In response to my Calorie is NOT a Calorie post the other day, several readers posed questions about the “Twinkie Diet”, a dietary experiment whose results seemed to suggest otherwise (that indeed all calories were equal for fat loss). Here’s one such question:
But what about the Twinkie Diet? A guy lost something like 40 pounds [Note: the actual amount was 27 lbs] eating only Twinkies (and a few multivitamins)… If they were only Twinkie calories, shouldn’t he have gained weight? He set out to prove that a calorie is a calorie, even if it is not unprosessed or proteinful food. Why didn’t he get fat?
I responded in the comments sectoin of that post, but let me go in to a bit more detail here:
First, just to clarify, the actual amount of weight lost was 27 lbs, or an average of 2.7 lbs a week over a 10 week period.
Having said that, the test subject only reduced his calorie intake by 800 calories daily, which equates to a deficit of 56,000 calories. A pound of fat is 3,500 calories, so even if the entire caloric deficit resulted in pure fat loss (which it never does) this would only equate to 16 lb loss of body fat.
In reality, of the 27 pounds lost, the dieter would be lucky if 50% of it was actually fat — absolutely terrible if you enjoy your muscle and give a rip about your metabolism.
The important distinction here is that between “weight loss” and “fat loss”.
If this particular dieter made much more appropriate food choices and his calories were derived from different (i.e. better) foods, he would have lost much, much less lean body mass.
And let me ask you this: Which do you think LOOKS better in the end? 27 pounds of “weight loss” in which half is lean body mass? Or a lesser amount of pure fat loss? Here’s the truth: no one truly cares about the numbers on the scale…they care about how they look. If they lose 40 lbs and are still ashamed to take their shirt off, it’s likely not the outcome they were looking for.
And you be the judge on if you’d like to look like Mark Haub, the infamous Twinkie dieter.
The other point to consider is what type of deficit needs to be achieved in order to lose fat in a situation in which calories are being derived from crappy sources (such as snack cakes).
Of course if you eat 1800 calories of twinkies (when you maintain at 2600 cals) you’ll lose fat, but you could lose just as much fat (and much less lean body mass) eating a higher calorie level of wholesome, natural foods.
To sum it up, if someone has all 5 of the factors that I shared in my previous article working against them vs. someone having all 5 factors above working for them — and calories are equal — the person having all factors working for them will lose more fat, less muscle, and at a higher calorie intake. All in all a much more desireable situation.
To recap, the 5 factors are:
1. Eating foods with a high thermic effect of feeding (i.e. protein)
2. Eating higher fiber foods with indigestible calories
3. Choosing low glycemic index foods to control insulin
4. Avoiding the combination of carbs and fats in the same meal
5. Eating small, appropriately timed meals
And of course, there are a million other inherent problems with the Twinkie Diet, including ridiculously small portion sizes, etc, but today I just wanted to tackle it from calorie perspective.
If you missed the first part of this series, click here for full details on each of the above.
For Five Foods that Fight Abdominal Fat, Click HERE.
Questions/Comments? Post ’em below and I’ll talk to you in the comments section!
Keep rockin’,
Joel
Great post Joel … It’s how you look at the end of the day. I don’t want to be convincing myself that I’m better because I’ve lost x lbs of weight (note – weight, not just fat). I want to KNOW simply by looking in the mirror. If I look good and feel good I don’t give a rats arse what the scale says.;-)
Cheers
Chris
dunno if I’d even have liked Twinkies by the end of the “diet”, I worked a holiday job in a sweet factory making easter eggs one christmas we were allowed to eat any that were broken so when we first started there were a lot of breakages, by the end of the first week nobody wanted any sweets or chocolate at all even if we were outside work, that effect lasted more or less to the present day and I was 17 at the time, and never put on any weight either, mindyou I could never face food after work either so the calorie content was probably filling even if the nutrition was lacking but I tended more towards skipping than eating meals then, however I went on one of those Slimfast diets using a liquid food supplement instead of meals and didn’t have the normal meal of an evening and I put on weight any idea why ?
Hey Joel,
great follow-up on a reader’s reply! The twinkie diet made me think for a second about your shared information, but it just didn’t sound right.
I’ve experienced first hand that nutrition is as import as doing exercise. The two go together or you’re wasting your time!
Thanks again for the valuable FACTS.
Hey Joel,
Great explanation, I couldn’t agree more. Point established!
I have a question though (this might be an already answered question, but I still don’t have this cleared up):
What would be your recommended ideal calorie deficit for optimal fatloss, assuming diet is clean and workouts are regular (3 times/week, metabolic weight training)?
I was reading about this ridiculous Twinkie diet and was wondering what his blood chemistry revealed? Look what happened to the guy who ate McDonald’s for 30 days. It would be interesting to know if it was worth the 27 pounds.
BS. Food has nothing to do with losing or maintining muscle; Lifting and/or using the muscles do. Food has no affect on metabolism. If it did then I guess bed ridden cancer patients must have the highest metabolism of anybody. In a healthy person your metabolism is determined by your sex, age, weight/height. If you don’t want to look like that guy and have a more athletic appearence then lift weights. What you eat has nothing to do with it.
Hi,
What are some alternative choices to meat protein? I eat fish, eggs and no meat because I end up with really bad skin issues when i eat meat. A bit scared of soy.
Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.
rae
I”m going to have to go along with BS Detective. Joel, The summary of your post says it all.. even though he was eating twinkies, he ate a caloric intake below his maintenance level and lost weight. It truly is as easy as calories in vs calories out. Nobody can look at thier diet and say.. well it was that snikers bar that made me fat. It’s the overall balance between calories consumed and calories burned. No one is saying to eat junk all the time. Just adjust your caloric intake to take into account the junk you do eat.
@ BS Detective:
Try to eat McDonald’s all day and post your picture result. BS detective is full of BS right there.
@ james:
By eating smaller calories you can lose weight true. But your body won’t transform. To build muscle and burn fat at same time. You need make every single calorie count, clean period. You can lose 20lbs by eating 800 calories of butter all day. But you are just making a big pear to a small pear. For those people who says calorie is a calorie, let me blunt with y’all. Y’all are lazy and don’t want to make sacrifice on the junk food. Attack me all yall want.
@ BS Detective:
Food does have an effect on metabolism. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t know that people who eat breakfast tend to weigh less than those who don’t. Also, any calorie restricted diet would be effective in the long run, however they are often not because restricting calories too much DOES slow down the metabolism. Of course, weights play a part, too, but they are not the be all, end all.
When we’re young, we have a certain amount of reserves – a strength of hormones, metabolism, etc. – that can reach a “breaking point” where our bodies can’t tolerate abuse any more. Who knows? Maybe the Twinkie Guy’s adrenals were still intact enough that all that sugar made him move a little faster for awhile. Maybe he was in such a good mood that his metabolism did him a favor.
Whatever factors worked for him, for those of us whose bodies can’t take that kind of assault anymore, we have to pay close attention to how ALL foods effect our PARTICULAR body. Some people do well on vegetarian, some do well on meat. No one diet plan works for all people. Period.
The same goes for drinking ice cold water – for someone who has a strong constitution, they might drop a few pounds by chilling out their internal organs & having to spend calories heating their insides back up. I was in a weakened state & drank the ice water – and got very ill from it.
We EACH have to pay attention to our own bodies and discover what works for us, right now, in the state our body is in. Health and healing to all of you!
Joel,
I agree diet is important..I say its even more important to protect muscle than weight-lifting.is that right?
Good post, the twinkie diet reminds me of the low carb beer diet I saw once, just a fad, the results wont last. A healthy, balanced diet is the only way to go. By the way, I think BS Detective is just trolling.
Interesting follow up of the twinkie diet!
One thing I’d like you to address is that based on ESE from Brad Pilon, it seems to be that as long as you are taking part in some sort of resistance training such as WEIGHTS, then the loss of muscle will be negligible: or non-existent.
I remember reading something from Rusty in which he said you can maintain muscle mass during cutting by doing something as simple as a 15minute bodyweight circuit, eg bridges, push ups, prone wall squats etc
So would that then imply that calorie quality only really matters if you aren’t doing any resistance training? Could it be more that the Twinkie guy was losing muscle due to no weight training throughout that period?
I agree with most of what you say, but so sure about #5. I have been reading (and hearing) a fair bit about doing away with timing your meals and keeping them small on the Paleo/Primal scene.
Post workout carbs/protein make sense, but aside from that simply eating to satiety, be it 1-4 times a day seems to make sense. As long as your carbs are low and you are eating enough of protein and fat to keep your engine going doesn’t this work well?
Carbs and fat are often consumed together as in bread and butter. You usually don’t consume fat on its own. So how do you avoid the fat Carb combination.
I have been thru the weight loss thing several times over the past 20 years … I have to agree to disagree with you. I went on a soup diet for 30 days and kept my calories at 800 to 900 during the whole month and lost 30 pounds.. I was an avid runner and weight lifter and actually improved my appearance… but I think 30 lbs in 30 days is too fast but that just shows what a super low calorie diet can do… Now most trainers start with the nonsense that your body will go into starvation mode and begin storing fat… have you ever seen a fat prisoner of war.. You keep your calories below 1000, do a little walking everyday and the weight will come off…. but I do not recommend twinkies…lol
Thank you for this article because finally someone is telling the truth!! When I read about this guy, I couldn’t believe that people actually thought this was a good idea to try! Don’t they realize that you need to get nutrients each day that your body needs to function correctly certainly not found in Twinkies?! You can have a Twinkie, but only after you’ve eaten a well balanced, portioned meal! This “diet” is really only for people who have no self control in eating sweets and just want an excuse to eat them more than they should.
Greetings,
I am confused about the 5th factor and because it conflicts with some advice given by Rob Poulos in a video presentation where he says that eating an irregular amount of calories each day with different kinds of foods will result in fat loss because it has something to do with how the cave people were not fat because they ate when they could find food not because they ate regular meals. Could you please clarify as to which is the correct way of eating to be healthy while maintaining fat loss and muscle gain?
Thank You Very Much
Joel,
1. our muscle mass is determined mainly by the stress it is submitted to – there are tons of research showing that, including that it is possible to do very calorie restrictive diets without losing muscle as long as there is training. Extremes are good examples: a)when you break your leg and can’t move at all, it doesn’t matter how good you eat, you are going to loose muscle; b)bad eating and good training also increases muscle (as long as the vitamins and minerals are there).
2. there is no such thing as “starvation mode”. Our body doesn’t “grasp” in to fat (just energy resource and nothing more) and start spending our muscles, necessary for hunting. It makes no sense and it is scientifically proved wrong.
3. he was eating less than spending; there was no lack of essential vitamins or minerals (that could cause a muscle loss); the stress he’s muscles were under didn’t change much (just a few pounds less to carry around). Conclusion: he lost mainly fat and, of course, some water.
Wow! I was the reader who wrote the post that you quoted!
I feel amazing right now. You actually wrote an entire artile in response to this.
This is really good in the sense that it helps educate all of the other readers out there, as the “is a calorie just a calorie?” question is an important one to be answered. I just want to thank you again for the great response, helping to educate not just me, but all of the other people who read this.
Thanks again, and keep up the great work!
Dylan
As usual you only respond to the easy to answer comments.
Why dont you respond to Mohammed’s comment which is the 1st comment made.
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...read more