Twinkie Diet Experiment

One of the most talked about stories on the news and the internet these days is the eating experiment conducted by Kansas State University nutrition professor, Mark Haub, in which he ate mostly junk food and still lost weight. In fact, he dropped 27 lbs in about 10 weeks!

His routine, quickly dubbed the Twinkie Diet (as he ate one of these every three hours or so, among other junk food items), quickly became national news. I read about here on CNN, and I also read some interesting articles about it from various health experts.

The reason why Professor Haub started this routine was as part of a class experiment. He wanted to see whether he could lose weight by limiting his calorie intake even if he mostly ate low-quality food. In the experiment, he limited himself to 1,800 calories a day, well below the amount required for a man of his height, weight, and age. He did eat some vegetables and a protein shake, but the vast majority of his calories originated from junk food.

The reason why his story became such a topic of discussion is that there are so many people who claim that weight loss depends on the type of calories that you consume and that high quality foods are essential for weight loss. On he other hand, there are those who claim that the quality of calories is of low or even no importance and it is only the amount of calories that matters for losing weight.

But the Twinkie Diet experiement did not end with weight loss. Professor’s Haub cholesterol levels (both good and bad cholesterol) improved as well as other health markers. In a sense, he became healthier just by losing weight even though the quality of the food he consumed is considered low.

What does this mean? Can we stop thinking about the quality of the food we eat? Who is right, those who claim that the quality of food is paramount or those that claim that it is of little importance?

The answer is that they are both right and wrong.

How weight loss works

The reality is that weight loss is a game of numbers and calories are the measurement unit. It is a question of how much you consume versus how much you burn. If you have a calorie deficit you lose weight, if you have a surplus you gain it. This is pure math with no room for quality considerations. It doesn’t matter where the calories came from, as long as you have a deficit, you lose weight.

This is why the fact that the Twinkie Diet worked for Mark Haub is hardly surprising: he limited his calorie intake and created a sizeable deficit. His body had no choice but to lose weight.

Does this mean that the quality of food is immaterial for weight loss?

No, it doesn’t. It is important but in an indirect manner. If you eat food that helps you feel energetic you can workout more often and better, sleep better, be under less stress, and so on. All these can help you burn more calories more efficiently. This can contribute to a bigger calorie deficit. However, you do need to understand that at the end of the day, losing weight is about calories and not their quality.

Long term health issues

The second aspect of the Twinkie Diet experiment revolves around the fact that certain health markers improved for Professor Haub. This immediately caused some to say that you can eat all the junk food you want and you don’t need to worry about anything as long as you’re eating the right amount of calories.

I think that it’s too early jump to any conclusions. No study is done on a single person. For any claims to be substantiated, you have to study a large group of people and come to a statistical revelant analysis of them all.

In the case of Professor Haub you need to remember that this was a short experiement so nothing is known about the long term effects of a junk food diet on your body’s tendency to develop any number of disease and illnesses. In addition, Haub wasn’t given a full array of tests for possible conditions so while some of his markers have improved, it is possible that others worsened.

In Conclusion

Weight loss is about calories in vs. calories out. Long term health does depend on the quality of food that you eat. For the best results that will last you a lifetime, you should watch your weight and make sure to give your body the nutrients it needs from high quality food sources.