A nutrition professor at Kansas State University recently conducted an experiment in which he consumed less than 1800 calories of mostly Twinkies and other similar snack cakes to see if he could lose weight. After two months, and without any exercise, the result was that he lost 27 pounds, lowered his bad cholesterol, raised his good cholesterol, and his body mass index went from overweight to normal. How is this possible, and if so, is it healthy?
This experiment serves to remind us all one thing: that the most important factor in losing weight is counting calories. What this professor proved in his study is that in order to lose weight, one does not need to worry about fat content, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, nutrients, metabolism, etc. The most important thing when losing weight is counting calories. To lose weight, one should consume about 500 calories less than their body burns on a daily basis.
However, this study does nothing to prove the long-term health risks associated with this method of weight loss. Eating in this way for two months is one thing, but eating like this for years may produce completely different results. Even though the short-term results of this study indicate that his general health improved, that may be due more to the fact that he went from being overweight to within a normal weight range. Eating this way over an extended period of time would most likely wreak havoc on his health and put him at extremely high risk of diabetes.
In the experiment, the professor did take a multivitamin, consume a few servings of vegetables, and drink a protein shake every day. These three things most likely contributed more to his success than the snack cakes. It would be interesting to see what would have happened if he did not engage in these three activities and ate only the snack cakes.
When you drastically reduce caloric intake, it is very important that you do so with nutrient rich foods for the benefit of your health. For that reason, most will agree that the safest, most healthy way to lose weight is with a balanced diet of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, 500 or so calories below your daily caloric expenditure. In other words, eat less calories than you burn, but do it with healthy foods, not Twinkies.