What about the Dukan Diet?

I should tell you a little about the Dukan Diet. Dr Dukan tells it so much better in his book, though.

He wasn't working as a dietitian when he discovered the diet. He was a GP and had a patient who needed to lose weight, but could not give up his meat or count calories. In the end Dr Dukan told him just to eat lean meat and then was astounded by the results. He looked into why this should be and from that - over the next couple of decades - honed the plan into what he advises today.



I mentioned before this diet is holistic. There are four phases: the Attack, the Cruise, the Consolidation and the Stabilisation. The first part is a relatively short period of only eating lean protein. This is very short, from a couple of days to a maximum of about ten days. The Cruise is the weight loss period when you alternate between days of pure lean protein and days of protein and vegetables. 

After this life starts to return to normal, the Consolidation is a period of re-education when you gradually start to eat a wider diet, including carbohydrates, fruits and some fats. This stage goes on for a while and is supposed to take you through a period when your metabolism tries to rebuild the lost fat stores you exhausted while slimming. The period retains one day a week of pure protein.

After that stage comes Stabilisation, which is another name for the rest of your life! It is a set of solutions which should prevent you ever regaining the weight you shed. The simplest explanation of this is that for six days a week you can eat whatever you like, but on one day ("Protein Thursdays") you revert to a lean protein only plan. 

There are three other elements to this whole diet plan. oat bran, water and some simple exercise. At each stage there is a daily requirement to eat a measured amount of oat bran. The importance of drinking water is stressed by Dr Dukan. You must drink at least a litre and a half of water a day. The exercise is very simple and explained perfectly logically: you need to take a brisk walk every day of 20-30 minute according to the stage you are at, or more if you don't find it too arduous. Dr Dukan also asks that you should live your life "as though lifts and escalators do not exist". I will write more about that, but the good Doctor is quite correct in that they symbolise how convenience has taken over our lives in the developed world. It is very easy to never make any effort. 

Apart from the oat bran for most of the diet nothing else is measured. It is all about eating as much as you want of the foods you are allowed. I think this was how I did so well. You can eat until you have had enough and  as often as you like. You never need to be hungry.

Have you read enough to want to try the diet? Please don't stop reading my posts if that's the case, but also please go ahead and try the diet. Buy the book. Or try the website 



www.dukandiet.co.uk 


Next time I'll tell you what I have worked out about proteins from my experience on this diet.