on another note.....

skinnyminnycow

Half a pound at a time.
Why are people (BBC news and Daily Mail) starting to publish how bad this diet is?

Its the only diet i have felt healthy, had a constant weight loss every week, felt more awake and energetic, focused. Its the only diet that has beaten my sugar cravings/chocolate cravings and binge eating episodes. Its the only diet that has made me actually TASTE the food i eat, and actually enjoy those tastes.

And i am two stone lighter up to now with no health problems.

This is why i dont watch or read the news anymore. It angers me with the lies. :mad:
 
To be fair it's one of the most lacking in common sense diets I've ever done, and I've done a lot. At least VLCD don't claim to be anything other than weight loss through starvation. Abstaining from vegetables every other day or even on a 5:5 rota is insane. I'm looking for quick weight loss, and it will give me that, it will keep me sated because of ketosis, but I think the media has a point. I'm doing it because it meets my need for weight loss, not because I think it's remotely good for me or healthy for my body. It's not, but neither is being this overweight.
 
I too struggle with the point of not eating vegetables - so many are v low carb in themselves. It's something I personally just struggle with.

Though I know of too many people not following any kind of diet who struggle to get 1-2 servings of fruit and veg in during the course of a normal day

at least I am eating lean meats, fish and low fat diary - along with the oatbran. Probably why I make sure I have a small portion of Gogi berries nearly every day - as they are allowed - but commonsense keeps telling me I would be better off substituting them with a serving or two of veggies!
 
I guess you've got to remember all the bad press Atkins has had over the years and now look at how primal/paleo eating has taken off. Basically it's pretty close to clean, green Atkins so it's coming a full circle, the original Atkins has changed somewhat as I'm sure Dukan will eventually morph into veggies everyday, give it another 5yrs. I know discipline helps me lose weight, so Dukan suits this style, I have to plan or I can't eat. You can eat freely off the dukan list but it's pretty hard to overeat these foods which is why it works. I might start popping in what I eat to MFP to work out my average daily kcals.
 
It wasn't BBC news that called the diet bad, it was the nutritionist. I guess they will do that because otherwise they will be out of a job.
 
I would imagine if green veg was eaten each day but one, you'd still see a loss after weigh-in (provided you weigh in after your PP day). I have balanced things out to be able to get away with Green PV instead of PP Thursdays most of the time.

I wouldn't advise it though - stick to the book and you won't go wrong! Cruise is only for a few months, maybe a year at the most and you'll have better health thanks to weighing less at the end of it.
 
Noone should judge unless they fully understand the diet and have tried it. It's short term anyway - I have never lost weight like this, I dont feel hungry, tin of roses in our staff room and not even consider having just one. 4 months ago I would have eaten half of a tin without thinking, the chocs would have been shouting at me! I dont know why or how it works but ive changed with regards to food, Im very motivated and I feel so much better and for that I thank Dr Dukan :)
 
With Chris R on this one. I was the genuine carb lover, give me pizza, potato, pasta, rice, bread in any form and I would be a very happy bunny, I struggled with strong withdrawal symtoms when I started Dukan but can honestly say now I have never felt healthier than I do right now. It is a relief to be rid of my carb addiction and personally I was eating virtually no fruit and veg before Dukan so I think my diet for one has definately improved 100%!! Dr Dukan is not saying no to all food groups EVENTUALLY he just needs to teach the truly obese people (LIKE ME) how to eat healthily and in moderation and for me personally I know it will be a long journey but worth it in the end. As it stands I will be on the third stage for 500 days!!! That's a long time - in total my 'rehabilitation' will take 3 years!!! I understand why - I have spent 30 oddyears of my of my life yo-yoing between super healthy and deathly bad eating!!! I am reassured by the four stages of the plan, they make sense and feel achievable!!!
 
The way I look at it, Dukan is the nomad or neolithic diet - it reproduces the food our ancestors ate when they first started domesticating herd animals but hadn't settled in one place to grow crops.

They would follow the goats, or cattle, or reindeer on their migrations, eating milk and yogurt, collecting wild vegetables, eggs, insects, fish and small amounts of wild fruit and grain when available.

It is/was the diet of some of the healthiest people in the world - the Sami in Finland, the Masaai in Kenya, many of the native peoples of North America.

Wheat and corn and potatoes and sugar cane iallowed humans to settle down, to avoid starvation, to feed whole cities - they have been of wonderful benefit to human society as a whole.

But they are not - in and of themselves - "healthier" than the food we ate before we started farming.
 
PS

Three Questions you can ask whenever an expert in nutrition is giving an opinion in the popular media;

1.) Are they selling an alternative diet/book/method of their own?
(Amazingly every negative review of Dukan I've read has been by someone plugging their own book)

2.) Are they basically puritans?
(Amazing how many life-style experts are just sniffy about food being enjoyable to eat. How dare we drink coffee, eat steak, or prawns because they taste good! Only raw cabbage and carrots and water for the puritan.)

3.) Are they just repeating "facts" that have never, ever been tested in a genuine scientific study?
(Amazingly very little genuine experimental research has been done in diet. Boggles the mind, doesn't it? The next time someone solemnly says "9?% of dieters regain weight afterwards" ask them to cite the study that backs this. They can't. It's a fact that has been repeated, over and over again, in book after book, but doesn't ever seem to lead to real evidence. The closest anyone has to a source for this is a single questionaire distributed in a US college in the 1950s... )
 
I'm going to copy an article my sister sent me:

Creator of Dukan diet loses libel case against rival
Colin Randall

Jul 7, 2011
The French creator of the Dukan diet, an eating plan followed by millions around the world, has suffered an embarrassing setback with defeat in a libel case against a rival nutritionist who claimed it causes serious health problems.

Dr Pierre Dukan, whose famous dieters range from Penelope Cruz and Jennifer Lopez to Kate Middleton's mother, was ordered to pay Dr Jean-Michel Cohen and a French health magazine damages of €3,000 (Dh15,900) for abuse of process.

A court in Paris ruled there was nothing libellous about Dr Cohen's comments in Meilleure Santé (Better Health), published a year ago.

In particular, Dr Cohen had spoken of the risk that the protein-rich Dukan plan could cause, among some dieters, a "sharp rise in cholesterol, cardiovascular problems and breast cancer".

Dukan's diet first appeared in France in the book I Can't Lose Weight. The book was aimed at those who have failed in previous attempts to become slimmer. International sales of 24 million are claimed, making it a bestseller in the United States and Britain as well as France.

But Dr Cohen's lawyer, Richard Malka, said after the judgment: "It is not because you are a good businessman, a good communicator, often on the covers of magazines that you can escape from a legitimate scientifically based critique. What is essential is the safety of the patients and not the touchiness of the doctors."

Mr Malka described the outcome as a "total defeat" for Dr Dukan. "Clearly, the court was not persuaded by the diet," he said. "I argued that the action was grotesque and the court said it was baseless … It really takes absolute sensitivity and megalomania to believe you cannot be criticised when you sell books in their millions and are concerned in public health."

On French RTL radio yesterday, Dr Dukan said he would not appeal against the court's decision, which he considered secondary to the satisfaction of millions of dieters who had confidence in him.

Earlier, he had issued a statement regretting that Dr Cohen had shown respect for neither friendship nor medical ethics by publicly speaking ill of a colleague.

In the run-up to judgment, the leading French daily newspaper Le Figaro featured Dr Dukan on the cover of its magazine, quoting him as saying he launched proceedings in the hope of stopping Dr Cohen's criticisms, but now regretted doing so "because the attacks did me no harm".

He said they had enjoyed a good relationship until his diet became successful, presenting competition for Dr Cohen.

Dr Dukan denied that money had ever been the principal motivating factor in his work, saying he drew more satisfaction from "giving well-being, health, self-esteem and probably longer life" in a world where 1.3 billion people were overweight.

The fact remains that the Dukan eating plan equals big business, with a series of follow-up books and a range of recipes and products.

The diet has four phases, two of "attack" and two of weight stabilisation. In the initial stages, dieters eat only protein, such as meat or fish, and oat bran. Later, non-starchy vegetables can be added every other day and the diet becomes gradually more balanced while retaining one protein-only day each week. Dieters must also exercise regularly.

Dr Dukan admits there can be short-lived problems, as in the earliest phase when vitamin intake is reduced, but insists that these must be seen against the much more severe health risks arising from obesity.

However, the effectiveness of the plan, as well as possible health implications, has been called into question.

Dr Dukan's critics include a team of doctors from the Paris hospital Pitié Salpêtrière, who found that 75 per cent of those questioned had regained the weight lost while following the diet.

The BBC conducted its own straw poll, questioning four dieters in London and Paris.

A Parisian teacher said she lost 6kg in two weeks but put it all back on again once she stopped the diet, which had the side effects of bad breath, a dry mouth and constipation.

But the others gave the diet their approval. A Londoner working in marketing said he ended up "eating breast of chicken, breast of chicken and breast of chicken", but was happy with his weight loss of 5kg in a fortnight.

Dr Dukan sent a copy of his book of recipes to Carole Middleton after learning last autumn that she was following his diet in preparation for this year's wedding in London of her daughter to Prince William.

"When I wrote the diet in my small Parisian office in 1975 I never thought I'd be posting a copy to Prince William's mother-in-law," he said in an interview quoted by the London Daily Express. "It's an honour. She has done more to fight obesity than anyone and for that I am most grateful."

Dr Cohen's diet, which is also followed by millions hoping to lose weight, takes a low-calorie approach in which no food is banned. The court judgment on Tuesday leaves nutritionists, publishers and would-be slimmers watching for the next stage of what the French press has taken to calling "the diet war".

So Atropos, I see that you might be right on one of your points, this Doctor also has a diet he wants to sell.
 
It's true that the diet is now big business for him, and he must be raking in the cash... but that hasn't always been the case. When I first started it in late 2007, it wasn't well known in France, the book cost but €6 and there was no official website / products! At that time, one could pay €100 to go to for a private consultation in his Parisian offices and I know someone who went (and I copied her diet!). (€100 is a typical price to see any specialist here)
 
Dr Dukan's critics include a team of doctors from the Paris hospital Pitié Salpêtrière, who found that 75 per cent of those questioned had regained the weight lost while following the diet.

A Parisian teacher said she lost 6kg in two weeks but put it all back on again once she stopped the diet, which had the side effects of bad breath, a dry mouth and constipation.

Thats why there is a consolidation stage.
 
I am sorry for butting in - I don't do dukakis nor do I know what it's about ... But I support it.

I mean surely following dukan and losing weight is healthier than the alternative which is remaining overweight and unhealthy

The health folk are always telling up we should lose 10% of our body weight to be a whole lot healthier. So to all those naysayers out there - stick your stories somewhere and smoke em. To the rest of us no lead the daily struggle to get healthier and thinner then keep at it, one day we will be smiling and enjoying life as thinner healthier people.

Just remember we can change what is wrong with us, they will find it harder to change their put down ways.

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