Why the Dukan Diet is the A-List's failsafe weightloss plan

By Louise Atkinson

Last updated at 8:59 AM on 21st July 2011


The revolutionary Dukan Diet was devised as a medically-tested and highly effective eating plan to tackle obesity. For Dr Pierre Dukan, its French creator, it has been a 35-year labour of love to re-educate people who had forgotten (or never really knew) how to eat healthily.

When the Daily Mail launched the Dukan Diet in the UK last year, its popularity spread like wildfire, and it has developed a certain cachet among many high-profile celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez and supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

The sort of people (such as Carol Middleton) whom no one would ever call overweight have also found that a modified version of Dukan provides the key to speedy, safe, healthy weight loss — even if you’ve got only a few pounds to lose.

Dukan devotees: From left, Jennifer Lopez, Gisele Bundchen and Carole Middleton are all fans of the diet

At 56, perhaps the Duchess of Cambridge’s mum became increasingly aware of the menopausal thickening around the waist that can affect women around this age. And with the world watching her every move, she clearly felt she needed an effective, speedy way to ensure she looked stunning at her daughter Kate’s wedding.

DUKAN AT A GLANCE

• Kick start your diet with the rapid weightloss 'Attack' phase during which you eat unlimited meat, fish, eggs and no-fat dairy products, plus oat bran.
  
• After two to ten days (depending on how
  much weight you have to lose) switch to the 'Cruise' phase, alternating Attack days with those when you add unlimited vegetables and salad.
  
• On holiday, stick to protein with salad and
  veg (no pasta, potatoes or rice), plus 2-4tbsp of oat bran. But allow yourself a little cheese, a piece of fruit, a glass of wine and two slices of wholemeal bread each day. Enjoy two ‘celebration meals’ without any restraint and earmark one day limited to protein-only Attack rules.
  
• When you get back home, continue with your holiday eating plan (minus the glass of wine each day) — this is Dukan’s Consolidation phase — and stick at it for five days for every pound in weight you lost, to establish your new slender weight long-term.
  
• Finally, stay slim for ever by resuming a healthy balanced diet with three caveats: daily oat bran, daily exercise and protein-only on Thursdays

Dr Dukan would never endorse the use of his diet in such circumstances. In fact, he says: ‘It is not appropriate for someone who is healthy and at their right weight.’

But by making a few simple changes to their diet and spending a few days in the programme’s Attack phase before a photoshoot or a red-carpet event, celebs have ensured their bodies are paparazzi-ready. Carole Middleton reportedly stuck to low-fat cottage cheese and prawns and managed to drop 4lb in four days.

Dr Dukan insists that the low-fat message makes his diet a more balanced, healthy way to lose weight and, with the oat bran and unlimited vegetables and salad in all but the early stages, it could hardly be accused of lacking in fibre.

On Day Four of our Dukan Holiday Diet, we give you more recipes that will help you stay in shape for the beach, plus an exercise plan from Dr Dukan to keep you on track while you are on holiday.

HOLIDAY FITNESS

Exercise plays a central role in the success of the Dukan Diet — and never is this more important than when you’re on holiday. It also triggers endorphins that ‘reduce the neurological need to find solace in eating’.

‘Quite simply, the more active you are, the less you need to limit what you eat and so the less you’ll suffer,’ says Dr Dukan.

Try these simple steps:

• STAND UP MORE: This increases calorie combustion as it forces the body’s three biggest muscle groups (quads, stomach and buttocks) to contract.
• USE THE STAIRS: Walking down a flight burns 6 calories; running up a flight burns 14.
• WALK WHENEVER POSSIBLE: This burns 300 calories an hour, so indulge in long beach walks. ‘Increase the effectiveness of the walk (and earn your delicious glass of holiday wine) by walking for 20 minutes at a time up to your hips in water,’ recommends Dr Dukan. ‘Gently walking against the resistance of the water is fantastic at tackling cellulite.’
• HIT THE DANCEFLOOR: Two hours of dancing is a fun way to burn a staggering 500 calories.

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Print, cut and keep: Your day four meal planner

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