When Carolyn Crosier read about Kate Middleton adopting the Dukan plan for her pre-wedding diet, she says she was hooked 100 percent. Then, her colleague Heidi Bergos got on board.
“The fact that Kate Middleton, J. Lo and Giselle all followed Dukan’s plan made me want to try it,” Bergos says.
Soon, two more colleagues who work in the Charles Hotel’s administration offices in Cambridge were eating up the Dukan Diet, so to speak. French nutritionist Pierre Dukan developed the diet, documenting it in his best-selling book, “The Dukan Diet,” and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate, sealed its fate as this year’s to-do diet.
“The Dukan Diet is the latest reboot of the low-carb dieting philosophy,” says licensed nutritionist Monica Reinagel, author of “Nutrition Diva’s Secrets for a Healthy Diet.” “The twist is that unlike the Atkins approach, the Dukan Diet has you limit fats as well. While it is usually successful in producing quick weight loss, it has many of the same drawbacks as Atkins.”
The protein-heavy diet is split into four phases: The Attack, The Cruise, The Consolidation and The Stabilization. In the attack phase, dieters are set up to shed about five pounds very rapidly, in a week or less. The cruise phase implements a diet of certain vegetables, with the goal weight loss being approximately two pounds per week. The consolidation phase reincorporates breads, cheese and starches, and the stabilization phase, designed to be implemented for the rest of the dieter’s life, allows dieters to eat almost anything.
Since starting Dukan in April, Bergos lost 15 pounds and Crosier lost 11 pounds. Both gained only a couple back.
“The no-alcohol part is the toughest! Everything becomes Du-Can and Du-Can’t,” jokes Crosier. “It changes what you think about food as far as fuel versus indulgence.”
The disadvantages
“The early phases of the diet are extremely restrictive and nutritionally imbalanced,” Reinagel says.
“While it offers some advantages like not having to count calories or limit portions (or stop eating until you want to), these sort of extreme programs have a very poor track record for long-term success.”
