Kansas State University nutrition professor Mark Haub’s “Twinkie diet” immediately caught the attention of sites like CNN and The Huffington Post, with big reports about the professor’s 27-pound weight loss, achieved through eating Twinkie snack cakes and other unhealthy snack foods. But, before we all head down to the local 7-Eleven, we all should ask one simple question: how did he do it?
Quantity, Not Quality
Haub’s hypothesis was that when it comes to dieting, what really matters is that you keep track of your calories, not necessarily the quality of food you are eating. For his experiment, Haub limited himself to 1,800 calories a day. Fatty foods like snack cakes and potato chips still provide fuel for the body, it’s just that a lot of those foods provide a higher calorie count in a smaller package.
Three Bagged Meals a Day
Haub also stuck to the regular pattern of three meals a day, which helped him avoid the metabolism-shifting problems some dieters run into when they skip meals. Haub followed this regime for two months. The diet was essentially an exercise in portion control, limiting intake no matter the quality of food eaten.
Other Snacks Included
Haub didn’t just limit himself to Twinkies either. In order to create variety for what he called his “convenience store diet,” Haub also partook of other off-the-shelf snack foods like Doritos chips, Oreo cookies, and other chips and cookies as well, replacing normal food in all of his meals.