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In 2010, a nutrition professor lost 27 pounds by eating Twinkies and junk food
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | (CNN) -- Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts.
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.
For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.
His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.
But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.
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?"
Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet.
"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," he said. "I'm stuck in the middle. I guess that's the frustrating part. I can't give a concrete answer. There's not enough information to do that."
Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.
Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.
"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."
Haub's body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories?
His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian in Chicago, Illinois.
"It's a great reminder for weight loss that calories count," she said. "Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That's another story."
Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she's not surprised to hear Haub's health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.
Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.
How well are you managing your diabetes?
"When you lose weight, regardless of how you're doing it -- even if it's with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved," she said.
Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.
"There are things we can't measure," said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. "How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can't measure how diet changes affect our health."
On August 25, Haub, 41, started his cake diet focusing on portion control.
"I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away," he said.
He intended the trial to last a month as a teaching tool for his class. As he lost weight, Haub continued the diet until he reached a normal body mass index.
Before his Twinkie diet, he tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza.
"There seems to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy," Haub said. "It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much."
He maintained the same level of moderate physical activity as before going on the diet. (Haub does not have any ties to the snack cake companies.)
To avoid setting a bad example for his kids, Haub ate vegetables in front of his family. Away from the dinner table, he usually unwrapped his meals.
Study: U.S. obesity rate will hit 42 percent
Haub monitored his body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, and updated his progress on his Facebook page, Professor Haub's diet experiment.
To curb calories, he avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he started adding meat into the diet four weeks ago, his cholesterol level increased.
Haub plans to add about 300 calories to his daily intake now that he's done with the diet. But he's not ditching snack cakes altogether. 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." |
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/0...diet.professor/
c0r version: Essentially he went out to prove that pure calorie counting is the key to weight loss, not eating nutritious foods.
| quote: | Haub's sample day
Espresso, Double: 6 calories; 0 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Centrum Advanced Formula From A To Zinc: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Little Debbie Star Crunch: 150 calories; 6 grams of fat
Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat
Diet Mountain Dew: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
Doritos Cool Ranch: 75 calories; 4 grams of fat
Kellogg's Corn Pops: 220 calories; 0 grams of fat
whole milk: 150 calories; 8 grams of fat
baby carrots: 18 calories; 0 grams of fat
Duncan Hines Family Style Brownie Chewy Fudge: 270 calories; 14 grams of fat
Little Debbie Zebra Cake: 160 calories; 8 grams of fat
Muscle Milk Protein Shake: 240 calories; 9 grams of fat
Totals: 1,589 calories and 59 grams of fat |
Man, I need to get on that. |
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| Vector A |
| Saw this a while ago. Goes to show that calories in vs. calories out really is the trick. And this is probably a lot easier to do with the kind of processed foods that come in neat little standardized packages, too. |
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| ziptnf |
| Well, what worked for me wasn't calorie counting, it was a complete nutrition overhaul. Instead of eating meat and cheese, I ate veggie/fruits and whole grains, and cut out salt/sugar/oils. I wonder what a diet like this would do in a long term setting, like 5 years or so. |
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| srussell0018 |
| Did he exercise at all during that time period? Seems like if he was eating 1,600 calories a day he wouldn't drop that much weight so fast if he wasn't exercising regularly. |
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| zyklon-jay |
| i couldn't eat like that if you paid me. so gross. |
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| Moongoose |
| Not that thats any suprise though. portion control is definitely a factor here as its much easier to say no to a second helping of brocoli than a second delicious cheeseburger. |
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| Vector A |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
Did he exercise at all during that time period? Seems like if he was eating 1,600 calories a day he wouldn't drop that much weight so fast if he wasn't exercising regularly. |
Calorie requirement for a decent sized guy is like 2500. 900 calorie deficit will make you lose a lot of weight regardless of how much you're exercising. |
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| zyklon-jay |
| broccoli is delicious. |
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | Originally posted by zyklon-jay
broccoli is delicious. |
+1
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
Did he exercise at all during that time period? Seems like if he was eating 1,600 calories a day he wouldn't drop that much weight so fast if he wasn't exercising regularly. |
It says he kept his same exercise routine. Probably wasn't killing it in the gym, but I'm sure he stayed relatively active. |
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| srussell0018 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vector A
Calorie requirement for a decent sized guy is like 2500. 900 calorie deficit will make you lose a lot of weight regardless of how much you're exercising. |
That's not the requirement. That's what fatamerica says is an acceptable caloric intake for a day for people who eat too much as it is. Most people are fine with under 2000 calories per day.
It's the same thing with salt. On nutrition labels it recommends about 2,400mg, when in reality you should be consuming much less than 2,000.
The standard nutrition facts you see labeled on foods aren't accurate, and I believe many nutritionists are starting to realize it. Nobody needs 2500 calories a day unless they're obese. A ~200 pound man does not need 2500 calories in a day, and shouldn't lose 27 pounds in 10 weeks just by eating a normal amount of calories.
He probably weighted over 200lbs because he consumed that many calories, he didn't consume that many calories because he was over 200lbs. |
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| Blake |
"This message has been paid for by Hostess Brainds, Inc." :o
Seriously, I can't imagine how much they pay people to conduct & publish research like this. |
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| Vector A |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
That's not the requirement. That's what fatamerica says is an acceptable caloric intake for a day for people who eat too much as it is. Most people are fine with under 2000 calories per day.
It's the same thing with salt. On nutrition labels it recommends about 2,400mg, when in reality you should be consuming much less than 2,000.
The standard nutrition facts you see labeled on foods aren't accurate, and I believe many nutritionists are starting to realize it. Nobody needs 2500 calories a day unless they're obese. A ~200 pound man does not need 2500 calories in a day, and shouldn't lose 27 pounds in 10 weeks just by eating a normal amount of calories.
He probably weighted over 200lbs because he consumed that many calories, he didn't consume that many calories because he was over 200lbs. |
Where are you getting these "facts" from? Your arse?
The formula for rough calculation of caloric requirements has been around quite some time. |
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