Dukan Diet Basics...

Hi all,

Since I have been asked several times about this, I thought I'd best give the low-down of the Dukan Diet...and why I am on it!!

When I went to uni at 19yrs old after having had no weight probs at all, I reckoned I could just eat anything I wanted. And did!! I existed on bread, cereal, pringles and mini chicken kievs - got myself into some great habits there and have had probs ever since!!
(Check out www.thedukandiet.org and www.thedukandiet.co.uk, and even the Daily Mail pages, between them they have the outline for the diet. Also, the Dukan Diet facebook fan page is super helpful.)

The basics are: there are 4 stages, 2 for losing weight, and 2 for maintaining the loss, getting your body settled with the change, and then staying slim.

Stage 1: Attack!! The basics are 2-10 days (depending on how much you need to lose) where you just eat protein (chicken, turkey, beef, seafood, fish, eggs), and fat-free dairy (yoghurt, fromage frais, quark, cottage cheese etc) and drink tons of water and the occasional sugar/carb/fat free fizzy drinks as a treat. This stage shocks the body and should cut out cravings and hunger - it is the most restrictive, but you can lose between 2 and 10lbs in the period.

Stage 2: Cruise - the is the stage where you lose at a slower, but steadier pace (on average 2lbs a week) until you reach your target. And you do this by alterating pure protein days (PP) with protein/low-fat dairy plus non-starchy vegetables(PV) - think you can do 1 PP/1 PV or 3 PP/3 PV up to 5 PP/5 PV as suited.

Stage 3: Stabilisation
Once you reach your target weight, as decided on the Dukan site, you go into stabilisation mode. The idea behind this is that you don't then go berserk and go straight back to eating badly since your body and metabolism are not yet used to your new weight. This consists of still eating PV but you must have 2 'celebration' meals per week where nothing is off limits - the only thing is there has to be at least a days gap between, and you cannot have seconds of anything. You can also introduce:
- one serving of fruit per day. All the fruits are authorized but bananas, grapes, cherries and nuts.
- 2 slices of whole wheat bread per day.
- one serving of cheese per day (around 40g).
- 2 serving of starch food per week (pasta, couscous - 7 oz / lentils, rice, potatoes - 5 oz). Avoid butter and oil as much as you can to cook those.
- once or twice per week, you can have the following new meats: lamb, pork, ham.
In order to counter balance those unrestricted meals, you need to keep one, just one day of PP per week. Try to pick up the same day every week, like the monday. It's up to you to decide for the day but you need to stick with that day as much as possible.
This stage continues for different periods of time dependant on how many pounds you have lost: 4 days for every 1/2 pound, so if you lose 20lbs, you will be in this phase for 120 days.

Stage 4: Consolidation
Easy - eat as you would like (hopefully, well!), the only rule you follow is that one day per week you eat pure protein. That's it!

Hope it makes sense?
I understand it's not for everyone, but I am good when I have rules to follow - I am terrible when I have leeway: if I eat sugar or starch I then want more after an hour or I end up in a terrible mood!! Sad, I know, but I got myself into this crappy relationship with food, by ''treating'' myself whenever I was sad or grumpy with food!!