Authors: Pierre Dukan
The Dukan Diet (15 page)
You have succeeded in losing weight, and now for all the reasons mentioned, you must make the only logical choice, which is to consolidate the new weight you have worked so hard to achieve and then move on, as scheduled, to permanent stabilization
.
CONSOLIDATION DIET SUMMARY
How long this transition diet lasts is calculated according to how much weight you have lost, based on 5 days for every pound shed. If you have just lost 40 pounds, you must follow the transition diet for 40 × 5 days—that is, 200 days (6 months and 20 days); if you have lost 20 pounds, you will follow it for 100 days. You can easily calculate the exact amount of time you need before reaching permanent stabilization.
The whole time you are consolidating your weight, you will follow the transition diet as closely as possible. You are allowed the following foods:
- The protein foods from the Attack diet
- The vegetables from the Cruise diet
- 1 serving of fresh fruit per day, except bananas, grapes, and cherries
- 2 slices of 100 percent whole grain bread per day
- 1½ ounces (40 grams) of cheese per day
- 2 servings of starchy foods per week
- Lamb, roast pork, and ham (lean cuts), once or twice a week
Then to crown it all:
- 2 celebration meals per week (you are free to choose any foods, but no bingeing)
But also, absolutely and without question:
- 1 day of pure proteins (the Attack diet) per week, on the same day every week and without fail
Let’s now take stock. The Attack phase gave you an encouraging and lightning kick start, the Cruise phase guided you to your target weight, and now you have just completed your Consolidation phase, based on 5 days for every pound lost.
At this stage you have not only gotten rid of your extra pounds, you have also made it safely through the period during which your new slim body has been trying with all its might to recover those lost pounds.
Now that you have achieved and consolidated your True Weight, your body is no longer extremely defensive. Nevertheless it remains very clever at extracting what it can from whatever you eat and at putting on weight, as it has a biological memory of all those times when you have gained weight in the past. From now on, since the same causes produce the same effects, the likelihood of regaining weight will remain if you do
not incorporate into your lifestyle a certain number of habits specifically designed to deal with this risk.
Up until now you have been guided by a whole system of precise instructions, with no room for improvisation. From this moment, instead of sailing along the coastline, you will be out on the open seas, with much more independence than before, but also exposed to a greater risk of storms and, therefore, of shipwreck. So it is important that these new instructions be sufficiently simple, concrete, and painless to become part of your way of life.
To do this, and to break the cycle of putting the lost weight back on as soon as the dieting is finished, the Permanent Stabilization phase offers you, in return for four simple and not-too-frustrating measures, freedom to eat again whatever you want so that you no longer feel excluded at mealtimes.
The first of these measures is simple: all you need do is adopt the basic foods from the Consolidation phase as a safety platform. Eat as much as you want of all the protein foods and vegetables, 1 piece of fruit, 2 slices of 100 percent whole grain bread, 1½ ounces (40 grams) of cheese, 2 portions of starchy foods per day, and 2 celebration meals per week. These foods comprise a healthy, copious, and sufficiently varied range to constitute the basis for your diet. Use this as your point of reference and in particular as your safety backup to which you can return to take shelter if you are regaining weight.
You already know the second measure, protein Thursdays, as it was featured in the Consolidation phase.
The third is quite simply a contract between you and me in which you promise me that you will no longer take any elevators or escalators. In France, we rarely live in buildings with more than five or six floors; if you live on a higher floor, then this rule does not apply to you. You should try to walk up the first 5 flights, and then take the elevator. If this is not practical, take the stairs on every other occasion you can. Our contract also includes your commitment to walk for at least 20 minutes a day, every day.
The final measure is simply a treat: you must stick to 3 tablespoons of oat bran a day for life.
Together these measures seem to me the least disagreeable things you
could be asked to do in return for being able to eat normally 6 days out of 7. My professional experience leads me to believe that no sensible person who wants to avoid becoming overweight again could refuse such a deal.
In addition, to crown these measures, the Dukan Diet’s permanent stabilization is protected by an additional weapon, less visible, but decisive: everything you have learned about nutrition during the time you spent losing pounds, then consolidating your new weight.
As I created the program and use it every day with my patients, I know that by following the four successive diets, the knowledge acquired about the value of different foods and how to eat becomes instinctive and deeply ingrained, and this can help you stay slim and stable.
With the pure protein diet, you will have discovered the power of these
vital foods
. You now know that these foods represent an extremely effective weapon in the battle to lose weight that you can call upon throughout your life.
Throughout the alternating protein diet, you learned that adding green vegetables slowed down the pace of weight loss, but that these
indispensable foods
did not prevent your pounds from continuing to disappear as long as the vegetables were prepared without any fat.
When going through consolidation, you included in successive steps such
necessary foods
as bread, fruit, cheese, some starchy foods, and even, with your celebration meals, some
pleasurable
and
superfluous foods
without any pangs of guilt. By doing this, day by day, you incorporated a hierarchy of values and learned how to classify foods.
It is this progression from different phases, from
vital
to
superfluous
foods, and the training you have acquired that make this program, combined with our other measures for stabilization, an achievement that may never have been reached before: weight that is lost and lost permanently.
Why Thursdays? At that time in my life when I was still putting together the different pieces of what was to become the Dukan Diet, I sensed
the need to add one remaining guideline to this phase in which the lost weight is permanently stabilized, a guideline that would remind people of the battle we had fought together.
In fact, it was one of my patients who gave me the idea. Happy to have lost weight without having suffered as much as she had expected, she was wary of returning to “normal life” and did not want to completely give up the Attack diet that had helped her to “put right” lapses whenever she had any. She came up with this simple and clever idea: using the Attack diet for only 1 day a week! A few weeks later I decided to experiment by formally writing the idea out on my prescriptions: “1 day of the pure proteins diet per week.” I observed that this instruction was successfully followed for a certain period of time, then less regularly, and finally, it was forgotten altogether.
So I decided to lay down which day it should be and arbitrarily chose Thursdays. From then on, as if by magic, everything suddenly changed. My patients followed the rule and stuck to it, simply because it was not up to them to choose the day and because nothing is harder for a person with weight problems than to have to choose themselves exactly when they are to be deprived of food. Prescribing a non-negotiable day highlights the importance of this element of the diet. If Thursdays do not work for you, then choose another day of the week, but stick to it.
While you were following the Dukan Diet, you were supported and protected by a whole system of precise instructions that left little room for initiative or error. From now on, however, you have no safety net.
You may now eat normally 6 days out of 7
, and these protein Thursdays are the sole remaining barrier keeping you from your tendency to put on weight. You must follow these protein days to the letter, because a single weakness or error will threaten their effectiveness and the solidity of all you have achieved.
On protein Thursdays, so crucial for your permanent stabilization, we must select and use the purest forms of protein, which produce the
most powerful results, and restrict or avoid any that contain some fat and carbohydrates.
On protein Thursdays, you can choose from the following list only:
•
Lean meat
. You already know that lamb is too rich in fat to be counted as pure protein. Only use lean veal or pork, which should be grilled or braised. Roasted veal and pork tenderloin are allowed if well cooked. Veal and pork chops are fattier and can be eaten on other days of the week.
Beef varies in fat content according to the cut. Apart from fatty cuts for stewing, ribs and rib eye are without doubt the highest in fat and cannot possibly be included in our lean meat category.
Sirloin and flank steak are probably the leanest cuts of beef. You can even find frozen beef burgers and ground beef with no more than 5 percent fat. You can use all of these without a second thought on Thursdays.
Be careful with other cuts if you are unsure of their fat content. If in doubt, ask your butcher.
On protein Thursdays, beef should be well cooked rather than rare. This does not alter the protein content but it does eliminate some of the fat.
If you can find game, it is an excellent source of pure protein.
•
Fish and seafood
. In the standard pure protein diet I allowed you to eat all kinds of fish, from the leanest to the fattiest. Over time, I have come to accept oily fish such as salmon, sardines, mackerel, and tuna, as they are prized for their immense protective power against heart disease and arteriosclerosis, and their fat content is no higher than some cuts of meat. Nevertheless, this high fat content, acceptable for the rest of the Dukan Diet, is not so for protein Thursdays. If you eat salmon, do not eat more than 8 ounces (225 grams) per
meal if it is fresh, and 6 ounces (175 grams) if it is smoked. White fish is your best ally on Thursdays.
As well as the traditional ways of preparing fish, such as poaching, baking, grilling, or in a pan, another simple way is to eat it raw. Marinate in thin slices, like sashimi, or cubed, as in a tartare, for a few minutes in lemon juice with some salt, black pepper, and herbes de Provence. This makes an unusual, fresh and flavorful starter or main course.
Turbot, red mullet, and skate are the fattiest white fish but are much less so than the leanest meat, so you can eat as much of them as you want.
Crab, shrimp, mussels, oysters, and scallops are even leaner than fish. A seafood dish or platter can save you from embarrassment if you have to accept an invitation to eat out on a Thursday. However, if you are a fan of shellfish and you like it in great quantities, avoid very fatty oysters, usually the large ones. Add lemon to them, but do not drink their juice.
•
Poultry
. With the exception of flat-billed birds such as duck and goose, and when eaten without skin, poultry is one of the best foundations for a protein diet. However, on protein Thursdays, a few words of caution need to temper this freedom.
Chicken can be eaten freely, but avoid the skin and the wings, thighs, and parson’s nose (the fleshy protuberance at the tail end of the chicken—actually an oily gland). Save these for the rest of the week.
Other poultry is allowed without any restrictions. Turkey breast is the leanest poultry of all, so eat it freely. Cornish hen and quail add a festive touch to your protein Thursdays. These birds can all be prepared differently. Chicken is best prepared oven roasted or grilled on skewers. On protein Thursdays, go for the skewered kebab version and make sure you remove it from the serving dish right away so that it does not soak up too much juice and extra fat. Turkey and Cornish hen can be roasted in the oven, moistened occasionally
with lemon water so as to separate the fat. On protein Thursdays, the best way to do quail is on skewers.
•
Eggs
. Egg white is the richest natural source of protein, much purer than any protein powder you can buy. But this is only one part of the egg, and the yolk, intended for the growing chick, contains many complex fats, including cholesterol. Together the whole egg provides a balanced food you can eat on protein Thursdays.
However, if you are finding it hard to stabilize your weight, or if your week has been particularly indulgent and you want to get the maximum impact from your protein Thursday, eat fewer eggs; or, alternatively, avoid the yolk and eat as many whites as you want.
Another solution is to make omelets or scrambled eggs with 1 yolk for 2 whites, and, if you are really hungry, add some powdered nonfat milk. But remember that all these precautions are wasted if you cook your eggs with butter or oil. Get a good-quality nonstick frying pan and put a few drops of water in the bottom before adding your eggs.
•
Nonfat dairy products
. Nonfat milk ricotta, yogurt, and cottage cheese have the advantage of having no fat. But what else is in these products? There is, of course, milk protein, which is used to make protein powder, but we also find in moderate quantities lactose, or milk sugar, which is not welcome here.
Our two Attack and Cruise weight loss diets proved that the presence of lactose does not lessen the pure protein diet’s performance and that nonfat milk products, as your only source of fresh and creamy tastes, can be eaten without limit, or at least without exceeding around 1½ pounds (675 grams) per day. However, for protein Thursdays, these products must be selected more carefully to reduce your lactose intake. Compare your nonfat cottage cheese, ricotta, and yogurts and check that for the same number of calories you are getting more protein and less lactose. On protein Thursdays,
if you like dairy products, then go for as little lactose as possible; you can be less fussy the other 6 days of the week.
•
Water
. Here, again, we need to adjust the pure protein diet instructions. There, 1½ quarts of water a day is a good minimum amount to purify a body that is burning up its own fat. On these stabilizing Thursdays, however, you should up this to at least 2 quarts for the day, as this amount will flood the small intestine and reduce its craving for food. Further diluting the food eaten prolongs and slows down its absorption, and another advantage is that digestion is speeded up.
Thoroughly flushing out the intestines like this, along with the pure proteins, also creates a kind of shock wave that keeps the effects going for the next 2 or 3 days and leaves you with only 3 or 4 days when the energy extracted from your food will be at its highest rate.
•
Salt
. Salt is indispensable. Our body is bathed in blood and lymph whose salt level is close to that of the sea. But salt is an enemy for anyone wanting to keep the pounds off. If too much is absorbed, salt retains water and invades tissues already overloaded with fat.
On the other hand, a weight loss diet lacking in salt can result in lower blood pressure and can cause tiredness if followed for too long. Because of that, the Dukan Diet dictates only a slight reduction in salt during the first three phases.
But for protein Thursdays, salt intake is reduced. Restricting salt for 1 day is not enough to lower blood pressure, but it is sufficient to enable the water you drink to pass through your system and clean it out. Purifying tissues is particularly important for women, who because of hormonal influences experience significant water retention at certain times in their menstrual cycle.
For the same reasons, you should limit mustard on protein Thursdays, but you can use vinegar, pepper, and all other spices to compensate for any lack of flavor.