What is the diet
The basis of Pierre Dukan's diet rests on two pillars: eating protein and following simple but important rules. The diet itself is strict, but at the same time not exhausting for those losing weight.
The first pillar of the diet is protein.
The first condition is to consume protein, and it is designed to replace carbohydrates and fats. Why does it become the basic one? The answer turned out to be quite simple and lies in the following abilities of the protein:
- satisfying the feeling of hunger;
- large energy consumption of the body for its digestion, which allows you to get rid of extra pounds;
- removal of excess fluid;
- increased muscle mass, which is an excellent basis for the formation of a beautiful body subject to physical activity;
- improvement of skin condition.
The second pillar of the diet - easy rules
The doctor’s development is useful for humans and can be used not only for weight loss purposes, but also for a long time, if desired, for a lifetime.
The book about the Dukan diet gives simple rules that, if followed, will help you lose weight:
- We eat foods allowed by the diet in a certain quantity and with a set frequency;
- we drink more liquid, as it “deceives” the feeling of hunger;
- remove salt, which only increases appetite and retains fluid in the body;
- we prepare tasty and healthy food without reinventing the wheel, because there are specially designed recipe books by Pierre Dukan;
- doing active walking;
- We bring the started task of losing weight to the end, without pausing in the process and without allowing gluttony.
The essence of the book
An assistant in achieving an ideal figure is Dr. Dukan’s book, containing 350 recipes. The book can be downloaded or purchased in print, both types are convenient to use. The text is easy to read and outlines the main thoughts during the cooking process. Advice is given on combining products, benefits and harms.
To prepare dishes, you don’t have to stand at the stove for several hours, because the recipes are interesting, even a novice housewife can handle it. There is no difference in taste between regular food and the recipes suggested by the Dukan diet book. Among 350 recipes, everyone who is losing weight will find something to suit their taste.
The book is useful for those who live according to the principles of the Dukan diet, and for those who are learning to eat healthy. Over time, it becomes so much a book for generations who care about their own health.
The book introduces you to a variety of recipes for the tasty and healthy Dukan diet, which improves your mood and taste of life. Literature consists of a menu containing:
- 52 protein-rich vegetable dishes. Replenish the body with microelements and vitamins;
- 210 main dishes consisting of natural products: eggs, seafood, fish, meat, poultry. The diet contains recipes that are rarely found in cookbooks for losing weight - these are sandwiches, pizza, nuggets and even dumplings;
- 67 sweet dishes, including pastries and desserts;
- 21 sauce recipes that the discerning gourmet can enjoy and satisfy.
The book is designed colorfully, brightly and intuitively. The quality of printing perfectly reflects the completeness and richness of dishes, arousing appetite and the desire to quickly prepare and taste delicious food. Diet connoisseurs will rightfully appreciate the selection of recipes for each of the four stages contained in the Dukan four-phase system. If you download the book, the menu will be enriched, and you will enjoy food that is beneficial for your figure.
Let's go on a weight loss journey
The works of the famous nutritionist highlight several stages of the weight loss program. Each stage is a continuation of the next and is impossible without fulfilling the conditions of the previous step.
Step one - attack
Only protein is allowed in food. The diet consists of lean meat, which means pork or duck are prohibited. We eat the rest with pleasure. Fish, milk, kefir, bran, and eggs are added to the meat. You need to steam or boil. But you will have to give up fried foods, fatty dressings and sweets. An important condition is to drink at least two liters of fluid per day. And don’t forget to walk actively every day!
The first step allows you to lose quite a lot of weight. At the same time, you need to decide for yourself how many kilograms you want to lose in the end. The number of days spent on the weight loss process at each stage of the diet depends on this.
Step two - alternation
The diet becomes more interesting: we alternate protein days with protein and vegetable days. The best option is every other day. We spend one day as in the first step, and on the second day we add raw or steamed/boiled vegetables. All vegetables are allowed, except legumes and potatoes. We maintain fluid intake and active walks.
In the second step, the weight will not come off so quickly. But this is the stage we are at until we bring our body weight to the level we need.
Step three - consolidation
At this stage, a small celebration begins. You can eat fatty meats, Dukan bread and even fruits, but all in small quantities. A full protein day should be maintained once every seven days. Food portions should be small every day, only to satisfy hunger. Physical activity continues. The duration of the stage is calculated based on the number of kilograms lost, multiplied by 10.
Step four - stabilization
You can stay at this stage for the rest of your life if you want. We follow the conditions of the third step here. One protein day per week is now becoming law. The rest of the days are protein and vegetable, and the permissible foods that were in the second step are just a tasty addition. We actively walk every day. But returning to your previous lifestyle should be avoided.
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Preface: The Decisive Meeting, or The Man Who Loved Meat
The beginning of my acquaintance with the problem of excess weight goes back to the time when, as a young general practitioner, I practiced medicine in the Montparnasse quarter in Paris and at the same time specialized in the neurological department of the Garches hospital for children suffering from paraplegia[2].
At that time, among my patients there was a publisher, a cheerful fat man and an extremely erudite man, who suffered from severe asthma, from attacks of which I saved him more than once. One day he came to my office and, sitting down in an English chair that creaked under his weight, said:
– Doctor, I have always been pleased with your help, I completely trust you, and that’s why today I want you to help me lose weight.
At that time, my knowledge of dietetics was limited solely to what I was taught at the Faculty of Medicine: low-calorie diets and small portions of dishes, the contents of which were quite similar to normal ones, but in terms of quantity they were clearly intended for Lilliputians. In most cases, having heard from the doctor a recommendation to follow such a diet, the patient, not accustomed to denying himself any gastronomic pleasure, quickly left the office, overcome with horror at the thought that he would have to limit himself to what constitutes his greatest joy.
Hesitatingly, I began to explain to him that in fact I was not familiar with the intricacies of this science.
- What science are you talking about, doctor? I visited all the specialists in Paris, including local charlatans. Starting from my teenage years, I lost weight many times, in total - at least 300 kg, but then successfully gained it back. I must admit that I was never particularly keen on losing weight, and my wife unwittingly caused me great harm by continuing to love me despite my enormous size. Now I'm almost out of breath with minimal effort, I'm having trouble finding clothes in my size, and quite frankly I'm starting to fear for my life.
He concluded with a phrase that completely changed the direction of my professional life:
“You can deprive me of any food you like, except meat: I love it too much to give it up.”
I answered him automatically, almost without thinking:
- OK then. If you love meat so much, come to me tomorrow morning to weigh yourself on an empty stomach, and then eat only meat for 5 days. However, avoid its fatty varieties: pork, lamb and the fattest parts of beef - fillet and ribs. Fry it until cooked, drink as much water as possible, and after 5 days come to me for re-weighing.
- OK OK.
AFTER 5 DAYS IT FOUND OUT THAT HE HAD LOST ABOUT 5 KG. I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES, AND HE, BY THE WAY, NEITHER. I WAS A LITTLE WORRIED AT INITIAL BUT HE JUST SHINED, WAS MORE HUNTER THAN USUAL, AND TALKED TO ME WITH SO ENTHUSIASM ABOUT HIS SNORING DISAPPEARANCE AND HIS NEWFOUND FEELING OF COMFORT THAT SOON ALL MY DOUBT WAS VANISHED.
– I continue the diet because I feel a surge of energy, and besides, I enjoy what I eat.
So, he went for the second round - for another 5 meat days, but I made him promise to do a full blood and urine test upon his return. After 5 days, having lost another 2 kg, he jubilantly handed me the results of his tests, which, by the way, were completely normal - no high sugar, no high cholesterol or uric acid.
Meanwhile, I visited the library of the Faculty of Medicine, where I studied more carefully the nutritional properties of various types of meat, especially focusing on the proteins, for which they are famous for their high content.
Thus, after 5 days, when the publisher appeared in my office again, bursting with health and having lost another 1.5 kg, I advised him to supplement his diet with fish and seafood, he gladly accepted this advice, since all possible varieties of meat were already exhausted.
20 days passed and the scale showed 10 kg less than the original weight, and the second blood test was still satisfactory. So I decided to take a chance and go all in by adding all the remaining proteins, namely poultry, dairy and eggs, and just in case I recommended that he increase his fluid intake and switch to 3 liters of water per day.
In the end, he agreed to include vegetables in his diet, the long absence of which began to seriously bother me.
5 days later, during the next consultation, it was discovered that he had not lost a single gram . Under this pretext, he demanded a return to his favorite diet, which was especially valuable to him due to its unlimited consumption of meat. I agreed on the condition that the five-day meat diet would alternate with a diet combining vegetables and meat, arguing against the risk of vitamin deficiency, which he had great difficulty believing in. Nevertheless, he accepted my offer - mainly due to the threat of disrupting the passage of food through the intestines, since with such a diet practically no fiber enters the body.
This is how my protein diet was born, alternating the consumption of plant and animal proteins. My interest in obesity and all other problems of excess weight gradually increased, which completely changed the course of my professional and scientific life.
Over the years, I have carefully developed and refined this concept to create a diet that today seems to me to be the most suitable for the specific psychology of obese people and the most effective of all diets for weight loss.
However, over time, I have sadly discovered that weight loss diets, no matter how effective they are and no matter how strictly followed, do not stand the test of time. Due to the lack of a consolidation stage, their results, at best, slowly but inexorably evaporate, and at worst, the weight increases sharply, and everything ends in emotional instability, stress and feelings of disappointment.
Most people who put themselves to the test of a weight loss diet lose an unequal battle with excess weight, which usually leaves them completely discouraged, creates dissatisfaction with themselves and can lead to excessive obesity. To avoid this, I needed to create a system to maintain the achieved weight - a protective barrier against gaining pounds again.
I introduced this protective barrier using a step-by-step introduction into the diet of the basic products necessary for normal nutrition, in order to avoid the response of the body, deprived of its reserves. To overcome such an instinctive protest of the body and an easier transition to normal nutrition, I established the exact duration of this stage of the diet, proportional to weight loss, which is very easy to calculate: it takes 10 days to consolidate one lost kilogram .
However, even after going through the stage of consolidating the achieved weight, under the influence of metabolism in the body, a gradual return to old eating habits is possible. In addition, the desire to compensate for one’s problems and anxieties is inevitable by rewarding oneself with fatty, sweet and plentiful foods, which can break the resistance of such a seemingly impregnable fortress, which is the weight consolidation phase.
Therefore, I ventured to recommend another measure to my patients, suggesting another stage of the diet, which I boldly called the “final phase.” It would seem an unacceptable epithet for those who are overweight, both adults and children, who generally cannot tolerate anything that has to do with duration, since it contradicts their impulsiveness and rejection of self-restraint.
An unacceptable word, an unacceptable rule that you will have to follow for the rest of your life - but what if it was the one that kept your weight stable and only applied one day a week?
ONLY ONE DAY OF DIET A WEEK, BUT WHICH WILL BE STRICTLY AND STABLY UNCONDITIONALLY COMPLIED AND THE RESULTS OF WHICH WILL BE MORE THAN CONVINCING.
It was then that the moment of truth came for me: I realized that the real success of my diet, undoubtedly, lies in the combination of all four of its stages, successively replacing each other, with successively decreasing intensity. Years of practice have allowed me to build a logical and orderly chain from which it is impossible to deviate.
The first stage “Attack” is quite short, but very effective. It is replaced by a stage called “Alternation,” which includes periods of assault and respite, followed by a stage of consolidating the achieved weight, the duration of which is proportional to the number of kilograms lost. And finally, in order to forever maintain the weight gained with such difficulty, a constant and therefore effective measure, the observance of which is recommended for the rest of your life, is one protein day a week, a day of cleansing , which will allow you to maintain balance on all other days of the week.
And in the end I achieved my first truly stable results. In fact, I offered patients not only fish, but also a fishing guide, that is, a diet plan by which they could not only quickly and effectively cope with obesity, but also maintain the results for a long time and without outside help.
I spent 20 years perfecting this technique, using it on a limited number of patients. Today, thanks to their consistent results, I am bringing it to a wider audience.
My diet is for those who have tried everything ; who lost weight and gained it too often; and for those who, above all, want to provide themselves with a guarantee that in exchange for their short-term diligence, they will not only lose extra pounds, but also retain the fruits of their efforts and live with the figure to which they aspired and to which they have every right. So I wrote this book in the hope that the weight loss system I propose will one day also be the solution to your weight problems.
I wrote a book for those who are concerned about weight problems , but it is dedicated to those with whom I have worked, who have helped me live a fulfilling life as a doctor: my patients, young and old, men and women, especially the first of them - my funny fat man - to the publisher.
Opinions about diet
Reviews from those who have lost weight
Dukan’s book “I Can’t Lose Weight” found a positive response in the hearts of a huge number of people. Diet lovers come to the conclusion that of all the programs available today, this one is the most convenient, non-exhausting, tasty and effective. Men and women speak with great pleasure about the fruitfulness of their efforts.
Larisa, 27 years old: “The Dukan diet helped me a lot. And I can’t say that it was difficult to comply with it. You can eat many different delicious foods. At the second stage it was much easier, since I love vegetables and fruits. And maintaining the result is a pleasure.”
Antonina, 45 years old: “I tried many diets. And usually there was either no result, or after losing weight after some time I broke down and returned to my usual diet. But thanks to Dukan's book, I maintain my weight, and I have no desire to eat everything again at any time. This diet helps build willpower."
Ivan, 38 years old: “I never trusted all sorts of promises to lose weight. And then it was interesting that a person had been developing a diet for so many years, and did not just come up with it in a couple of weeks. I decided to try it. Honestly, I had to work hard. It was especially difficult to stay on protein foods alone. But everything went fine. Now I am stabilizing the result of my achievements.”
Reviews from doctors
But many doctors are of the opinion that the result is a result, but the diet may not have the best effect on your health. The basis for this opinion is the question of how to deprive the body of fats and carbohydrates? This threatens metabolic disorders, and complications with the kidneys, lungs and heart function may also occur. Doctors also say that this diet can cause loss of vitality and apathy in some people.
Some nutritionists prohibit the Dukan weight loss program for people with heavy physical or mental work, since the lack of fats and carbohydrates in the body immediately affects health. Strict adherence to a diet is not suitable for everyone; you need to take into account the individuality of the body, age, profession, and level of your own self-organization.
If you do not follow the strict requirements of the diet, then there is no point. At the same time, medical experts have repeatedly pointed out that Pierre Dukan himself does not deny that his diet can cause kidney problems, increase cholesterol levels and have a negative impact on the body’s cardiovascular system.
Thus, Pierre Dukan’s book is not a magic wand that will get rid of excess weight in the blink of an eye. This is a weight loss guide that requires effort and self-control on the part of the person wanting to lose weight.
