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."

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

"Dieting" describes any process of tracking and restricting your diet. For instance, I have type 1 diabetes, so I'm on a diet worked out together with my clinical dietician, which is separate from any weight loss issues. Eating vegeterian, eating healthy, etc. are all diets.

Secondly, when dieting to lose weight, you normally eat as many calories as you need - not less. You'll lose weight as long as you stop eating more than you need to get to your target weight.

3Vaniver16y

Once you are at target weight, generally the process you use to maintain target weight is also called "dieting." (Generally we hear of it as losing weight because most people are over their target weight, and require higher willpower expenditures when they are.)