Dukan protein diet – features, pros and cons

Interest in the Dukan diet today is many times greater than interest in other fashionable dietary restrictions.

The diet bears the name of a French doctor, a neurologist by training, but a nutritionist by vocation. Pierre Dukan really specialized in neurology until his close friend approached him with a request to develop a weight loss diet for him. The results turned out to be so stunning that Dukan seriously began to develop the basic principles of his idea of ​​healthy eating, and presented all his developments to the public in the book “I Can’t Lose Weight.” In 2000, the manual sold out in huge quantities. Today, among Dukan's regular clients are Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz and many other world celebrities.

Primary requirements

The method of losing weight according to the Dukan diet is not one week, or even one month (many adhere to the dietary system for 1.5-2 years). The persistence of someone losing weight can significantly shorten the duration of the diet, but you should adhere to a balanced diet throughout your life so that you will not again be faced with the need to lose weight.

The basic rules include:

• Every day you need to drink at least 1.5 liters of water - still, purified, without additives - this is the basis of the dietary approach.
• Depending on the stage of the diet, a certain amount of ground bran is consumed - oat, rye or wheat - they help in the functioning of the body.
• Gymnastics are performed every morning. In the future, more serious and complex loads should be connected. Depending on the stage, the time of sports exercises varies from 20 to 30 minutes - the exercises are short (depending on the state of the body), but daily.
• Daily walking for 20 minutes is shown to promote weight loss.
• Sugar is replaced with a natural sweetener - it is dietary (only 0 kcal in the composition).

Before starting the Dukan diet, you should consult your doctor, presenting him with an approximate menu of the system. A large amount of protein foods harms the body - often causing constipation and other intestinal disorders. That is why daily consumption of bran is mandatory; read more about this in our article on the menu for each day of the Dukan diet.

Expert opinion

Smirnov Viktor Petrovich Dietitian, Samara

The Dukan diet is a rather interesting concept, but it cannot claim to be the absolute truth. The first stage of the diet, called “Attack,” involves eating high-protein foods. It can be assumed that proteins suppress appetite, and satiety after eating protein foods is high and the feeling is comfortable. But this feeling of fullness can also occur when consuming carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, which are only eaten at the very end with a small amount of protein, for example, a piece of boiled veal.

There is no doubt that the Dukan diet is effective for certain categories of patients, but it is not suitable for everyone. First of all, people love short diets with good effects; in the Dukan diet, the “cruise” stage can last 2 months, and the third stage can even last six months. Such “stayer distances” are well tolerated by phlegmatic people with high self-discipline, and the best results are shown by the so-called “stable eaters”, whose habit of excess eating is hereditary, table-like in nature.

If we look at the recommendations that Dukan asks you to follow, we will see that this is drinking plenty of fluids, eating bran, which creates a feeling of fullness, gymnastics, walking and reducing the amount of sugar. There is no doubt that regular adherence to these rules alone will give a good result without any other additional methods.

Contraindications

But not everything is so rosy, as we have already said, such a diet is quite a heavy load for the body, therefore the list of contraindications to it is also wide. This diet should not be followed by persons under 18 years of age, as well as by women during pregnancy and lactation, since it does not provide enough nutrients for the growth and development of the body, as well as for milk production. Women during menopause and premenopause should not adhere to such a diet.

The Dukan diet is contraindicated for people with kidney problems. Although Dr. Dukan has positive reviews from such patients, it is still not worth the risk. Metabolic disorders, gout and central nervous system diseases are also contraindications.

It is very useful to eat tomatoes during a protein diet; they contain lycopene, which significantly enhances the effect of the diet.

If you are depressed, you should also not go on such a diet, since a lack of carbohydrates can further aggravate it. This diet is not recommended for mental workers. The brain needs carbohydrates to function properly, and a protein diet cannot provide them.

First phase "Attack"

The Dukan diet begins with the Attack phase. A “blow” is dealt to the body - discouragement will speed up metabolism, start metabolic processes, and begin losing weight.

Duration

The duration of the stage depends on the initial parameters. You can calculate the exact weight loss time yourself:

• if the excess weight is no more than 5 kg, the stage lasts only 1 day - the body will be thrown into shock;
• if you have up to 10 extra kilos – 3 days;
• from 11 to 19 kg – 5-6 days;
• more than 20 kg – 7-10 days.

Calculations of weight loss are carried out in relation to the correct indicators for the height and age of the person losing weight. Wishes to lose more are not taken into account - Pierre Dukan's diet menu is aimed at proper weight and weight loss.

Authorized Products

The following products are allowed to be consumed:

• All lean varieties of meat - horse meat, veal, rabbit and others in unlimited quantities, cooked without adding oil - the body accepts this meat easily.
• Giblets - heart, liver, kidneys, tongue from veal or horse meat, chicken or turkey.
• Lean ham and other sausages, sausages with a fat content of 2 to 4%.
• Fish – river, sea, canned in its own juice, salted or smoked without adding oil.
• Seafood – crustaceans and molluscs.
• Eggs: whites - in any quantity, yolks - no more than 2 pieces per day. With high cholesterol levels in the blood, only 3-4 yolks per week are allowed.
• Low-fat dairy products without added fruit flavors. Fermented milk products allow fat content up to 0.5%.

This phase cannot last more than 10 days. The maximum dropped value is no more than 6 kg, otherwise the attack is stopped when the specified mark is reached. Use 1.5 tbsp daily. l. oat bran - the body needs to help remove incoming proteins.

Video

Sample menu

Particularly enterprising housewives independently come up with delicious dishes from the minimum amount of products presented. An approximate daily diet menu for weight loss may look like this:

• For breakfast: scrambled eggs from two eggs fried without oil, a piece of lean beef, coffee with sweetener and milk up to 1.5% fat.
• For lunch: fish soup (consisting of several types of fish and a boiled egg), steamed chicken cutlets, tea or yogurt.
• For dinner: stewed fish or baked piece of meat with the addition of permitted seasonings (onion, garlic, lemon).

To prepare meals for weight loss, you can use simple standard recipes, replacing prohibited foods with permitted ones. Also on our website you can read a separate menu article for each day of the Attack phase of the Dukan Diet.

Benefits of a Protein Diet

It should be noted that most reviews about the Dukan diet are positive. This means that despite all its disadvantages, this diet is still quite effective and safe. Most women like that the first results can be obtained very quickly. In just a few days, the bulk of excess weight disappears, which greatly motivates you to achieve success.

For those who are afraid of the high cost of diet products, you can try to replace them with cheaper ones. Of course, this will not be easy, but you can try to look for high-quality offal with minimal fat content, low-fat dairy products, eggs, and cheaper varieties of fish. The Dukan diet offers a wide selection of recipes for preparing dishes, so even from inexpensive products you can prepare something tasty and healthy.

When on a protein diet, you can sometimes allow yourself tomato juice or apple juice with celery; they will help you get more vitamins and will not harm the results of the diet.

Unlike many diets, the Dukan Diet allows you to lose weight without deteriorating your skin, since meat products make it more elastic. The muscles do not suffer on this diet, but cellulite often disappears without a trace. The basis of the protein diet menu is simple and natural products, this makes it safer than other diets.

One of the main advantages of this diet is the absence of strict restrictions on the amount of food. You can avoid starving and count calories while losing weight. You can visit and go to restaurants, as almost any table will have something that suits your diet.

Second phase “Cruise” or “Alternation”

The French Dukan diet is a weight loss system performed in stages. At the end of the attack, the “Cruise” phase begins, or the usual alternation of protein and protein-vegetable days.

Duration

The duration of the second stage depends on the efforts of the person and his excess weight - the phase lasts until the desired weight loss result is achieved. According to Dukan, it is optimal to lose no more than 1 kg per week. Perhaps someone who is losing weight will add grueling exercise to lose weight, then the results of the diet will not be long in coming. But this kind of experiment should not be carried out, because in this case, the weight may go up while fastening - on average, up to 3-4 kg is gained - the body returns to its usual. The numbers are not catastrophic, but unpleasant, since even after this stage of the diet a decrease in parameters and uniform slow weight loss are expected.

Separately, you should consider the alternation scheme, which may look like 1/1, 2/2 or 5/5. The most effective and varied is weight loss using the 1/1 system - it is easier for the body to withstand such dietary nutrition for a long time. But as those losing weight themselves note, the 2/2 system turns out to be more convenient in terms of cooking, which the Dukan diet also does not prohibit.

Authorized Products

The list of permitted foods includes all of the above dietary products with the addition of any vegetables, with the exception of starch-containing types. Also in preparing dishes, the Dukan diet allows the use of additives in the form of:

• vinegar;
• greenery;
• mustard;
• soy sauce;
• paraffin oil;
• flavorings without oil and sugar in the composition;
• other additives.

Permitted products also include aspartame-based candies and chewing gum, salted gherkins and cheese with a fat content of no more than 30%. During the cruise diet, you must eat at least 2 tbsp daily. l. oat bran and drink at least 2 liters of liquid - follow the basis of the Dukan diet unconditionally. During weight loss, if constipation occurs, oat bran is replaced with wheat bran in the amount of 1.5 tbsp. l. daily.

Sample menu

For the presented stage of weight loss, you can give an approximate menu for 7 days of the Pierre Dukan diet, which will help you understand the system in principle. The table contains a minimum number of dietary products and options that can be supplemented if necessary.

The presented sample Dukan diet menu does not reflect the possibility of eating baked goods, where the preparation involves bran, skim milk powder, baking powder, corn starch and other additives. The baked goods are made independently with the addition of a sweetener. Some recipes are offered by the founder Pierre Dukan himself. A French specialist claims that sweets make it easier to tolerate a diet, because the body requires sweets.

During the cruise phase, plateaus often occur - weight stagnation for a long time, when weight loss suddenly stops. You should not think that losing weight is over. No, the body continues to work and waste stored fat. It’s just that at this time a “brain” restructuring occurs, when the body gets used to a new rhythm of life, to a new diet. Deviations from the diet due to dissatisfaction can lead to rapid weight gain and failure of the hormonal system - the body will gain what it lost to “reserve”.

The essence and features of the Dukan diet (Video)

The Dukan diet is classified as a high-protein or low-carbohydrate diet. It practically does not impose restrictions on the amount of food consumed, but it clearly regulates the list of permitted and prohibited foods. The basis of nutrition on the Dukan diet is protein foods, while fats are practically not consumed and carbohydrates are present in very limited quantities in the menu.

A very important component of the Dukan diet menu is oat bran. Every day one of the meals will be completely replaced with bran. Bran helps provide a feeling of fullness, while it lowers cholesterol levels, and, which is very important on protein diets, helps normalize digestion and get rid of constipation. The bran can be eaten as porridge, diluted in kefir, or baked into bread.

A protein diet must be combined with an active lifestyle, otherwise there is a risk of developing kidney edema, growth of the collagen membrane around the capillaries and urine oxidation.

Since the amount of fat in the diet on this diet is minimal, you cannot use vegetable oil or mayonnaise when preparing salads; they are replaced by lemon juice. It is also impossible to fry foods; it is better to simply boil them, cook them in the oven, steamer or grill. It is very important to drink a lot of water during the diet, but alcohol is strictly prohibited. You should not skip breakfast; it is also undesirable to violate your nutrition plan.

Third phase “Consolidation”

A cruise is not the end of the Dukan diet and weight loss in general. After achieving the desired weight loss goals, you can move on to “Consolidation”. The diet stage does not provide a specific daily menu. The task of people is to maintain their weight in the same state, so as not to resort to losing weight again. It is also noted that with normal and uniform weight loss earlier, after consolidation, a decrease in indicators of 3-4 kg is possible.

Duration

The Pierre Dukan diet is only useful if you follow the dietary rules as closely as possible. The nutritionist implies a mandatory consolidation stage, the duration of which depends on the number of kilograms lost. Duration of the stage: for each kilogram lost – 10 days of consolidation. It turns out that this stage can last several more months, or even a year, if the weight lost is more than 30 kg.

Authorized Products

To the dietary products listed above, allowed in the two previous stages of the weight loss system, are added:

• Potatoes, pasta, rice - no more than twice a week; on a diet, portions should be up to 200 g per meal.
• Whole grain bread – no more than 2 medium pieces per day, the system offers its own recipes for baking.
• Natural honey – no more than 3 tsp. daily.
• Fruits and berries - no more than 100 g per day; fruits with a high sugar content are prohibited.
• Wine - no more than 2 glasses per week.

At this stage, the amount of bran consumed increases – at least 2.5 tbsp. l. daily. A detailed menu of the Dukan diet for every day for weight loss at the consolidation stage is not provided, but you should still take into account the daily caloric intake according to the system.

Fourth phase “Stabilization”

The effectiveness of the Dukan diet and weight loss is achieved only by accurately completing all of the above stages of the system. The duration of the phase is a lifetime. At this stage, they gradually return to their previous diet, but without fat, high-calorie sweets in the form of cakes with butter cream, and fast food.

Throughout your life you must adhere to the following rules:

• You should eat 3 tbsp daily. l. bran - you can bake bread and other sweets from the ingredient - this should replace any diet.
• Once a week (the nutritionist points to Thursday) they eat only proteins - this is a kind of fasting day according to the Dukan diet, which will cleanse the body and speed up metabolism, you can start with the consolidation stage.
• Physical exercise or a basic walk in the fresh air for 20 minutes is performed daily - this is a prerequisite for people with a sedentary lifestyle in order to avoid new diets.

If you follow all the rules of the Dukan diet during a phased diet, you can remain at the achieved weight for the entire time. The main thing is not to return to the usual rhythm of life in full, otherwise even long-term consolidation will not help you stay in a slim and fit shape, and losing weight will waste your time.

A complete description of the French diet from Pierre Dukan can be found in the book by the author of the system “I Can’t Lose Weight.” All the nuances of each stage are presented here, as well as the results of those who have lost weight in the “before and after” concept, which significantly stimulates those who want to lose weight. The book contains a large number of recipes for the system, which will better help you navigate the rules of dietary nutrition.

Losing weight should be balanced and safe for health. And only long-term diets or certain dietary nutrition systems can boast of this, which should in the future become the main criterion in creating a menu and easy refusal of prohibited foods. Complete and balanced weight loss according to the Dukan diet is the best solution for losing a large amount of weight and completely revising your usual diet.