The Twinkie Diet Experiment

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

Excerpt:

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?"

Comment: Interesting - "pure calorie counting is what matters most". I'm surprised his cholesterol counts improved!

Wellness Consultant

I found my appointment with a Wellness Consultant (Sara B) valuable (earlier post):

1. It was at the Ways to Wellness program at Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury.
   
2. I did not sign up for the entire program but only did the metabolic testing with a half hour consultant with a nutritionist. What I learned:
   
   
   
   1. My metabolism is slightly below normal but close to normal
      
   2. My ideal weight for my height and build should be 200 lbs or less
      
   3. I am doing ok with my diet (I reviewed my diet in detail with the nutritionist). I should eat more vegetables (she suggested that I eat baby carrots as a snack at night)
      
   4. She suggested starting an exercise program with hand weights
      
   
   
3. I am resolved to make it to my weight objective of 200 lbs and I felt I needed this boost to help me on my way.