Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

He actually kept a running commentary about it on Facebook - if you're actually interested in more details. Also where he discusses it and answers question.

I haven't read all of this, but it seems like when he opened up the market to Hostess in addition to Little Debbie he stopped having cravings... He's not promoting this as a healthy diet though, it was used as an example in his energy balance class.

I'm definitely not switching to it myself!
 
It wasn't mentioned, but I would best a crapton of cash that he also had a pretty good exercise routine containing strength training to compliment this diet...

If anything it just stresses the importance of exercise..

I've seen way too many studies that show someone who is overweight and exercises will almost always be healthier than someone of normal weight who is sedentary.
 
He did 60-120 minutes a week mostly walking, but also including some cycling and lifting.

He wanted to de-emphasize the exercise part of it, so it sounds like he actually decreased his workout routine a bit. Which also makes sense given that he was on a pretty substantial deficit.
 
The take away to me is STOP BEING SO DAMN RIGID IN YOUR JUDGMENT OF FOOD!!!.

I've been saying this for years but it bares repeating.

Set calories based on your goal (deficit to lose weight, surplus to gain, maintenance to stay the same).

Set protein at adequate levels. In my experience and based on the research I've read, something like 1 gram per pound of goal body weight is sufficient.

Eat plenty of fibrous veggies.

Get some essential fats in either by way of fish oil pills or whatever.

Might as well throw some fruit into the mix too since it's healthy and does cool things with satiety.

Presto... you have a baseline that's going to do a lot of good things in terms of weight and body comp.

Where people go wrong is thinking everything else is "bad." Here's a guy who ate pretty much the baseline outlined above (minor variances) and scarfed down the majority of his calories in the form of processed cookies and cakes. And lost weight. And improved his blood profiles.

When you pair the foundation mentioned above with an intelligent exercise plan... it's very hard to screw up your health... even if you include some junk food every single day.

Granted, I think some of his blood work would change in the longer term - the improvements came in spite of what he was eating due to the loss in body fat.

But the moral of the story in my opinion is the rigidity that so many people apply to their diets is unnecessary and in many cases, it winds up tripping them up more than it helps.
 
And just for clarification, I'm not suggesting to set the foundation and fill the remainder of your calorie allotment with crap. Nutrient quality does matter in terms of health. But assuming you need to eat 100% "clean" (whatever that means to you) in order to be health is asinine if you ask me.
 
For those that didn't read the article, or maybe just missed it, here's 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
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I think the most important thing for people to take away from this is his mentality going into this diet.

"I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away," he said.
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Looking at the sample menu above, he was far from eating a lot of food (though it's a lot of calories for the amount of food). I imagine he was feeling starved most of the time. I can't believe he even had the energy to get out of bed.
 
According to his facebook page/journal he had a massive headache the first day, but after that ended up not feeling what he considered overly hungry/tired.

Enough energy that he actually felt fine doing his exercise.

Now, he doesn't recommend this as a diet, and doesn't promote it for long term health - but I think one interesting takeaway is that even if you're on an 'unhealthy' diet, losing the weight might still be healthier than the way you were eating before. (For some definitions of unhealthy anyway!)
 
Toddless said:
Looking at the sample menu above, he was far from eating a lot of food (though it's a lot of calories for the amount of food). I imagine he was feeling starved most of the time. I can't believe he even had the energy to get out of bed.
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I had the same thought as Toddless. I got off the diet mentality mindset that made any foods off limits but unless I really want a twinkie, I'd rather get more bang for my buck on calories and feel like I got enough to eat. On the other hand, I bet this guy never wanted to touch a hostess cake after he was done with this lol.
 
I would like to see everything he ate because if he didn't eat enough protein then most likely he may have also lost a lot of muscle in stead of fat.
 
rechellkerry said:
I would like to see everything he ate because if he didn't eat enough protein then most likely he may have also lost a lot of muscle in stead of fat.
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That was actually my first thought, but there's a link to his facebook page and he got body fat tests done before and after and lost very little lean body mass. He also had a protein shake every day, though.
 
I did the "Chocolate cake & pizza & cheeseburger" diet when I was 21.

For example, I would finish half a chocolate cake & a family-sized bag of Lays in a day - then I'd be so sick from eating that amount of grossness that I wouldn't want to eat for the next day atleast. Being depressed & not owning a car & having to walk everywhere didn't help either XD

I went from a slim but healthy 5'7.5 & 120lbs to a 110lb skeleton - GROSS!! Destroyed my appetite & BMR too ... *sigh*
 
Anyone seen 'Fat Head' by Tom Naughton?

It's a 'response' to SuperSizeMe where he eats only junk food but sticks to 2,000 calories.
What's more interesting is that he callenges a lot of the 'common knowledge' people have about healthy food. Much of the 'common knowledge' comes from people selling junk of course.
It's an intersting viewpoint and it should perhaps be view together with the better known SuperSizeMe.

It's avaibale for streaming on NetFlix and well worth a few hours.
 
Calories do count

I suppose the Twinkie Diet article and the Fat Head Documentary could both be used by the food industry to deny any responsibility for the increase of obesity. Although it does come down to personal responsibility to keep those calories low, supermarkets and restaurants filled with high calorie/ low nutrient foods do create an environment that makes temptation hard to resist.

I do applaud companies and restaurants for offering more low calorie/fat/salt options as well as more whole grain products.
 
I dunno, I think it shows that our bodies are pretty adaptable. I still opt for fruit in the morning over a piece of toast, or some scrambled egg whites over sugary cereal. However, in the evening if I am really really craving like a breaded chicken patty I will eat it, because I know if I try to replace it with something else I will ultimately be unsatisfied.

I could never eat the same thing for every meal though.
 
Really I don't know that you could blame the food industry for the increase in obesity anyway. The consumers drive the market - and genetically we apparently favor very calorie dense foods. I blame our taste buds! ;)

That's not to say that realizing that there shouldn't be some sort of social responsibility with regards to it, but in a sense our society drives the food industry, and we can't really expect it to be leaps and bounds above society in terms of responsibility. We have to keep bumping up awareness to make it happen.

I think though that what the twinkie diet ultimately shows is that being at a reasonable weight and eating crap is probably healthier than being significantly overweight and eating 'healthy' ... although YMMV on what healthy actually means.
 
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