and I've actually discovered that my stomach adjusts to the smaller portions and I start finding it very difficult to exceed my calorie limit. I ordered a Chipotle burrito a few weeks ago and only ate half of it. A year ago I would have eaten the whole thing. I wasn't restraining myself, I just felt full (and I had eaten little else that day). This kind of thing is always happening to me now. The problem is, if you do break your diet your stomach adjusts again and you'll want more food for the next few meals. (If this stomach adjusting thing is all in my head, please let me keep the placebo)

-1David_Allen16y

I'm confused. Doesn't "dieting" imply losing weight, and therefore you should be eating fewer calories than you actually need?