France has figured out a way to lose weight. It is a weight loss program that was founded by Dr Pierre Dukan who is a French nutritionist. He developed the diet 10 years ago and it brought about a totally different approach to weight loss after a decade. The basic idea of this diet is to enjoy the pleasure of eating unlimited amount of real food. The diet has four stages.
Phase One – Attack Phase
The initial phase of the Dukan diet begins with a low protein diet and liberal consumption of water. You may also include tea, coffee, or sodas but you have to make sure they have zero fat and calories. In the low protein diet, it has to be low-fat chicken, beef, fish, and turkey, zero-fat cottage cheese and yogurt, and vegan foods such as eggs and tofu. You may add seasonings like salt, onions, vinegar, mustards and spices such as pepper, oregano, and basil. You have to ensure they are also zero-fat and calories. This phase will be exclusive to protein, oat bran and water.
Phase Two – Cruise Phase
This phase allows you to eat not only protein-rich food but vegetables as well. You can still continue eating 2 tablespoons of oat bran per day, water, and walking which has to be half an hour per day. Salad is included as a vegetable. You can have green vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, cabbage, green beans, asparagus, cauliflower, and celery. You can eat them raw or cook them through boiling and steaming. This second stage can last for months if you want to lose a lot of weight.
Phase Three – Consolidation Phase
This stage begins if you have achieved the weight that you want. So you will basically just maintain your weight during this phase. You can now add bread, cheese pasta, rice, fruits like apples, watermelons and cantaloupe, and one celebration meal weekly which allows you to eat anything you want.
Phase Four
This stage allows you to go back eating whatever you want but maintaining the principles of the consolidation phase. This means there is no restriction to protein and vegetables, consume one piece of fruit, two cuts of whole bread, a portion of cheese, two starch-rich foods and two celebration meals a week.
The key to a successful Dukan diet is the strict adherence to its principles. As long as you follow the rules of the weight loss plan, you will never fail.