The WHOLE Story Behind Man that Lost Weight by Eating Junk

His name is Mark Haub, and he just may have sent the natural health world reeling.

Haub’s goal was simple – to show his students that they could lose weight and eat unhealthily at the same time.  So, for 10 weeks, if he wanted a Little Debbie snack cake, he ate one.

If he wanted a powdered donut for dinner, he bought himself one.  And if he wanted the epitome of junk food delicacy – a Twinkie – then by gosh he got one.

And for 10 weeks straight, this is pretty much how Haub ate – day in, day out.

At the end of a junk food orgy such as this, one would expect Haub to resemble a Twinkie – round on the sides, soft in the middle and squishy all over.  In short, you’d expect him to be fat.

But not only was Haub not fat after his two-month snackfest, he’d lost weight.  And not only had he lost weight – 27 pounds – but his cholesterol numbers dropped, his triglyceride levels dropped and his body fat percentage dropped (going from 33.4 percent to 24.9 percent).

Eat Junk, Lose Weight?

So how could this be?  For time immemorial people like me have been telling you that eating healthy is the best way to lose weight; how, then, can a person who munches on snack cakes and Doritos regularly be lighter than when he ate vegetables and whole grains regularly?

Well, let’s investigate, shall we?  Because truth be told, there’s more to the story than simply “man eats junk food, man loses weight.”  Much more.

For starters, Haub’s diet was not like Morgan Spurlock’s of “Super Size Me” fame.  Spurlock ate three square meals a day of McDonald’s grub, all of which was – as the title of the movie indicates – supersized.

For Haub, nothing was supersized.  Instead, he ate several small meals throughout the day, none of them exceeding 300 calories (in fact most of them were less than 200 calories).  And as most nutritionists will tell you, the ideal way in which to lose weight is by eating several smaller meals throughout the day to keep the body’s metabolic rate elevated and blood sugar levels normalized.  So, while it may seem like he gorged himself on sweets for 10 weeks, his junk food portions were actually quite small.

Secondly, Haub’s jaunt with junk food wasn’t composed of Oreos and Ho-Hos entirely.  One third of his daily calorie intake came from vegetables, which was usually in the form of celery or green beans (Little wonder he ate celery if his goal was to lose weight; celery is the only food that actually has negative calories.  The body burns more calories digesting celery than celery has in caloric content!).

Further, because Ding-Dong’s and Doritos are nutritional wastelands, Haub made sure to supplement his junk food regimen with a daily multivitamin.

Thirdly, the Kansas State University professor’s goal was never to show that eating junk food was no different than eating fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains from a standpoint of nutritional value; it was only to show that he could lose weight and eat junk at the same time.  In other words, he may have lost weight, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be a healthier person by eating like he did for 10 weeks.  He himself advises against doing what he did.

Fourth, Haub’s diet couldn’t have been very satiating.  He was likely feeling famished throughout the 10-week period.  Not only was Haub significantly cutting back on his daily calorie count – going from 2,800 calories a day to below 1,800 calories a day – but he was eating foods void of fiber.

If you have any experience with eating junk foods like Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos or donuts, you’ve probably noticed how you can eat lots of them, yet still not feel full.  It’s not that they’re low in calories, but they’re lacking in fiber.  Fiber found in vegetables, fruits and whole grains is what fills you up, making it easier to eat less.  Because Haub restricted his vegetable intake, I’d venture to guess eating less didn’t come easily.

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As you can see, Haub’s weight loss wasn’t as willy-nilly or as easy as the headlines would have you believe.  And sure, Haub may have lost weight on the “dessert diet,” but dollars to donuts it was the hardest 27 pounds he’s ever had to lose, if for no other reason than that he was probably hungry all the time.  One of the biggest reasons why high fiber foods are recommended to people looking to lose weight is because they’re more likely to prevent you from overeating.  As the saying goes, calories in, calories out.

In the end, the biggest thing natural health naysayers are likely to take away from Haub’s experiment is that “a calorie is a calorie;” in other words, no matter what you eat, you can still lose weight and be healthy.

Well, as the full details of Haub’s experiment suggests, it’s not that simple.  Haub’s junk food diet was 10 weeks long.  That may have been long enough to lose weight, but that’s nowhere near long enough to measure the long-term health effects.  For instance, how do we know that his cholesterol and triglyceride levels wouldn’t have eventually increased?  How do we know that his risk for cancer wouldn’t have dramatically increased if he continued his junk food diet?  And how do we know that he’d be able to sustain such an insatiable diet for 52 weeks straight?

These factors are all flaws to Haub’s ultimate conclusion that there’s no difference between junk food and health food when you’re trying to get healthier and lose weight.  But the biggest flaw to his argument is his multivitamin use.  Haub knew that a diet void of essential vitamins and minerals would leave him vulnerable to a host of health horrors, like anemia (lack of iron), bone loss (lack of calcium), sickness (lacking copper leads to white blood cell loss) and energy loss (lack of magnesium).  I’d be willing to bet that had he not taken a multivitamin, he would have come to a different set of conclusions.

In summary, Haub may have found temporary gains in his weight loss goals with junk food, but they were just that – temporary.  I can guarantee he wouldn’t have the same luck if he continued with that diet.

Bottom line:  Most people want to be healthy and lose weight at the same time.  And the easiest, fastest, most effective way of doing that is by eating whole foods, exercising regularly, and taking in less than you burn.

And that’s how the cookie – or in this case, Twinkie – crumbles.

Sources
caloriesperhour.com
dailymail.co.uk
cnn.com
vitamins-nutrition.org