Health > Diet & Nutrition

The Dukan diet

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

How is it that the French can devour as much cheese, crème, chocolate, bread and wine as they like and still maintain their slim fashion-fit figures?

According to Dr Pierre Dukan, the French doctor behind the Dukan diet, the trick to it is having one day of protein-only foods a week, called "protein Thursdays".

For the past decade the Dukan diet has helped people in France manage their weight, the author says, and now it's caught on around the globe, with A-listers Jennifer Lopez and Giselle Bündchen jumping on board to maintain their slim figures.

It promises fast weight loss, around 6kg per month, and allows you to eat what you like except on a protein-fuelled day.

It's been hailed as the "new Atkins diet", but is it really a breakthrough in nutritional science, or just another fad?

VIEW GALLERY: Tips to achieve weight-loss

The Dukan diet consists of four stages


  1. Attack. Eating protein exclusively for up to seven days, including meat, fish and non-fat dairy products.
  2. Cruise. You can have unlimited vegetables during this period, where you alternate protein-only days with vegetable and protein days.
  3. Consolidation. During the consolidation period, eat protein and vegetables every day. Add one piece of fruit, two slices of bread and a serving of cheese each day. Have a couple of starchy meals (such as pasta or risotto) each week as well as a couple of celebration meals where you eat what you like.
  4. Stabilisation. There's one rule during stabilisation: only eat protein on Thursdays. Everything else can be eaten without restriction.

The expert's verdict


"Yes you are going to lose weight because it's an enforced restriction to your calorie intake," nutritionist Joanna McMillan Price told ACA.

She warns that the Dukan diet is not a sustainable, long-term solution and comes with nasty side-effects, such as constipation.

"It won't work because it's not teaching you, long-term, about good eating habits and about having a positive relationship with food," she said.

"We love the idea that we can lose weight really, really fast, and keep it off and still eat what I like, but that's really a dream and we're really buying into the dream that we can eat what we like and still have really good weight control."

The Dukan Diet by Dr Pierre Dukan, $29.99, is published by Hodder & Stoughton, and is available in bookstores.

Watch the video above for more information.

User comments
I am a fit, slim,physiotherapist who normally eats like a horse. I got married in November last year and did the Dukan in June last year. I did it to get rid of the three kilos that I have always wanted to lose but tolerated as I didn't want to eat any less! As a health professional, any diet that promotes drinking plenty of water, regular daily exercise and cutting out sugar and fat is as healthy as they come. I still don't like the thought of cutting out vegetables to start with and I know people that still did a version of the diet successfully without this aspect. I was intrigued however, and did it BY THE BOOK. Not a single cheat do I have to 'fess up to... The kilos were lost forever, nearly one year later and I'm basically the same...I do still eat less carbs, as recommended, but I still DO eat them and I'm never one of those people at dinner parties 'oh I don't eat this or that'. Just be warned that 3kg to lose takes a lot less time than 30kg, the diet goes 4 ages- be warned!
Wow I am glad I read all the comments I am going to give Dukan a go!
To Adelaide, who spent her whole rambling post talking about how OTHER diets didn't work - did you even try this? If you had you would probably have lost much more weight by now! The so-called Nutritionist who says a balanced diet is the only way to go, needs to find another line of work - maybe selling some dodgy product in a pyramid scheme. Obviously, she wrote her opinion without trying the plan. If eating a balanced diet works so well, why do so many struggle to lose weight doing that??? Idiots! The the thing is, this shouldn't be called a diet. It's really a lifetime eating plan. It works and it is so easy. To those who say they were hungry on the plan - how can you be? You can eat whatever quantity you need as often as you need! I found the protein attack phase easy and totally painless. I lost 11kg in three weeks and it is still off even after Christmas and an overseas holiday where I barely followed the plan! I am now picking up where I left off, confident that this works!
Im a lacto-ovo vegetarian - so i still drink milk and eat eggs. Would the Dukan diet work for me? I have found in the past trying protein enriched diets mean that i have to consume alot of food to equate to the daily amount of protein required.
I have been doing this nearly a week and have not felt like I have missed a thing, I guess because I still get to have my dairy which I love and in terms of sugar intake I still get to have my diet coke and the non fat yoghurts which are fantastic because that works for me. My favourite part of the day is making a shake with Ice, Skim Milk and a tub of blueberry non fat yoghurt, a berry smoothy and it is oh so filling and kills any hunger for sugar or carb products. I love grilled salmon, prawns and love grilled trim steak so all works. Every couple of days I make myself and omelette with non fat cottage cheese, skim milk and eggs and sometimes add onion or garlic and then throw in a little chilli...again yum! I don't feel limited and when I start the next phase next week and can add some veg then I can make new and different menu items. So far I haven't had any cravings constipation, lethargy, headaches or anything but positive results. Do it properly and you can feel better.
Just found this blog. Be interested to know how many of the success stories here have kept the weight off after 12 months??
i've been on this diet since june & have lost 24kg, its the only diet i have stuck to!!!
I have been on the Dukan Diet since 2nd Feb and have dropped 7.5 kgs which is almost half what I am aiming to lose. My only concern is that I have been following the diet to the letter and in the past week have not dropped any more weight dispite good excercise levels. Anyone else reach a dead point where they stagnated for a bit?? It was so easy in the first two weeks to stay focussed on the diet as I could see the results and they were amazing. Now it has slowed down I am finding it a bit harder and am craving some foods but I have not broken from it yet. I strongly recommend it though. Even if you only do it for a few weeks and get 5-7kgs off and then try to implement some of the principles it is a good result.
i have tried every diet and i mean every diet, i started the dukan diet 5 days ago, i have the sugar cravings under control and feel full with more energy then i can remember for a diet. i even join the gym to give my self no excuse for not working out and this gym has a crib. i also believe if you want the diet to work you have to really want to lose weight,but if you do want to lose weight this has been the easiest diet to follow.let you all know how i go but i believe i have found the diet for me.
all my life worried about my weight, tried them all!! Well, at age 54, and having gained 35lbs over the last 5 years, with no success on other diets, I'm going to give this one a go. It sounds smart, so wish me luck you guys, being fat makes me so miserable!


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