The Dukan's diet emerged in the early 2000 and became known as an amazing weight loss diet.
It is essentially a low carb diet, which has four phases: the attack, cruise, consolidation and stabilization phase. Each phase serves a different purpose and different foods are allowed during them.
Table of content
Attack phase
This lasts between 1-7 days depending on your weight loss goal. You can only eat lean protein. Basically just meat, eggs and tofu. You usually experience rapid weight loss, due to less water retention.
Carbs help to hold water in your body, so when you stop eating them, you will hold less water in your body.
In order to do this phase correctly, you need to abstain from drenching your protein in sauces. Sauces, especially store bought, are full of unhealthy fats and carbs.
My personal tip: use quality dry condiments such as sea salt, freshly ground pepper, oregano and cinnamon. With 0 calories, they will pack your plate with flavours.
Think of this phase as the kickstart to your Duakn diet plan.
Cruise phase
This phase is where you reach your target goal weight in a more sustainable way. You alternate days in which you only eat protein with days you eat protein and veggies.
You stay in this phase until you reach your desired weight. This could be a matter of weeks or months depending on your goal.
Interestingly, you can choose how you alternate between the two days. The one most recommended is alternating every day, but you can also choose to do it every other day, or even every 5 days.
You are still not eating carbs during this phase and there are no cheat meals.
Consolidation phase
Its goal is to prevent any metabolic rebound by slowly re-introducing certain foods in limited quantities such as grains, cheese, fruits and bread.
A metabolic rebound is when you start eating foods such as carbs in a large quantity and store them as easily as fat.
After prolonged periods of not eating them, we can sometimes go a little crazy when we are finally permitted to have them. Our body then clings on to the new carbs and stores them as fat, fearing being deprived of them again.
During this phase, you are also allowed two cheat meals per week. The trick with cheat meals is to keep them meals, and not day long feasting occasions. Portion control plays an important role as well. Enjoying a delicious chocolate cheesecake is fantastic. Consuming four in a row isn't.
You also need to have one day a week that is only protein. Dukan recommends you make it every Thursday for no other reason that it's a day that needs to happen every week and why not Thursdays.
This phase lasts 4.5 days per pound of lost weight.
Stabilization phase
This is the back to normal eating phase in which you can start eating whatever you want again. The one rule that remains is to keep the one day of protein only per week.
Additional notes:
You need to consume 1-3 tablespoon of oat bran daily during the various stages.
You need to walk a minimum of 30 minutes per day.
Alcohol is not permitted during the attack and cruise phase but can be part of your cheat meals in the consolidation phase.
Discussion about the Dukan's diet
As with all diets, the Dukan's method attempts to lower overall calories ingested. It accomplishes this by eliminating a whole macro nutrient from your diet up front: no carbs in the attack phase and very minimal carbs in the cruise phase.
There are a few things to be aware of in my opinion.
Fruits
Up front, the thing that jumps at me is the complete elimination of fruits during the first couple of phases.
Fruits provide your body with many micronutrients that vegetables do not. Being very rich in nutrient density, eliminating them for extended periods of time doesn't seem a sustainable thing to do.
The cruise phase can last months depending on your goals so to me, this is the biggest concern with this type of diet.
Portion sizes
The fact that it allows you to eat as much as you want of the chosen foods is awesome. There are many options for you to choose from.
Eating protein and veggies for weight loss is recommended by most fitness professionals I have chatted with over last 8 years.
However, if the cruise phase lasts for a long time, boredom could set in. You also want to factor in special occasions such as holidays, birthdays or other big events in which you would have to stick to this super strict eating.
I found that dieting through one or two such events is manageable. However, on the long term, it becomes annoying to always be that person that can't enjoy themselves with everyone.
Cheat meals
The fact that you are allowed cheat meals in the stabilization phase is good but could it not be allowed maybe once during the cruise phase?
The trick for a diet is to be sustainable. I personally think that if you can't even allow yourself one cheat meal every other week, it will become very hard to stick to it in the long (3+ months) term.
Sample case study
If we do some math, let's say I want to lose 20 pounds. How long would it take me to get to the stabilization phase? A.K.A the more sustainable phase.
Attack phase: I am serious about this so I do it for 5 days. I lose 4 pounds due to the rapid loss in water weight.
Cruise phase: assuming I lose a pound per week (the recommended safe rate of weight loss) I would be in this phase for 16 weeks which is 4 months.
Consolidation phase: since I lost a total of 20 pounds, I would stay in this phase for 20 x 4.5 = 90 days, so another 3 months.
So for 20 pounds of weight loss, you must follow the stricter diet phases for a minimum of 7 months before reaching the stabilization phase.
I personally find that dieting for this long is extremely unsustainable.
What is the biggest critique against this diet?
The number one concern is that high protein diets have not been studied in the long term and how it can impact your long term health. The main concern being with liver damage.
This is a critique of any high protein diet, so no need to hate on the Dukan's for that sole purpose.
What about vegetarians? Tofu, tempeh and seitan doesn't sound like something I could survive on for 5 days or eat every other day for months on end...
Another more relevant critique is that this diet doesn't teach you long lasting healthy eating habits.
Again, this critique is valid for any diets. And I agree: a diet is not a sustainable lifestyle way. HOWEVER a diet can help you reach your weight goal for sure.
I think that the Dukan's is a reasonable approach that allows enough leniency to be sustained for a few months. Once you have reached your desired goal, I would go back to eating more normally, taking some lessons from this diet with you.
Conclusion
It seems to me that the Dukan's diet is a vigorous approach to weight loss. It completely eliminates carbs for a few months and then slowly reintroduces them.
As with any diet, personal preferences will play a huge role in its adherence. Some people may love this, others not so much.
My main critique is that eliminating a whole macro nutrient doesn't seem like the best way to learn about sustainable eating in the long term.
If you have experience with this diet let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Cheers,
Clem
