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! ;)
They made it onto Watchdog last week for ripping people off.
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.
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.
Quote from: lewic on September 05, 2011, 19:25:46
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 (http://holfordwatch.info/holford-myths/myth-holford-is-a-highly-qualified-nutritionist/) gives a rather different view of Holford. Save your money.
Diets make you fat. just eat healthily and eat off a smaller plate
marg
Theres only on way to redue your weight.
Eat less, and exercise. Any other proffered soluttion is just snake oil.
Rubbish, that is a very old fashioned theory, long since disproved as being the sole source of being overweight.
XX Jeannine
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.
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.
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
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!
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!
I`ve found that avoiding food beginning with ch-- works for me. No chips, cheese or chocolate! ;)
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.
Quote from: antipodes on September 06, 2011, 13:00:28
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.
Quote from: Oldhippy on September 06, 2011, 12:53:48
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 :-[
Quote from: pumpkinlover on September 06, 2011, 13:22:23
Quote from: Oldhippy on September 06, 2011, 12:53:48
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 ;)
I like it, The no ch diet.
Quote from: Jeannine on September 06, 2011, 02:58:48
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
Quote
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
Quote
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')
There's also:
Weight Reduction - How to Lose Weight (http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Weight-Reduction-How-to-Lose-Weight.htm) from patient.co.uk
and
Lose Weight (http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/Loseweight/Pages/Loseweighthome.aspx) from NHS Choices.
Both are evidence-based and contain lots of links to further information.
Thanks for all your answers. I did loose 4 stone about 2 years ago just by eating less and doing more. I ate chocolate(one square of Lindt chili chocolate) every night as a treat and ate everything in small amounts. I also joined a gym and loved it. Then the weight loss just slowed down and stopped. And as I got a bit disheartened I started to have 'treats' The odd chocolate, biscuit and bottle of wine. Slowly but surely 10lb crept up on me. So now I just want to shift about 18kg. That includes the weight that has crept on.
My daughter follows a 'Paleo' diet which she chooses to do as carbs, sugar and process foods where the source of her chronic and debilitating migraines (found out after a long process of elimination) She had just had a beautiful little girl who weighed 7lb 8oz and she had only put on 2.5 kg in weight after she had her baby. Three weeks on that has now gone too. She looks amazing (if a little thin for me)
My thoughts on this diet and the Dukan diet where as follows.
1. Man originally was a hunter/gatherer and as such his diet relied on a lot of meat/protein.
2.Cereals and starchy food was only added to the diet when we became more static and began to farm, so sticking to just proteins and low fat for the diet stage of this way of eating seemed to make sense.
Having read the book by Dr Dukan its not just a diet but a way of life. Once you have reached your target weight you then have a few months of 'consolidation' and can add a few extras like some cheese bread and fruit.
After a few months more you can then start the 'stabilization' by adding a starch ie potatos, pasta,rice twice a week and have a celebration meal up to twice a week giving you a lot of leaway in what you eat. The only thing that you have to do is have one protein day a week for the rest of your life, never use an escalator or a lift and do a little exercise each day ie 20 min walk.
I have started following the dukan diet and have just passed the attack phase and can now start the cruise phase and add veggies........thank goodness. Ive never dreamed of salad before now ;D Stepped on the scales this morning and have lost 2.2 kg after 5 days. Haven't felt hungry and I'm just a bit bored with meat only and cant wait to get stuck in to copious amounts of veggies.
Of course there is more to living with the diet ie oat bran drinking plenty but I really think that this is a healthy diet. Lean meat, fish, shellfish,veggies, tea, coffee, skimmed milk, low fat yoghurts and cheeses (fromage frais and cottage) I even have low fat cocoa and it tastes just the same.
So there we are! Ill keep you up dated with how things progress.
I'm sorry. I misunderstood your original post. You said in that you were reading about the diet and considering doing it. Today, you're already on the diet and in the second phase. Are you a Time Lord?
I have the feeling I and others have just wasted our time trying to be helpful?
Ok I admit that was misleading. I had read and done the research and already started. However anyones advice is never wasted and I really wanted to know if anyone else had been on this type of diet. My error. ;)
Someone got out of bed on the wrong side this morning! :-\
P.S No not a time lord.....just very impatient. A little like some other folk on here me thinks. Thanks to everyone who offered some advice. I love this place as a sounding board.
I'm not impatient or grumpy. Part of my job is to look out for spammers and scammers and MLMs any anyone else trying to exploit the forum. Blatantly 'misleading' posts are suspicious. I'm no clearer why your first post wasn't true.
All diets like this make you fatter in the long run. If you continually crash your calories suddenly and drastically then you put yourself in a worse postion than you were to start with. Starvation of calories (in whatever form) is not a good idea as your body reacts by adjusting the rate at which you burn calories and slows the metabolic rate.. (Something to do with the rate at which glucose is converted to glyogen or something but I can't recall at present!!)
This change can stay with you for weeks or months and if you return to a more normal intake your wieght goes up...
My OH's Mum has been on so many diets now that she cannot seem to lose wieght at all - even under extreme starvation.
Only one way to do it long term - keep the calories you imbibe the same (or less) as you expend. Either that or just accept you are naturally a bit fatter than most and stop worrying.
An allotment is the equivalent to a Gym Membership, except its cheaper and you get free veg.
The science does suggest that, in the majority of cases, being overweight can be solved by adjustments to your diet and activity levels. For most people it is quite easy to lose weight, but it takes organisation and a strong will to stick to a regime. I have been overweight my entire adult life (and childhood to be honest). I haven't been a size 16-20 since being 16 years old; this is until recently where I have lost a significant amount of weight and I am now a size 8. I wasn't ignorant about what I needed to do, but I wasn't ready to commit to what was required before now. People ask me how I have done this regularly and they look in dismay when I tell them I worked out how much I should be eating, increased my activity levels and made sure I was burning more on a daily basis than my body required! They all seem to want a quick fix easy solution.
Quote from: lincsyokel2 on September 06, 2011, 17:45:57
An allotment is the equivalent to a Gym Membership, except its cheaper and you get free veg.
An allotment is a great way to exercise. So is a good old fashioned walk in the park! There is alot of truth in this except it is very easily to counteract the exercise done with some nice fruit crumbles! Also it takes ALOT of exercise to burn relatively few calories. Heavy digging burns alot, but most gardening is low intensity. I burn alot more calories doing heavy weight training in the gym or running than I do at the plot, but it all really adds up!
shame some of us find it very difficult to increase our activity. I, too, have strugged with my weoght since I was 14, my mum put me on a diet then (good intentions), I was very active, and a size 14 :)
Well I have done my research and still stay it is rubbish that all folks are fat because they eat too much and don't get enough excerise.
I eat very little, not nearly enough, it is a big cause of concern to my Dr and my blood is suffering because of it. They try to get me to drink geriatric milky drink thingies but I cannot..I have been on appetite stimulants but still eat very little..and I am overweight..my thyroid is way ouut of balance and it seems to see saw, it seems they cannot get it stable..
So I am overweight and I eat very little...I am on the go all day given the limitations of my health problems, I swim etc..so there is at least one person in the world that proves it is not always overeating and lack of excerise.
My mother was the same, so were her two sisters..and the specialist I see tells me that genetics are a valid factor in weight, wether too much or two little¸ My husband eats like a horse,an unbelieveable amount and is skinny!! My father was the same, he couldn`t gain an ounce no matter how hard he tried.
To tell fat folks they are in effect lazy and greedy is cruel, and wether these words are used eaxctly or not is matterless,it means the same when someone overweight hears.. eat less and excersise more. being overweight can be emotionally very traumatic to some people and they don`t need to hear negativity or ridicule.
Personally I don`t care, the folks around me do but it does not bother me much.
If someone is overweight, my advice seriously is first look to what you are eating,change it if it is an unsuitable diet and yes if you don`t use much energy then up it..but if that does not work then get the help of a Dr and have the checks needed to see if you do have a problem other than eating and excercise, there are alot more folks out there than you would think. I go weeks and weeks like this , then for a couple of weeks I start to eat, then back down I go again.
Yesterday, I ate an egg and a green salad, no dressing and I drank 3 cups of tea, no sugar , that is all I could manage and that was over the day not all in 1 go..not exactly binging!!
Today I intend to try shellfish which I can usually manage if I feel OK, but just the fish..nothing else.
XX Jeannine
i
Gosh Jeannine, that is such a tiny amount :-\. Poor you. That amount is what I would consider one small meal.
I too have been overweight most of my adult life and I know that it was always down to greed. I do love my grub :-[ I truly wish I was one of those folk who can say No I don't like that thank you, but there is so little that I don't like. I don't like tripe or salami, celery or aubergines and that's about it! I have a sweet tooth too.
Sparkly..........well done that girl. You are amazing to have lost so much weight. I was the same. I just had to commit to wanting to loose the weight. When I lost the first few stone it was following a cardio echogram when I was told my heart was enlarging and I would always have blood pressure problems while I was OBESE.
In all honesty no one had ever called me obese to my face before and it was MY lightbulb moment. I started right away and after 3 weeks of only good veggies lean meat fruit didn't loose an ounce but stuck at it. Then slowly the weight started to shift but my fat is very tenacious and didn't want to leave me easily. After 6 months of eat less, do more I had almost lost 4 stone when it just stopped and over the last 12 - 16 months I have put about 10lb of it back on.
Jeannine, there are some people who genetics and health issues cause problems, but this is a very small % of the people who are overweight who have these issues. There are also plenty of arguments that being overweight runs in families due to shared poor lifestyle choices. I would never ridicule people are are overweight; I was pretty massive myself, but it is a fact that for MOST people who are overweight it is their own doing due to the choices they have made. They are overweight because they eat too much and exercise too little. There many be many psychological issues that contribute to this, but it doesn't change the fact it is due to energy in energy out for the majority. Until people start taking responsibility and sort out their diets and activity levels they are unlikely to lose weight. I do believe there should be more support for people who are overweight avaliable. It can be difficult to make these changes and education with support is the key. Often people think they are eating far less than they are; again studies support this. I am certainly not saying this is you Jeannine; I would not fancy eating so little as you did yesterday, but also feel strongly that there are many people out there making excuses because they don't want to deal with the truth.
Jeannine lincsyokel2 rule is still true for you it's just so distorted by medical problems that you end up looking like you are in the wrong group >:(
Mimi there's only one thing to say about losing 4 stone in 6 months and it's WELL DONE. Don't give up :)
Me, I'd be a lot thinner if I got off the seefood diet.........oh for my slim youth....although I could do without the 12 hour days. Drat, drat, drat!
Oh and getting back to the subject I couldn't face this type of diet if I was paid to ;D
I'd try vegan first... :o
All this talk of dieting is making me hungry!
Quote from: OllieC on September 06, 2011, 20:35:39
All this talk of dieting is making me hungry!
Do you mind ::) I just had dinner and pudding ;)
Quote from: Jeannine on September 06, 2011, 19:19:59
I eat very little, not nearly enough, it is a big cause of concern to my Dr and my blood is suffering because of it. They try to get me to drink geriatric milky drink thingies but I cannot..I have been on appetite stimulants but still eat very little..and I am overweight..my thyroid is way ouut of balance and it seems to see saw, it seems they cannot get it stable..
So I am overweight and I eat very little...I am on the go all day given the limitations of my health problems, I swim etc..so there is at least one person in the world that proves it is not always overeating and lack of excerise.
XX Jeannine
Eating as few calories as you're suggesting will actually make you gain weight. Your body senses it's going into starvation mode and attempts to protect your vital organs by down-regulating your metabolism. Production of the active thyroid homrone from the storage thyroid hormone is drastically reduced to conserve energy so that less is burned and the excess stored. There's a good chapter here (http://www.thyroidmanager.org/Chapter5/5a-frame.htm) citing the research but it's pretty heavy going.
Also, there's a tendency to confuse being physically active with exercising. If you want to exercise for weight loss, you need to do something most days for around 30 mins that raises your heart rate and gets you a bit out of breath. Normal day to day pottering around is activity but it's not exercise.
I think that a change in routine can make you lose weight.
I do not eat that much and a fairly healthy diet at that but am on the border line between over weight and obese normally.
A couple of weeks ago I decide to go on a holiday at the last minute and in the few days before hand getting things ready etc changed my normal evening routine and I lost 6kg.
The Dukan diet restricts you a lot but only for set periods of time. The Dr himself knows this and that is why you gradually add other food groups. He does not advocate cutting out carbs for life but you must admit that eating too many of them will help you gain weight. So when you are allowed them again you can eat a few but not too many, which seems highly sensible to me.
Most people gain weight after dieting because you go back to your old methods. He does advocate a plan for life, which I did not follow, hence I gained weight again. The advantage with a strict diet like his is that it makes you realise how much rubbish you were eating before! And the tone he uses in the book is that once you have been fat you are likely to always have weight problems so you must psychologically prepare yourself for constant vigilance in how your weight is evolving. Not what you always see in this politically correct age, but as another poster said once you hear the word OBESE you think "woah time to make a change here"!!! Obviously he encourages you to then adopt a much healthier lifestyle once you have lost the weight, low fat, low sugar, lots of veg and lean protein and moderate activity. The diet is strict but it's not for life, it's to get the weight off - you must then make the changes you need to make to keep it off. But personally I needed that "wakeup" moment and just cutting back on some foods did not work for me at all. (To be honest it is clear that the Dukan diet works well because you cut out fat, sugar and alcohol, and you don't need to be a genius to know that they are the big enemies of every fatty!!!)
Jeannine, sorry to hear about your nutritional woes. But yes it is true that eating so little all the time will put your body in starvation mode and make it more likely to store energy. Can a nutritionist not help you find a way to slowly eat more? Yr Thyroid problems obviously don't help...
I didn't find the original post misleading, even if you have already started the diet, there is nothing wrong with getting feedack from other people???
But the end line is that I like many do enjoy eating and drinking tasty things, it's one of life's pleasures, but it does have its drawbacks and the "all things in moderation" rule is supremely sensible. To all the dieters like myself, best of British luck, because it's a hard slog, but when you do drop 2 dress sizes, it is highly motivating.
Great post Antipodes. Could not have said it better myself. Got on the scales this morning and to my delight I'm 3kg down. I knew the 'attack phase' of this diet would be difficult ie meat fish seafood fat free dairy only but I thought hey its only for 3 days.......I can put up with that ;) I am really looking forward to veggies today, than its alternating meat and meat +veggies until the weight has gone then I can start to add other things sloooooooooooooly as the good Dr Dukan advises.
Quote from: antipodes on September 07, 2011, 10:34:20
but you must admit that eating too many of them will help you gain weight.
Eating too much of anything - protein, fat, carbs will help you gain weight. The basic laws of physics don't change. If energy in is greater than energy out you gain weight. If energy in is less than energy out you lose weight.
There's a whole raft of interesting psychology around these fad fashion type diets that's exploited by get rich quick authors. Caveat emptor.
I feel I'm hijacking this a bit, but feel I must just comment on an observation made earlier on.
QuoteMy daughter follows a 'Paleo' diet which she chooses to do as carbs, sugar and process foods where the source of her chronic and debilitating migraines (found out after a long process of elimination) She had just had a beautiful little girl who weighed 7lb 8oz and she had only put on 2.5 kg in weight after she had her baby. Three weeks on that has now gone too. She looks amazing (if a little thin for me)
Can I just mention that the weight put on during pregnancy and kept after the birth is there for a reason - to provide resources for the mother as she feeds her baby. Obviously not every mother does this herself, but if this new mother is then losing weight should be the last thing on her mind. As I recall, early motherhood is definitely a time for looking after yourself as much as possible! :)
Sue
Absolutely no offence intended, btw.
Plenty of exercise cut down the ale watch what you eat and lose two stones like me since Christmas, :)
I thought you might enjoy this.... ? It made me smile anyway! ;)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813485 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813485)
If only!!
Quote from: grawrc on September 08, 2011, 12:48:56
I thought you might enjoy this.... ? It made me smile anyway! ;)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813485 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813485)
If only!!
I want a running wheel now...
;D ;D ;D
Quote from: Mr Smith on September 07, 2011, 18:22:21
Plenty of exercise cut down the ale watch what you eat and lose two stones like me since Christmas, :)
My son moved out at xmas, we lost 12 stone.