Diet update

I've been providing background, and details of how the diet went along. I thought you might be interested in where I am today. I haven't really finished the Dukan Diet because it's a plan that effectively goes on for your whole life. It's not as intimidating as that sounds. 

I'm into the third stage called the Consolidation Phase. This is a period of readjustment, when you gradually go back to not following so many rules about what you eat. It's a long phase, but it is useful to prevent that rebound effect that so many diet plans have. How many times have you seen people who lose weight, only to put it all back, and more, very shortly after losing all the weight? Has this happened to you? That might be why you found my blog.

There is a simple fact: after losing weight you cannot simply go back to the eating habits - and lifestyle - that you followed before you slimmed down. You got fat doing what you did before and you will get fat again if you go back to that. In fact it is potentially worse, because your calorie needs are partially defined by your size; a larger person uses more calories than a smaller one, for a given activity. 

There is also a theory proposed by Dr Dukan, which I am not sure about. He says that our metabolism has a memory. If you have been fat for a long time, your body believes that the fatter version is the right one and the slimmer one you have created is an aberration. In other words, as soon as you start to eat more, your body will run at a lower pace in order to restock the depleted fat reserves. It is therefore essential to spend am extended period after losing weight on a controlled diet to get past the body's "natural tendency" to become fat again. 

Whether this is true or not, one thing is true, people who have been seriously overweight do gain weight easier than those who have not. This is no reason to give up the battle. We start with a fixed number of fat cells. When we eat more calories than we consume the body turns the excess into fat and stores this in the fat cells. I have described this natural process before and explained why evolution has selected this solution for us - and as far as I can work out, most animals. When the fat cells are all as full as possible, the body has nowhere left to store the fat. If however we continue to consume more than we need, the body cannot waste that calorie bank. So the fat cells divide. You end up with more fat cells, and more place to store your fat forever. I think this happens when the bmi reaches 31, or thereabouts. Having a greater volume of fat cells makes it easier for the body to gain weight. This isn't going to change, unless, I suppose one resorts to liposuction (in other words surgery) to remove those cells. I do not recommend anyone going under the knife.

So the Consolidation phase is either intended to outsmart the body's natural tendency to regain weight, or it is simply a way to outsmart your old habits and learn new eating behaviour to ensure you can carry on with your life a master of your weight, not its slave.

Either way, it works. I entered the Consolidation phase weighing 77.3kg. That is a healthy weight for someone of my height and build. Today I weigh 76.6kg and I have spent virtually the whole of the Consolidation Phase under the weight at which I started it. My weight has remained in a tight band between 76 and 77kg, occasionally slightly over or under. I eat more than when I was losing weight and most of the time eat pretty freely, not subject to the restrictions which applied during the Attack or Cruise phases. I have been following this phase since mid October and I will finish it in March - I'm over half way through and gaining confidence that this plan will ensure I eat a healthy, balanced but above all pleasurable diet without getting fat again. That's what we all seek.