Topic: Dukan Diet

[Mimi]

Has anyone tried this at all?  Am reading about it at present and think it could be doable.  Would love some comments/help from someone who has already been there, done that!  ;)

[OllieC]

They made it onto Watchdog last week for ripping people off.

[Sparkly]

Do the old fashion calorie counting (honestly!). Learn how to control what you are eating properly. Long term changes are needed. Use a book or an online calorie counter.

[lewic]

Havent tried this one but trained in nutrition.. Dukan is another Atkins-style low carb diet, but is stricter than Atkins. Probably quite effective but is unsustainable unless you have the willpower of an A list celeb, and is no good if you are a vegetarian. A less strict low-GI/low-GL diet would be healthier as a long-term solution - I would recommend Patrick Holford's books, he knows what he is talking about and the diet is easier to fit around normal life!

.. or try Slimming World 'red' diet. Lower carb but still healthy.

[ceres]

I would recommend Patrick Holford's books, he knows what he is talking about and the diet is easier to fit around normal life!

This well-regarded blog gives a rather different view of Holford.  Save your money. 

[theothermarg]

Diets make you fat. just eat healthily and eat off a smaller plate
marg

[lincsyokel2]

Theres only on way to redue your weight.

Eat less, and exercise. Any other proffered soluttion is just snake oil.

[Jeannine]

Rubbish, that is a very old fashioned theory, long since disproved as being the sole source of being overweight.

XX Jeannine

[Alex133]

For most people I think combination of less calories and more exercise will work better than any fancy eating solution. For long term weight loss you have to convince yourself that you love the change in diet and lifestyle. For myself I now yearn for spinach and asparagus the way I use to yearn for chocolate cake........not that I say no to a slice now and then.

[Melbourne12]

I have to admit to being chronically overweight.  I was a chubby child, and I've always been a fat adult.  I've tried various diets, with only temporary results.

But the only diet that ever really knocked me about was Atkins.  I'll spare you the details (too much information), but I made myself unpleasantly ill, and took months to recover.  I would never attempt a "low carb" diet ever again.

In recent years I've monitored my diet attempts with a home-built spreadsheet, based on the American USDA nutritional database, so that I can monitor not only calories, but carbs, fats, protein, vitamins, and minerals and compares them with recommended daly allowances.  It also takes into account the amount of exercise that I'm taking.

I can say that for me at least, Lincsyokel2's strictures are entirely true.  Only calories and activity level determine weight gain or loss.  Nothing else is measurable. 

[brown thumb]

a ll i can about diets and have tried afew is too get checked out by your doctor before beginning any diets or weight loss programme your  weight might be due to under or over active thyroid gland cant remember which causes weight gain

[antipodes]

Yes I have already followed Dukan once and as a matter of fact I am back on it as I let slip and put weight back on. I can honestly say that people who say oh just eat less or do more exercise have never suffered from chronic weight problems. It is much harder than that, and for those of us with weight problems, it is hard to hear that, as it just is not applicable to most of us.
Dukan is very effective but please don't sign up for anything, buy the Dr's original book and follow it as best you can. It costs about 4£! You can do the diet by yourself, it is dead easy to understand and extremely effective, it is the only diet that ever made me lose weight. If I put it back on, it is my own fault as I did not follow the diet through to the end.
Please only use it if you have well over 5 kilos to lose. It is not a fad but a very difficult diet to follow. I lost 12 kilos over 3 months and kept them off for about 2 years.
Yes you do eat a lot of protein but his theory makes sense. You must drink a lot on the diet. You will be sick of meaty things after a while! you can eat any lean protein - 0% fat dairy products, lean beef, chicken, any fish or seafood, crab sticks, almost fat free ham and bacon meat, canned fish like tuna, smoked fish, skim milk and of course eggs. You also eat 2 or 3 spoonfuls of bran as you will be very constipated. After a few days you can start to eat veg too on alternate days. There is no fat, sugar or alcohol allowed and no fruit in the first phase. No carbs either. Tea coffee diet soda is ok.
Typical protein day menu is: scrambled egg, slice of ham and fat free yoghurt for brekky, slice of smoked fish and large portion of steamed fish, fat free yoghurts or egg custard at lunchtime, at dinner time, crab sticks in a yoghurt sauce, low fat hamburger patty, fromage frais.   On other days add any veg you like to that type of menu.

If you have any health issue, especially with your kidneys, get your Drs advice. You will suffer constipation, bad breath (erk, chew chewing gum), and be quite tired at first. But the weight loss is very visible and encouraging ( a colleague lost 16 kg in 4 months and kept it off by going back to tennis club). Also it breaks your bad food habits and afterwards you will find it hard to stuff yourself, you will want to eat smaller portions. 
And I don't work for Dr Dukan by the way although I have read articles by him in French and he seems quite professional, modest and really believes in his system. He is an actual French doctor who is a nutritionist in Paris, at first the diet became known as it was by word of mouth, then some people persuaded him to do marketing around it and it ended up in Hello! But the original diet is very seriously explained in his book and is really for people that are visibly overweight to obese, it's not a bikini diet.

You can PM me if you want more explanations or recipes!

[Deb P]

Having lost 7 stone in the past 18 months I get constantly asked how I did it, but I really feel what worked for me will not necessarily work for others. I found the biggest wake up call comes from analysing what you eat now, as it is that way of eating that has made you put on weight in the first place. I kept a food diary for two weeks and then looked at it with a diet adviser who than made suggestions of where I could change things.

Two things stood out; I times I was eating (i.e irregularly due to shift work, and late at night) and the amount of full fat cheese and bread I ate ( I don't eat meat). My initial targets were to halve the amount of these foods I ate, but I found it was easier to cut cheese out altogether as having a small amount was just like a tease! I now eat no more than two small slices of wholemeal bread a day, and try to have at least two days a week with no bread at all, I actually feel better when I don't have any which is odd for me. I had to eat a lot more fish, kippers, tuna steaks and started eating quorn to get the protein I needed. I also had to eat my last meal before 7pm.

Making these changes worked and the weight started to come off. What I follow is pretty similar to the Slimmers World regime, I don't weigh any foods, can have unlimited potatoes, veg and salad, just eat fruit if I get hungry inbetween. My weight stabilised last September, and I think getting much lower would be a lot harder now, but I'm pretty happy as a size 18 which as I'm tall doesn't feel bad to me. I ate 'normally' whilst on holiday in holland last week and definitely feel quite bloated by the bread and croissants, but have just gone back onto my usual routine and feel better for it. No quick fixes though folks!

[Oldhippy]

I`ve found that avoiding food beginning with ch-- works for me. No chips, cheese or chocolate! ;)

[antipodes]

I do have to agree with Deb about a few things. I realised that the carbs were the real danger as we do tend to eat too many, even though strictly speaking they are not bad foods, just give too much energy for sedentary people. I went back to a cereal based breakfast (out of laziness guess) and that was a mistake. A protein based breakfast (eggs, ham etc) was actually a big contributor to keeping weight off I think. So cutting out or right back on bread spuds, pasta rice etc is really vital. On the Dukan stabilising period you can eat a little brown bread each day and carbs twice a week.
And yes I think eating regularly is important. A friend of mine realised that when she had a spell in hospital, she was completely bedridden and even though she found the hospital meals ok and was eating all she was given, she lost several kilos, as for the first time, someone gave her 3 meals a day at set times.

In fact the good thing of going on quite a strict diet like dukan is that you get hunger back. Protein foods are satisfying in terms of taste but not filling in terms of bulk, and you will digest the protein after a couple of hours and you will feel naturally hungry in time for your next time, but in a good way. you go back to eating because you need to eat, not just picking.

[ceres]

So cutting out or right back on bread spuds, pasta rice etc is really vital.

No, it's not.  Cutting out an entire food group is not advisable.

By Dukan's own admission, 40% of Dukan dieters regain all of the lost weight within 3 years.  It's not a sustainable way of eating long-term.

[pumkinlover]

I`ve found that avoiding food beginning with ch-- works for me. No chips, cheese or chocolate! ;)

that and al.....  for me if I did but maybe tomorrow :-[

[ceres]

I`ve found that avoiding food beginning with ch-- works for me. No chips, cheese or chocolate! ;)

that and al..... 

It's got the c and h, just in a different order  ;)

[Digeroo]

I like it,  The no ch diet. 

[lincsyokel2]

Rubbish, that is a very old fashioned theory, long since disproved as being the sole source of being overweight.

XX Jeannine

Dont call my views rubbish unless you've done your research.

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/loseweight.htm

To lose weight, you need to get your body to use up these stores of fat. The most effective way to do this is to:

    reduce the amount of calories you eat
    increase your levels of activity.

This is why experts talk about weight loss in terms of diet and exercise.

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/healthy_living/weight_control/hic_the_very_best_way_to_lose_weight_and_keep_it_off.aspx

To lose weight, you must eat fewer calories or burn up more calories than you need. The best way to lose weight is to do both.

and in the same vien

http://bestwaytoloseweightfastf.com/
http://womenshealth.about.com/od/fitnessandhealth/a/6stepsweighloss.htm
http://safewaytoloseweightfast.net/

i can post another ten links if you like.............

'Friad  its your views that are 'rubbish'. (its also very dangerous to trash talk my opinion, because ive been arguing politics on the internet for 20 years, and im very careful to research my view first before voicing it, just so i cant be accused of posting 'rubbish')