The Junk Food Diet - Lose Weight Eating Twinkies?

One controversial diet that’s been getting a lot of buzz in the news lately is the Junk Food Diet.  It’s also often referred to simply as the Twinkie Diet.

Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate sugary snacks including Hostess Twinkies, powdered donuts, Little Derbie Snacks, Oreos, Doritos chips, and sugary cereals in his quest to lose weight over an 8 week time period.

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Mark Haub and The Junk Food Diet

For some, this diet may just sound too good to be true while others may consider eating a diet consisting mostly of junk food to be too much of a good thing.   Either way, Mark Haub did manage to lose weight on this diet.  Now, before you head over to the closes gas station by your home to stock up on weight loss Twinkies, there is an important trick that helped Mark succeed.

What’s the catch to being able to eat  sugar and fat-laden diet and still lose weight?  Mark limited his daily caloric intake to just 1800 calories.  Given that there are 150 calories in a single Hostess Twinkie, you may get to indulge in food that has almost no redeemable nutritional value, but you won’t get to indulge too much.

Obviously, one potential problem that many people may have if they tried to copy this diet regime would be controlling their intake of this type of food.  The next question you would have to ask yourself is why would anyone try this diet?

Though I haven’t asked Mark himself, even though he has previously commented at our blog, I would have to imagine that the point of this exercise wasn’t to encourage people to eat more junk food.  Yes, put down that Twinkie and step away from those Doritos if you want to lose weight.

What it really boils down to is that the success of this diet for Mark really just recapitulates the importance of the old adage about calories in and calories out for achieving weight loss.

Did the ‘Convenience Store Diet” Work for Mark Haub?

CNN reported recently that Mark managed to lose 27 lbs in 8 weeks.   Now, that’s 6.75 lbs of weight loss per week which is a reasonably impressive weight loss rate.  Prior to the start of this diet, Mark reportedly had a body mass index (BMI) of 28.8 which is considered to be overweight.  After two months of this diet, his BMI was down to 24.9–just a hair under the threshold for being overweight (a BMI of < 25).

Other Health Consequences of Mark’s Diet?

• His LDL or ‘bad cholesterol’ dropped by 20% while his HDL or ‘good cholesterol” increased by the same percentage
• His triglycerides decreased by 39%
• Body fat dropped from 33.4% to 24.9%

What Did He Actually Eat?

Again, CNN reports that Mark actually drank a protein shake each day along with taking a multivitamin.  He also ate a can of green beans along with three or four celery stocks.  Two thirds of his calories were from junk food.

Though the results of Mark’s diet remind us all to watch our daily caloric intake, following any other aspect of his diet outside of eating vegetables, drinking a daily protein shake, or taking a daily multivitamin doesn’t make any sense at all for people to follow.