Seemingly everyone wants to lose weight. Whether to improve their health, feel better or just look better in their clothes, more and more people are searching for that fool proof plan to get them to where they want to be. Due to this, more and more "experts" are coming out with "diet plans" and marketing to the millions of people desperately trying to shed pounds. The latest craze is the Dukan Diet.
The Dukan Diet is the creation of French doctor Pierre Dukan. The main concept is to eat protein rich foods that are low in fat. Along the way you add in daily servings of oat bran and avoid elevators (he encourages you to take the stairs whenever possible). There are four phases and each one is designed to optimize your body's ability to burn fat. The length of the diet is entirely based upon how much weight you want to lose. Upon reaching your desired weight you simply begin to re-introduce foods that you have cut out and then devise a plan to maintain your weight from there.
The Dukan Diet has been compared to the Atkins Diet by some in the media. While they do have some similarities, I think they are significantly different. The Atkins Diet encourages you to eat large amounts of protein and severely restrict carbohydrates. In that way they are similar. They are also each divided into four "phases". However, Atkins allows you to eat very large quantities of fatty proteins whereas Dukan suggests very lean meats. That is a significant difference and one that could have a serious effect on your cholesterol and blood pressure.
Lean meats are widely accepted as a "must" for dieters. Not only are you reducing your caloric intake by removing the calories from fat, but you are helping to reduce your cholesterol and lower your blood pressure as well. I think this distinction alone favors Dukan. Does that make the Dukan Diet a must have for dieters though?
While I have always championed weight loss through a healthy diet and exercise, I realize most people just want the easiest and fastest "plan" to get to their goal. In that regard, I think the Dukan Diet can help many people. The Dukan Diet is pretty straight forward, simple to understand and implement, focuses on a "healthful" weight loss and requires minimal exercise. If that sounds like what you are looking for, you may be able to benefit from the Dukan Diet. Otherwise, hit the gym and punish the fat away! Happy dieting!
If you want ot check out either diet mentioned above or another garnering alot of press, The Diet Solution, follow the links below.
1 comment:
What worries me about the Dukan diet is this emphasis on oats. If we eat oats everyday we do become intolerant to them and this will lead to ill health. Another huge problem with this diet is that it is French and the French attitude to food is extremely different to ours in the UK - where food is most frequently seen as a refuelling operation. The French revere food; eating out in France takes a long time and is very wonderful. Their bread is made properly, with long proving, no preservatives and zero shelf life. British bread is horrible and lasts for days. There is also a real problem with carb addiction in the UK making the later stages hard to not lose control - this is why some say no diets work. Actually all diets work, no matter how whacky, the problem lies in sticking to them.
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