When Kansas State University nutrition professor Mark Haub began his experiment, he weighed 201 pounds and had a body mass index of 28.8 (overweight).

Ten weeks later, he had lost 27 pounds, lowered his bad cholesterol and raised his good cholesterol.  Plus, he lowered his blood pressure.

How did he do it? I can give you the answer in just one word: twinkies.

From Twinkies to Toned

The diet plan (if we can call it that!) that Haub followed is often called the “twinkie diet,” and for good reason.

For ten straight weeks, Haub has eaten mostly junk food, like soda, snack cakes, Doritos, and especially Twinkies.

Professor Haub volunteered himself as a guinea pig in what began as a simple test of portion control.

Instead of his normal diet of 2,600 calories, he limited himself to only 1,800 calories to see if he would lose weight.

What started as an experiment in portion control of calories (regardless of where they came from), actually resulted in a loss of weight… and a considerable amount, at that.

But Is He Healthier?

Pure numbers point to yes…in addition to losing 27 pounds, Haub’s LDL (the bad cholesterol) dropped by 20 percent and his good cholesterol rose by the same amount.

Haub does not recommend we all go out and load our cars with boxes of Twinkies…at least not yet – and he has yet to draw conclusions about it: “I wish I could say it’s healthy…I’m not confident enough in doing that…One side says it is irresponsible.  It is unhealthy, but the data doesn’t say that.”

Count Your Calories

Weight loss experts constantly flip-flop on the importance of counting calories…but Haub’s results show that at the end of the day…calories count!

Before the experiment, Haub claimed to be eating well, but just consuming too much.

From eating a controlled diet of only 1,800 calories, Haub lost weight, even though what he ate is usually blamed for adding weight, not an aid to losing it.

Also, his before lifestyle shows us that eating too much, even healthy food, will not help you to lose weight.

So, obviously lowering your caloric intake is the real catalyst to losing weight…

The bottom line: if you want to lose weight, you’ve got to consume less than you burn.  That is it.

Drawbacks To Haub’s Method

Plenty of critics have already started talking about this study, and some do have valid points…

One said Haub did not receive the full range of proper nutrients that come from a well-rounded diet (note: Haub did take a multi-vitamin daily, drank a protein shake, and ate one serving of vegetables per day also).

Another very valid comment was that the “twinkie diet” may take a toll on your health if you stay on it long-term – there could potentially be risks to his heart health, and his risk for diabetes may rise considerably.

He may also be changing his blood-glucose level by eating too much processed sugar.

Haub plans to stop his “twinkie diet” the day before Thanksgiving, so we will give you another update as soon as we can!

Checkout the video:

Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html?hpt=T2