Man Loses 27 Pounds Eating Twinkies and Doritos

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Man Loses 27 Pounds Eating Twinkies and Doritos



A professor of nutrition decided to experiment eating small amounts of junk food over a two month period and shed 27 pounds.

It's sounds like a fat kid's dream come true. "I can eat Twinkies and lose weight at the same time? That's unpossible!" But Mark Haub, who teaches nutrition at Kansas State University, has proved that it is in fact possible to lose weight and feel healthier eating packaged foods like Hostess cakes and soda. The most important part of losing weight, as Haub's experiment proves, is limiting that amount of calories ingested and it doesn't matter what those calories are. For ten weeks, Haub ate Cool Ranch Doritos, sugar cereals like Corn Pops, and sipped on Diet Mountain Dew. He went from over 200 pounds to just under 174 and his body mass index dropped from 28.8 to 24.9; Haub is now perfectly healthy as opposed to overweight. Even though other health indicators like cholesterol and triglycerides (fat) levels also dropped, he can't advocate his "convenience store diet" just yet. But the data is compelling.

"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," Haub 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. 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."

He supplemented his diet with a multivitamin, a serving of vegetables and a protein shake, and stayed away from meats to keep his caloric intake below 1800 per day (he was consuming over 2600 per day before the experiment.) Haub began his junk food diet with little expectations but kept it up as he saw that the pounds were falling off. The weird thing is that eating foods that are believed to be "bad" for you actually improved his health.

"That's where the head scratching comes," said Haub. "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?"

Haub hopes that his results will empower people to lose weight not be giving up the foods they love but by just eating less of said foods. "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.

"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."

I participated in a bet a few years ago with my buddy. The first guy to lose 15% of his body weight would owe the other 200 bucks. That was the only motivator I needed to start eating less per day than I was before, usually snacking on fruit or vegetables when I had the urge. I lost a similar amount to Haub, but I eventually lost as my buddy beat me in a photo finish on the last week of our gentlemen's bet.

Still, if I had known I could have lost all that weight eating Twinkies instead of spinach leaves and tofu, I would have been much happier. Where were you then, Haub? Huh?

Source: CNN [http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html]

(Image [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nexus_icon/4577789974/])


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vrbtny

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Sep 16, 2009
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This discovery could eliminate the overweight WOW playing Nerd within months.....
 

Palademon

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Mar 20, 2010
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Good man.
I can't wait for the day where it doesn't matter what I eat...just how much.
 

Zechnophobe

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Feb 4, 2010
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He was really just proving the point that Caloric intake is the biggest factor in weight loss. Eat what you want, just don't eat many calories of it.

As a nutritionist, he simply had the practiced will power to follow such a strict dining plan.
 

Jedoro

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Jun 28, 2009
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Alex The Rat said:
We'll see how he feels once he contracts scurvy.
I'm sure that's what the multivitamin is for.

I actually do an unhealthy diet kinda like this: multivitamins, frozen snacks, Pop-Tarts, and Kool-Aid, and I still haven't moved past 130lbs. By frozen snacks I mean pizza bites, frozen cheeseburgers, Toaster Strudels, and bacon egg & cheese biscuits. None of the fruit Pop-Tarts, either, I eat the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Ice Cream Sundae, and Smores. Throw in some fast food when I'm hungry and didn't pack enough, and that's been my diet for the semester.
 

Anarchemitis

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Dec 23, 2007
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It's all about the adaptability of the human body. In order to decrease expenses, I've conditioned myself to eating only two meals a day during college, and so far as I can tell I'm perfectly healthy compared to peers. Granted, I don't eat twinkies or chips. I prefer more hearty foods simply because of preference. Like kaiser buns and pastrami.
 

Formica Archonis

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Nov 13, 2009
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Anarchemitis said:
It's all about the adaptability of the human body. In order to decrease expenses, I've conditioned myself to eating only two meals a day during college, and so far as I can tell I'm perfectly healthy compared to peers.
I hate eating. I've got myself down to one meal a day and a small snack just before bed. It horrifies people.
 

The_ModeRazor

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Jul 29, 2009
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Damn.
Sounds promising.
I really, really want to lose some weight - and I'm not even really fat.
I just want to look good without clothes.

Like the rest of us, I guess.
And apparently, working out like a ************ didn't help. Yes, I can do handstand push-ups with ease. No, I still don't look very attractive.
 

bjj hero

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Feb 4, 2009
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Only in America could someone come up with the junk food weight loss plan...

I wish he had studies the effects on his fitness too. That would be interesting. Weight loss hold no interest for me. He is taking his vitamins and proteins so I can see why it would work.
 

Evilsanta

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Apr 12, 2010
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Sweet! So that means i wont gain any weight eating burgers too?

OT: Well isn't that nice...To bad we dont have twinkies in Sweden...
 

lacktheknack

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Jan 19, 2009
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Greg Tito said:
He supplemented his diet with a multivitamin, a serving of vegetables and a protein shake, and stayed away from meats to keep his caloric intake below 1800 per day (he was consuming over 2600 per day before the experiment.)
There we go. My first thought was ZOMG MALNUTRITION! But he sidestepped it. Technically, I'd say he cheated.

I mean, multivitamins, protein shakes and veggies are all hilariously low-calorie. It's VERY COMMON KNOWLEDGE that low-calorie = weight loss. It's not the healthiest method of weight loss, however. He'd be even HEALTHIER than he is now if he had eaten more veggies, fruits and meats instead of the junk, if he ate the same calorie content.
 

lacktheknack

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Shoggoth2588 said:
I really hope this shuts those food-nazi's up. I really, really do. I doubt it though.
Why would it? He gave us a loophole (see my other post).