I actually had a quick post I was going to toss up here in reply to the hate that this guy is getting over his Twinkie diet experiment, but the more I got to typing, the more I wanted to say, the more I realized this would end up being a 3,000 word post. Then I remembered, it’s already been done for me!
Rather than making you read my 3,000 word rant, and then link you to three other pretty lengthy articles on the same subject (and written much gooder than I ever could), I’ll just link you to them now and save myself the rage I would assuredly assume whilst typing.
The short of the Twinkie diet is that this professor ate 2/3 of his calories from prepackaged, processed “junk food” and the other 1/3 of his calories from a protein shake and a couple servings of canned veggies. He also took a daily vitamin and kept his exercise routine the same as before the experiement.
His results are that he lost 27lb., lowered his “bad” cholesterol by 20%, raised his “good” cholesterol by 20%, and reduced his triglycerides by 39%.
This is where I divert the hate…
JC originally told me that I could just copy and paste his posts verbatim and put them on my site. 1) I have *some* ethics and would never do that. 2) I’m even too lazy for that. I ‘ll leave it up to you people to NOT be lazy and click on these links:
[P.S. JC actually gets “famous” people like Alan Aragon to comment on his site so you know it’s legit information.]
[P.P.S. I agree with 99% of what he says, which is why I don’t want to re-write it.]
[P.P.P.S. I couldn’t even find that 1% I don’t agree with, but that gives me leeway to say “nuh-uh, I didn’t agree with that part!” later on.]
Clean Eating is a Scam and Why You Should Abandon It
Clean Eating: Why I Still Call it a Scam
Clean Eating is DEAD: Putting the Nail in the Coffin
If you have time or are an uber geek like me, I highly highly suggest you read all the comments at the end of each post. This topic invokes deep hatred and lots of “lol’s” from the “you absolutely have to eat clean all of the time” crew.
I also suggest you follow JC on Twitter. Once he reaches 1,000 followers, he’s making “Clean eating is a scam” t-shirts. He’s also a pretty funny muh-f*cker.
Alright, that’s all I got to say about that. Please direct all ensuing hate to JC. He’s much stronger than I am and can take it. I, however, would cry myself to sleep.
Happy eating!!
Yikes! I was just working on a post on this too! Crazy world.
rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
See? That’s what I’m saying about you stealing my ideas. Hahahaha!! Kidding. See you tomorrow.
I think that this makes somewhat obvious sense, as long as you’re burning close to or more than the amount of calories that your body takes in, then you’re fine. I think that if you don’t take in the protein needed for muscle growth, then obviously you won’t gain muscle mass, and may lose some depending on how hard you’re working out and how. Ergo, an all twinkie diet won’t be optimal, but a diet like what the professor utilized seems reasonable, if a little unorthodox.
I’d want to talk to that professor and see how he FELT all the time. The protein shake and the vitamin supplement surely helped a bunch, but my goodness, I can’t imagine his energy was very good. I know when I eat crappy I feel pretty sluggish. I think this gets back to something you’ve discussed Dave, the importance of recognizing whether a diet is strictly for weight loss, or if it is for performance. I try to find a nice balance between the two (maintain as low of a weight as is reasonable, basically to try to look as cut as I can, and still feel like my body is full of great fuel all the time, especially when I work out). This diet may work for weight loss, but I can’t imagine it would have very good performance results.
@Porter
It’s amazing what minimal knowledge and common sense you need understand *most* of nutrition, isn’t it? I wish everyone used the same approach you seemed to have adopted.
@Adam
For me, the line between eating for appearance and eating for performance is starting to gray more and more. I’m beginning to really wonder how differently they are? I do think that what one person can get away with is entirely different than what someone else can get away with. The only way to find out is to test it. Eat shitty for a week or two. How does that affect your state, performance, energy, and appearance? Eat “clean” for a week or two. How does that affect those things? How much junk can I eat, balanced with some good stuff, can I get away with to not see those things degrade? Somewhere there will be a line. The key is to get as close to it without going over. Only you, the individual, can find it. I can’t find it for you, but I can help you along the way.