It's easy to get confused in the modern array of diets, but protein diets stand out on the list. The Dukan diet is a prominent representative of protein food systems, which involve eating enough food, but in a different ratio of protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
diet basics
The Dukan diet is known in many countries. The effectiveness of this approach has been proven by numerous studies and applications. However, nutritionist Pierre Ducan himself claims that he did not develop a diet, but a balanced diet so that the body does not feel hungry and stress.
Weight loss occurs due to the burning of subcutaneous fat and carbohydrate stores while the stomach is not empty but is digesting protein foods.
A good competitor here will be the Lesenka diet, the essence of which is the daily passage of different levels of nutrition. Different products, different approach for 5 days do not get bored.
Those who want to reduce their shapes with the help of the Dukan diet need to familiarize themselves with the basics:
- Lead an active lifestyle, move a lot, run or walk. Take daily walks outdoors, lasting 30 to 40 minutes. Losing weight through diets is unreasonable, the body must perform physical activity, as it is in the muscles that adipose tissue is burned.
- Drink lots of water (not juice, jam or drink, but still water). During a protein diet, the body dumps the accumulated fluid and its daily replacement is the number one task for losing weight.
- Strictly adhere to diet and diet phases. If you make personal adjustments to the diet or do not follow the regimen, you should not expect 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 ingredient in your daily diet. They prevent constipation from forming during the diet and provide the body with the right amount of carbohydrates.
The main phases of the diet
The Dukan diet is not just about following a certain diet, but about dividing the entire diet course into phases that correspond to your diet and product list. There are four phases in total:
- Attack.
- alternation
- Anchoring
- Stabilization
It is worth considering each phase separately.
attack phase
This is the first step of the diet, it involves eating only protein foods. The duration of the phase takes an average of 7 days, but the interval can include from 3 to 9 days. The choice of duration of the first phase is individual and depends on the amount of excess weight and the health status of the slimming person.
Extra weight of 30 kg or more suggests a maximum phase duration of up to 9-10 days, with excess weight of 20 kg - 7 days, and with light overweight of up to 20 kg - 3-5 days. During this period, maximum weight loss occurs, which is associated with limiting carbohydrate and fat intake.
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 amounts and in any form (fried, boiled, steamed).
As for accompanying additives, their list includes: oat bran (daily use is mandatory), mustard, salt, onion, spices, tomato paste, crab sticks (no more than 8 pieces per day), lemon, olive oil . Of drinks, diet drinks, non-fat kefir, tea and coffee are allowed.
Meat should not be fatty, pork, lamb, rabbit, duck, goose are excluded. If a bird is present in the diet, it should be eaten without the skin. The restriction applies to vegetables and fruits.
During this period, the body is undergoing 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 on to the next phase.
Alternating phase or "cruise"
The essence of this phase is the introduction of additional foods (vegetables, fruits) into the diet, but not continuously, but selectively at a certain interval. The intervals should be equal to each other: in one day, in 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 range can be minimum (1x1, 2x2), and if its value is more than 10 kg, the maximum range is 5x5.
The duration of the second phase is determined individually, as is the first. The interval is one to two months, the duration directly depends on the amount of weight lost during the first phase. The higher it is, the longer the second phase should last.
The diet should be more varied in the second step, so you can add the following foods:
- all first phase products;
- vegetables that do not contain starch (cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, asparagus, cabbage, mushrooms);
- unsweetened fruit;
- skimmed milk and cheese;
- bread.
You can only add fruits and vegetables on days when the menu corresponds to the second phase. That is, 5 days a protein menu of the first phase, in the following five days a protein-vegetable menu of the second phase. Also, you cannot mix the second phase products with each other, you can choose only two ingredients a day and use them.
Among the prohibited vegetables and fruits are: potatoes, corn, pulses, bananas, cherries, avocados, grapes.
If during the first phase there was a deterioration in the state of health, in the second phase the state should stabilize, the state of health should improve and the metabolic processes will be restored.
"Fixing" phase
The third phase helps to consolidate the result, its duration also depends on the number of "lost" pounds. For every pound of weight lost, there are ten days of the third phase. The diet in this period is even more similar to the usual one and should not cause discomfort to lose weight.
In addition to the first and second phase products, the diet also includes the following:
- starch-containing vegetables (potatoes, pulses, corn);
- pasta;
- cereals (rice, buckwheat, oats).
At this stage, it is permissible 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.
An important rule at this stage is the daily consumption of any 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 final one and, in fact, a postulate for later life after the diet. Its rules are simple and following them allows you to always stay in shape, without resorting to diets:
- drink plenty of water every day (at least 1. 5 liters);
- live an active lifestyle;
- once a week, organize a protein menu 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 reached or overcome it.
approved products
You can summarize the list of foods allowed on the Dukan diet:
- meat (beef, veal, pigeon, chicken, quail);
- eggs (chicken, quail, preferably without yolk);
- low-fat dairy products and sour milk (milk, kefir, cottage cheese, cheese, yogurt, cheese);
- seafood in any form and in any quantity;
- crab sticks;
- river and sea fish;
- oat bran;
- vegetables that do not contain or contain a small amount of starch;
- unsweetened fruit;
- various sugar-free drinks, tea and coffee;
- spices, seasonings, sauces.
In addition to the food plan developed, nutritionist Dukan published a cookbook with recipes. Dukan's cookbook dishes only include foods from the allowed diet list, which makes the whole process of losing weight and inventing new dishes much easier.
Among the simplest and most popular dishes, it is worth mentioning the following:
- "Crab Salad". For its preparation you will need: half Chinese cabbage, 4 crab sticks, 4 tablespoons of canned corn. Finely chop the kale and crab sticks, crush the kale and season with salt. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and dress the salad with lemon juice and homemade lean mayonnaise.
- "Fish meatballs with curd. "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 the cottage cheese with the egg, add small chopped cubes of skinless fish. Add spices and seasonings to taste. Make balls with the resulting mixture and roll them in oatmeal, place on a pan or grill and fry over low heat. Do not use oil for frying, do everything in a dry skillet.
- Yogurt dessert. You can pamper yourself during the diet with a dessert, for which you will need: 0. 2 kg of low-fat plain yogurt, chicken eggs - 2 pieces, 50 g of cornstarch. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, except the eggs. They need to be divided into proteins and yolks: immediately send the yolks to the ready mixture and beat the proteins with a whisk until creamy, and also add to the mixture. The dessert can be sweetened with a sugar substitute, as well as flavoring and salt. Pour the resulting mixture into a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.
- "Meat 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 mushrooms (champignons), 1 clove of garlic, parsley, salt , pepper. Preparation: cut the eggplants into slices or cubes and pour them with water for 30 minutes (the bitterness should come out of them). Drain the water from the eggplants and dry them on a paper towel. Cut the tomatoes into slices and the mushrooms into slices and add to the eggplant in a pan. Add the garlic and parsley, add the water and cook for 30 minutes. Take a deep dish for the oven, put some vegetables in the bottom, then the salted and peppered meat and the rest of the vegetables on top. Send to the oven for 15-20 minutes.
It is not necessary to use recipes from Dukan's book; you can also create your own menu of allowed products that correspond to the phase of the diet.
How much can you lose a kilo
Before talking about the estimated number of pounds discarded, it is worth clarifying the factors that affect them:
- the presence of physical activity and its severity: if you do not practice sports or at least walk, you should not talk about a good result;
- lack of enough water in the diet: water contributes to weight loss, especially with a protein diet;
- the amount of excess weight: nutritionists say that the higher the indicator of excess body weight, the more pounds a person who is losing weight can lose;
- the duration of the diet and its individual phases.
The average indicator of weight loss can be considered from 5 to 15 kg. Also, each phase has its own changes and weight loss. The first phase of the diet is the most important as it contributes to the maximum rate of weight loss. The next second phase is marked 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 I haven't dared to try it. In some frightening way, many talk about low back pain, weakness and malaise. Maybe I'll look 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 separate shelves for products that correspond to this diet. She herself tried this method of losing weight. The result is 10kg in 2 months . Will not stop.
I am currently on a different diet, but in a month I will also start the Dukan diet to be in shape for the season.
third revision
"Girls, don't try this diet! I was careless and I sat up as much as possible. A week later I felt like the earth was coming out from under my feet, it was dark in my eyes, it was wheezing in my ears. Pain in my lower back or kidneys, I don't know where, but it's very scary and dangerous.
I went to the hospital, where the nurse said I wasn't the first one with this diagnosis. Before trying this diet on 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 try it on yourself. "
fourth revision
"I've tried this diet more than once. Thank God I didn't notice any side effects. Maybe because the first phase didn't last as long (5 days), but in the second phase I didn't alternate the days of the protein and vegetable menu, I ate so much protein and vegetables every day. I was pleased 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 revision
"I recently watched a TV show and there the endocrinologist told me that it was impossible to run out of carbohydrates and glucose. Our brain feeds on them and if they stop entering the body, the brain first starves and then dies. I don't know if that's true or not, they can say anything on TV, but I thought: what if the bad reviews on the Internet aren't without reason and, in fact, you can harm your health?