The Dukan Diet – what it consists of
The Dukan Diet follows a strict regime made up of four phases. The first is the attack phase, lasting three to ten days, during which high protein foods are consumed such as red and white meat, eggs, fish, seafood and low fat milk. There are no limits to the amount of food you eat, just the type. In the second phase, the cruise phase, vegetables and legumes are added to the protein based diet. Vegetables offer a more familiar healthy aspect to the diet. The best ones to eat are: tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, salad and mushrooms. The phase can last as long as it needs to and during this phase of the diet it is expected that you will reach your target weight.
The third phase starts as soon as you reach your target weight and is called the consolidation phase. During this part of the diet you should seek to maintain your newly attained goal weight. You can eat one piece of fruit a day and one serving of carbs a week. The number of days this phase of the diet should last for is worked out by multiplying total weight lost by 10.
During the final phase, the stabilisation period, you begin to incorporate back all the foods you would have normally eaten before the diet, however you must set aside a day once a week every week in which you only consume proteins.
An example Duka Diet menu – Phase 1
Breakfast - eat yoghurt, cheese or cottage cheese, a slice of ham and the white of a boiled egg.
Lunch – eat a turkey breast or beef steak with cheese.
Dinner - you could eat fish or shellfish, a boiled egg, chicken livers or yogurt.
Snacks – can consist of a yogurt or about 100 grams of fat-free cheese.
The recommended Dukan Diet recipe book outlines many different complete meals for you to try. The diet, whilst restrictive at times, does not call for complete starvation. Thousands of people have tried and tested it and many have successfully lost weight using this method of weight loss.
