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."

What the article doesn't mention, is how he felt.

I'm currently wrapping up a diet to lose the 50+ pounds I've gained in the last 20 years. This process has reinforced the connection between what I eat and how I feel.

When I eat the "wrong" foods such as cookies, donuts, candy, hamburgers with fries, and pizza, I will feel groggy, dizzy and I will get migraines. I will also have trouble thinking clearly and with focusing on any task. These affects can build over several meals. When I am having trouble being productive, these affects are usually a prime factor.

If you are still around, would you mind sharing how you are doing with the Hacker's diet; if you still feel the same way about junk food; and what your diet is like these days?

9jmmcd15y

Exactly. [...] I don't see what the difficulty is. The data measured weight loss, and he lost weight, and cholesterol improved as a result of reducing meat. The data didn't measure digestive function, fat versus muscle, bone strength, long-term risk of cancer of the colon, scurvy, or any of the things we'd expect this diet to affect. If these had been measured, then the data would have supported the claim he wanted to make. For LWers there's no story here.