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Special K diet proves effective |
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
by NIKKI ROBERTI
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
They are everywhere.
They lurk around every aisle. They hide on every shelf.
They are waiting to take your money.
They are fad diets.
But when brands and promises of the “new you” are all grabbing for your attention, how do you know which ones to trust?
In order to find the truth behind various diets, I underwent the Special K diet for one week to observe its effects.
The Special K diet from Kellogg’s cereal brand advertises a six-pound
weight loss and the loss of one jean size in two weeks by replacing two
meals a day with a serving of cereal, followed by a balanced third meal.
I also limited myself to a student budget and only purchased items from various locations on campus, including The Markets.
Director of Nutrition Marketing for Kellogg U.S. Dr. Jennifer L.
Garrett said the diet was developed in 2003 to make dieting an easy
process that would not require much thought or effort.
“The challenge is a simple, great-tasting way to help you lose weight,
and it’s based on independent, clinical studies conducted at leading
universities,” Garrett said.
The cereal was great tasting in my opinion, which made the week trial
more bearable than I thought it would be. There are also many cereal
options to choose from.
But since I couldn’t afford to buy every product, I had to resort to
eating just the Special K “Red Berries” and “Chocolatey Delight”
cereals every day, alternating each meal.
Needless to say, by day seven, I almost refused to eat anything for
lunch since I honestly would have preferred to eat nothing than the
same cereal again.
However, while on this diet I experienced some side effects as a result of eating only two bowls of cereal for two meals a day.
I was tired. That may not seem like a devastating side effect, but I’m not saying all I wanted was a nap.
The fatigue I felt was a drastic change for my lifestyle and my mood.
By 4 p.m. almost every afternoon, I crashed and had no will to do
anything productive. My friends said I became cranky and edgy until
after I had eaten dinner, where I also tended to consume more than I
usually did because I was so hungry from the day.
I went from never watching television during the week to watching movies a couple nights in a row rather than studying.
I felt like a completely different person – and not in a good way.
Krystal L. Lorentz, a junior organizational communications major, said
she had a similar experience a year ago when she tried the Special K
diet.
“It made me really edgy. I was tired all the time,” she said. “And then I just got bored with it.”
Staff physician
at Student Health Services Dr. Robert S. Ellison said tiredness is an
expected side effect in lower calorie diets such as Special K.
“The lower calorie intake begins to cause the body to utilize stored
energy reserves such as glycogen stored in the liver and then fat
stores,” he said. “Fatigue is common during this metabolic stress.”
Garrett said although an effective diet, no real studies have proven Special K to be necessarily healthy.
“While providing simple tools to help women manage weight is the
foundation of the Special K brand and Special K Challenge, we have no
studies to provide substantial health benefit claims other than
weight-management,” she said. “But I can tell you a literature review
published in the Nutrition Bulletin found that consumers who regularly
eat a cereal breakfast are more likely to have a lower body mass index
than those who do not.”
However, eating a cereal breakfast is different than eating a cereal breakfast and lunch.
Still, the diet’s promise came true and in one week of the Special K diet, I lost 3 pounds.
But for Lorentz, she didn’t find success after her two weeks.
“I really wanted to lose close to 10 pounds,” she said. “But I lost maybe two.”
While the diet isn’t for everyone and can cause a great deal of
fatigue, Garrett recommends even just eating Special K as a part of a
healthy breakfast.
“Many women love our Special K Breakfast – a serving of Special K
cereal, fat-free milk, fruit and black coffee, which is less than 250
calories,” Garrett said.
You may not lose the promised amount of weight just eating Special K
for breakfast; however, by avoiding the two-bowls-of-cereal-a-day plan
you prevent yourself from experiencing the constant feeling of
exhaustion.
When asked if replacing two meals a day with any breakfast cereal would produce the same results, Garrett had no comment.
However, Ellison said if the equivalent calorie intake was achieved by
the alternate brand of cereal, then most likely one could experience
similar weight loss results.
“Weight control is a process and never achieved easily,” Ellison said.
“If anything worked better than the others, then one diet would corner
the market.”
I did the Special K diet and succeeded.
But I still don’t think it was worth it.
 The Special K diet log
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