It's easy to get confused in the modern variety of diets, but protein diets stand out from the list. The Dukan Diet is a prominent representative of protein nutritional systems in which adequate food is consumed but in a different ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
Diet Basics
The Dukan diet is well known in many countries. The effectiveness of this approach has been proven by numerous studies and applications. However, the nutritionist Pierre Ducan himself claims that he has not developed a diet, but a balanced diet so that the body does not experience hunger and stress.
Weight loss occurs because the body burns subcutaneous fat and carbohydrate reserves while the stomach is not empty but digests protein foods.
A good competitor here will be thelesenka diet, the essence of which is the daily passage of various levels of nutrition. Different products, different approaches for 5 days there is no boredom.
Those who want to reduce their forms with the help of the Dukan diet must familiarize themselves with the basic principles:
- Lead an active lifestyle, get plenty of exercise, run, or walk. To carry out daily walks in the fresh air, lasting 30-40 minutes. Losing weight through dieting is unreasonable, the body needs physical activity, since fat tissue is burned in the muscles.
- Drink plenty of water (not juice, compote or drink, but still water). During a protein diet, the body empties accumulated fluid, and their daily replenishment is the number one task for losing weight.
- Strictly adhere to the diet and phases of the diet. If you personally adjust the diet or do not follow the regime, then you should not hope for an effective result.
- Eliminate foods that contain light carbohydrates from your diet. It is allowed to use complex and indigestible carbohydrates in the form of cereals, bran.
- Oat bran should be an essential part of your daily diet. They prevent the development of constipation during the diet and give the body the right portion of carbohydrates.
The main stages of the diet
The Dukan Diet is based not only on following a specific diet, but on dividing the entire course of the diet into phases that correspond to your diet and the list of products. There are four phases in total:
- Attack.
- change
- anchoring
- stabilization
It is worth considering each stage individually.
attack phase
This is the first phase of the diet, which involves eating only protein foods. The duration of the phase averages 7 days, but the interval can range from 3 to 9 days. The duration of the first phase is chosen individually and depends on the amount of excess weight and the state of health of the person losing weight.
From 30 kg more weight, there is a maximum phase duration of up to 9-10 days, with 20 kg overweight 7 days and with slightly overweight up to 20 kg 3-5 days. During this period, maximum weight loss occurs, which is associated with limiting the intake of carbohydrates and fats.
Recommendations: The attack phase accepts the consumption of protein products of animal origin: meat, fish, seafood and dairy products. You can use them in unlimited but reasonable quantities and in any form (fried, boiled, steamed).
The list of accompanying additives includes: oat bran (its daily use is mandatory), mustard, salt, onion, spices, tomato paste, crab sticks (no more than 8 pieces per day), lemon, olive oil. From drinks, diet drinks, fat-free kefir, tea and coffee are allowed.
The meat should not be fatty, pork, lamb, rabbit, duck, goose are excluded. If a bird is included in the diet, it should be eaten skinless. The restriction applies to vegetables and fruit.
During this period, the body is under stress, there is a restructuring of internal metabolic processes. For some, this period can become critical: dizziness, weakness, loss of consciousness and other symptoms indicate that it is worth moving to the next stage.
Transition or "cruising" phase
The essence of this stage is the introduction of additional foods (vegetables, fruits) into the diet, but not continuously, but selectively at certain intervals. The intervals should be the same: one day, two days or more, it all depends on the amount of excess weight before the diet. If its value does not exceed 10 kg, the interval can be minimal (1x1, 2x2), and if its value is more than 10 kg, the maximum interval is 5x5.
The duration of the second phase is determined individually, just like that of the first. The interval is from one to two months, the duration directly depends on the weight loss in the first stage. The larger it is, the longer the second phase should last.
The diet should be more varied at the second stage, so you can add the following foods:
- all products of the first phase;
- Vegetables without starch (cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, asparagus, cabbage, mushrooms);
- unsweetened fruits;
- skim milk and cheese;
- Bread.
You can add fruits and vegetables only on the days whose menu corresponds to the second phase. That means 5 days a protein menu from the first phase, the next five days a protein-vegetable menu from the second phase. In addition, you cannot mix the products of the second phase with each other, you can choose and use only two ingredients per day.
Prohibited vegetables and fruits include: potatoes, corn, legumes, bananas, cherries, avocados, grapes.
If in the first phase the state of health has deteriorated, then in the second phase the state should stabilize, the state of health should improve and metabolic processes will be restored.
"Fix" phase
The third phase helps to consolidate the result, its duration also depends on the number of "lost" kilograms. For each kilogram lost there are ten days of the third phase. Diet during this period is even more similar to the usual one and should be considered when losing weightnot cause any discomfort.
In addition to products from the first and second stages, the diet also includes:
- starchy vegetables (potatoes, legumes, corn);
- Pasta;
- Cereals (rice, buckwheat, oatmeal).
At this stage, it is allowed to break the diet twice a week, but at the expense of one meal. For example, you can eat your favorite carbohydrate meal for breakfast but skip lunch or dinner instead.
An important rule in this phase is the daily consumption of fruit with the exception of bananas, grapes and cherries. They have a lot of sugar, which quickly turns into subcutaneous fat.
"Stabilization" phase
This phase is the last and actually a postulate for later life after the diet. Its rules are simple and by following them you can always keep in shape without resorting to diets:
- drink plenty of water daily (at least 1. 5 liters);
- lead an active lifestyle;
- Compile a protein menu once a week that meets the requirements of the first phase.
- daily consumption of oat bran.
The implementation of the above recommendations will lead to the success of everyone who wants to overcome excess weight, and most importantly, stay at the level achieved or exceed it.
Approved Products
You can summarize the list of allowed foods on the Dukan Diet:
- meat (beef, veal, pigeon, chicken, quail);
- eggs (chicken, quail, preferably without yolks);
- Low-fat dairy and sour-milk products (milk, kefir, cottage cheese, cheese, yogurt, cheese);
- Seafood of all shapes and sizes;
- crab sticks;
- river and sea fish;
- oat bran;
- Vegetables that contain little or no starch;
- unsweetened fruits;
- various drinks without sugar, tea, coffee;
- spices, condiments, dressings.
In addition to the nutrition plan developed, nutritionist Dukan has published a cookbook with recipes. The dishes in Dukan's cookbook only contain foods from the allowed diet list, which greatly simplifies the whole process of losing weight and inventing new dishes.
Among the simplest and most popular dishes, it is worth noting the following:
- "Crab salad". To prepare you will need: half the Chinese cabbage, 4 crab sticks, 4 tablespoons of canned corn. Finely chop the cabbage and crab sticks, puree the cabbage and season with salt. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and dress the salad with lemon juice and homemade low-fat mayonnaise.
- "Fish cakes with cottage cheese. "For cooking you will need: 0. 2 kg of fish (salmon), 0. 4 kg of low-fat cottage cheese, 1 chicken egg, 4 tablespoons of oatmeal. Preparation: mix cottage cheese with egg, add chopped small cubes of skinless fish. Add spices and spices to taste. Form balls from the resulting mixture and roll them in oatmeal, put in a pan or grill and fry over low heat. Do not use oil for frying, do everything in a dry pan.
- Yoghurt dessert. You can indulge yourself with a dessert during the diet, for which you will need: 0. 2 kg of low-fat natural yogurt, chicken eggs - 2 pieces, 50 g of corn starch. Place all ingredients except the eggs in a bowl. They need to be divided into proteins and yolks: immediately add the yolks to the finished mixture and whip the proteins with a whisk until creamy and add them to the mixture as well. The dessert can be sweetened with a sugar substitute and flavoring and salt can be added. Pour the resulting mixture into a baking dish and put in the oven for 20 minutes.
- "Beef with eggplant. "For two servings you will need: 0. 3 kg of beef, cut into small cubes, 1 eggplant, 2 tomatoes, 0. 150 kg of champignons (champignons), 1 clove of garlic, parsley, salt, pepper. Preparation: cut the eggplants into rings or cubes and pour them with water for 30 minutes (bitterness should come out of them). Drain the water from the eggplants and dry them on a paper towel. Slice the tomatoes and slice the mushrooms and place in a saucepan with the aubergine. Add garlic and parsley, add water and cook for 30 minutes. Take a deep form for the oven, put some greens on the bottom, then salt and pepper meat and the rest of the greens on top. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
There's no need to use recipes from Dukan's book, you can create your own menu of allowed items to match the diet phase.
How much can you lose a kilo
Before talking about the estimated number of lost kilograms, it is worth clarifying the factors that affect them:
- the presence of physical activity and its severity: if you do not play sports, or at least walk, you should not talk about a good result;
- Lack of adequate water in the diet: Water contributes to weight loss, especially on a protein diet;
- the amount of overweight: nutritionists say that the higher the indicator of overweight, the more kilograms a person who loses weight can lose;
- the duration of the diet and its individual phases.
The average indicator of weight loss can be considered 5-15 kg. In addition, each phase has its own changes and weight loss. The first phase of the diet is the most important, as it contributes to maximum weight loss. The next second stage is characterized by small losses, and the third and fourth fully consolidate the result.
Dukan diet reviews
First review
"I've heard about the Dukan Diet many times, but never dared to try it. Somehow scary, many talk about back pain, weakness and malaise. Maybe I'm looking for an alternative to this diet. "
Second review
"My husband's sister often visits France. There this diet is just a brand, even in supermarkets there are their own shelves for products that correspond to this diet. She herself tried this method of losing weight. The result is 10 kg in 2 months. I will not stop.
I am currently on a different diet but in a month I will be starting the Dukan Diet as well to be in shape for the season.
Third review
"Girls, don't try this diet! I was careless and sat on it to the fullest. A week later I felt the earth go away from under my feet, it was dark in my eyes, squeaking in my ears. Pain in the lower back or in the kidneys, I don't know where, but it's very scary and dangerous.
I went to the hospital, where the nurse said that I was not the first with such a diagnosis. Before trying this diet yourself, you need to undergo an examination and consult a doctor. A protein diet is very dangerous for the kidneys and can cause tissue damage, so don't experiment on yourself. "
fourth review
"I have experienced this diet more than once. Thank god I didn't notice any side effects. Maybe because the first phase didn't last that long (5 days), but in the second phase I didn't alternate the days of the protein and protein-vegetable menu, I ate both proteins and vegetables every day. I was happy with the results (-8 kg). It would be possible to resort to this diet more often, but it is very expensive, especially in winter.
Fifth review
"I recently watched a TV show and the endocrinologist told me that it's impossible to give up carbohydrates and glucose. Our brain feeds on them, and when they stop entering the body, the brain first starves and then dies. I don't know if that's true or not, on TV they can say anything. But I thought, what if negative reviews on the Internet are not without reason, and you can actually harm your health?