The Ducan diet is one of the most advertised methods of losing weight. Understanding how the diet works, what the "right" weight is and why eating according to Dukan can be dangerous.
Who's Pierre Ducan
The author of the popular diet is not a nutritionist, but a therapist. Pierre Dukan was in family medicine when an obese patient came to him in 1970. The man admitted that due to weight gain he was ready to give up food except meat. The doctor developed a diet based on lean meat, non-starchy vegetables and a minimum amount of fruit. The premise was a refusal of sugar.
Ducan argued that such a diet was best for natural metabolism: primitive man ate meat, seasonal vegetables and fruits. Sugar in our understanding was inaccessible to him and therefore he should be abandoned now.
After 30 years of experimentation and research, Pierre Ducan published the book I Can't Lose Weight, which became a bestseller in 32 countries. The new method promised the ability to lose about 5 kg in one to two weeks, without limiting yourself in the amount of food.
Celebrities who praised the open new method increased the popularity of Ducan's design. Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Bündchen used the diet to lose weight after pregnancy and childbirth. Welsh singer Catherine Jenkins says she is in shape by eating on Ducan's schedule.
In 2012, the French Medical Council announced that the nutritionist was violating ethics by turning drugs into a commercial company. In 2014, Pierre Ducan was expelled from the medical record for advertising and promoting the method.
How the diet works
The Ducan diet includes a low-carb, low-fat diet. The plan includes 100 products that can be eaten in any quantity in the first weeks.
The method largely reflects a ketogenic diet and other low-carbohydrate meal plans, as the body builds itself up to get energy from fats and proteins. The high protein content of food helps to balance the production of insulin and reduces the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone. We are fuller faster and we eat less. However, the Ducan diet limits not only carbohydrates but also fats. The safety and benefits of this approach are not supported by research.
Before you move on to the Ducan diet plan, you need to calculate your "correct" weight. This can be done with a special calculator. The calculation is based on data on height, maximum and minimum weight, age, body structure characteristics. The calculator was developed by Pierre Dukan, so the result should be scientifically confirmed and consult a doctor.
The Ducan diet is divided into four stages:
- Attack.
- House.
- Akkeri.
- Stability.
Prominent weight loss begins already in the attack phase, which encourages you to continue eating according to the Ducan method. The reason for rapid weight loss is dehydration, as carbohydrate deficiency loses body fluid. However, experts do not confirm the long-term effectiveness of the method and the health benefits of the diet. Let's figure out how the diet works and why it has many contraindications.
Level of the Ducan diet
The diet consists of four parts, but its length depends on the calculated "correct" weight. The first two stages aim to lose weight and the last stages aim to strengthen the results. During the attack, only protein-rich foods are allowed. Then add vegetables that are notis starch, limited in fat and extra carbohydrates.
The duration of the attack, the shift and the strengthening depend on how many kilos you need to lose to reach the "right" weight.
Attack
The stage lasts from two to seven days. If you need to lose 20 kg or more to gain the "right" weight, the step may take longer. The diet plan includes 68 protein diets and a few more:
- meat: beef, veal, game and other game, pork, lean and soybean, liver, kidney, tongue;
- poultry: chicken fillets and liver, turkey, game, poultry, low-fat turkey and chicken sausages;
- fish and seafood: no restrictions, e. g. mt canned tuna in water;
- vegetarian protein: seitan - vegetable protein, meat gluten protection, vegetarian burgers and soy products, tofu and tempeh;
- eggs: chicken, anxiety, duck;
- low-fat dairy products: milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta - no more than 1 kg per day.
The daily diet must include 1, 5 tablespoons of oat bran and at least 1, 5 liters of water. You can also add tablespoons of goji berries, sweeteners, shirataki noodles and unlimited gelatin to your diet.
Every day you need to spend 20 minutes exercising.
2. Alternately
The period in which the correct weight is gradually achieved starts from the month of this year. The diet from the first phase is divided every other day with a milder and longer menu - 32 types of vegetables are added:
- spinach, kale, lettuce and other green vegetables
- broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts;
- paprika;
- mushrooms;
- celery;
- asparagus;
- artichoke hearts;
- zucchini;
- tomatoes;
- Green beans;
- onion;
- pumpkin and pumpkin spaghetti;
- turnip;
- cucumbers;
- carrot;
- turnip.
Allow a teaspoon of olive oil for salad dressing or cooking in a pan and two tablespoons of bran. The movement period is 30 minutes.
3. Akkeri
The length of the stage is determined at a rate of ten days for each kilogram lost. The goal is to prevent the initial weight from returning. You can mix any of the products from the first two stages, in addition to adding a limited amount of fat and carbohydrates:
- fruit: berry or chopped melon (100 g), medium-sized apple, orange, pear, peach, nectarine or two kiwis, plums or apricots;
- two slices of wholemeal bread a day;
- cheese, 40 g per day;
- starchy foods, 225 g per day: pasta, corn, beans, peas, rice or potatoes
- meat: beef steak, pork or ham once or twice a week.
Twice a week you can have a festive meal: starter, main course, wine glass and dessert. One day a week should be protein (attack pattern). Bran - 2, 5 tablespoons, exercise - 25 minutes.
4. Stability
The final step to maintaining a "proper" weight. There are no strict dietary restrictions, but you need to follow a few principles:
- products from the fastening phase should be the basis of nutrition;
- keep one protein a day a week;
- walk at least 20-30 minutes a day;
- drink 1, 5 liters of water and eat at least 30 g of clin a day.
The last step involves always following your diet with a list of 100 foods with small supplements.
Start-up menu
Attack
- Breakfast: low-fat cottage cheese mixed with bran and cinnamon, coffee or tea, water. Skimmed milk and sweeteners can be added to tea and coffee with any meal.
- Lunch: chicken breast in a pan, shirataki noodles in broth, food gelatin, iced tea.
- Dinner: steak and shrimp, food gelatin, coffee or tea, water.
House
- Breakfast: scrambled eggs from three eggs, tomato slices, coffee, water.
- Lunch: Fried chicken and salad with French dressing, Greek bran yoghurt, iced tea.
- Dinner: baked salmon fillets, boiled broccoli and cauliflower, food gelatin, decaffeinated coffee or tea, water.
Akkeri
- Breakfast: omelette with three eggs with cheese (40 g) and spinach, coffee, water.
- Lunch: a portion of turkey with two slices of wholemeal bread, 80 g of cottage cheese mixed with klín and cinnamon, iced tea.
- Dinner: pork in a pan and grilled zucchini, small apple, decaffeinated coffee, water.
Efficiency of the Ducan diet
No diet alone has a long-term effect on weight loss and a diet can be unhealthy. After a temporary weight loss, people return to their previous state and sometimes improve better than before the diet changed. A safe and effective way to gain the desired weight and maintain health and good physical shape is with the help of professionals to choose the appropriate lifestyle and diet that can be monitored realistically on a regular basis
. . .There are many scientific journals that discuss the activity of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets. However, there are few qualified studies according to the Ducan method.
In 2015, data were collected from 50 women aged 19-64 in Poland who followed the Ducan diet and consumed about 1, 000 calories a day, including 100 g of protein. Study participants lost 15 kg in 8-10 weeks.
In January, the U. S. News & World Report, one of the top three weekly newspapers in the United States on economics, politics, and health, published 23 articles on diet. Ducan's diet last entered the list and received 1, 9 points out of 5. Experts said the activity of the diet 2, 5 and the health condition 2. According to doctors, there is no indication that weight loss according to the Ducan method can be long-term and safe, while the product listis abnormally limited and dietary rules too complicated. One expert openly called the diet "stupid".
The diet is effective for the first few weeks. There are no scientific studies that support sustained weight loss and the long-term effects of the diet have not been studied.
Harm to the Ducan diet
The diet is probably suitable for healthy people older than 18 years. The method is not recommended for chronic gastrointestinal diseases, metabolic diseases, hormonal disorders, pregnancy, breastfeeding.
The diet has all the disadvantages of a low carb diet, as well as some special side effects, as many healthy foods are excluded from the diet.
Rapid weight loss
The main disadvantage of the Ducan diet, according to British nutritionists, is that it can be detrimental to health:
- Initial weight loss occurs with dehydration;
- The diet is not balanced, so you need to take additional vitamins;
- Keep in mind the daily amount of water and the required dose of oat bran to ensure minimum fiber.
Risk of disease
Due to the lack of vitamins and useful trace elements, the diet can cause:
- osteoporosis;
- gastrointestinal and gastrointestinal problems;
- cardiovascular disease;
- hormonal disorders;
- nervous system disorders.
"Ketogripp"
When changing a diet, a painful condition is possible, which is characteristic of the initial stages of a diet high in protein. The reason for the discomfort is a change in metabolism as the body is building itself up to get energy from fats and proteins. Fatigue, increased hunger and thirst, attention and sleep problems, mood swings, headaches, indigestion and tachycardia can be found for several days.
Researchers are thinking that avoiding this diet could lead to future health problems. And because diet is limited, most people eventually stop eating according to plan - they get bored and uncomfortable sticking to a list of 100 foods and the rules of their rotation.
The Ducan diet is probably suitable for most healthy people but has serious contraindications. Such a diet can cause diseases of the heart, digestive and nervous systems, as well as hormonal disorders.
Highlights of the Ducan diet:
Á
- The Ducan method helps to lose weight fast;
- for the first two weeks you can not count calories and eat permissible food with almost no restrictions;
- high protein reduces hunger and helps to eat less;
- the diet provides for compulsory exercise.
Against
- rapid weight loss occurs due to dehydration of the body;
- the food list is limited, so the body does not get the necessary nutrients. On protein days there are no vegetables in the diet, in the next stages the amount of carbohydrates is limited;
- the dietary fiber content is below the daily norm - 5 g instead of the recommended 25-38 g;
- there is no scientific evidence that such nutrition leads to sustainable weight loss;
- there is no information on the long-term health effects of diet.
Doctor's comments
"The Ducan diet is one of the most famous ways to lose weight. And this diet was tried in its time by most patients who come to me for consultation.
The logical question arises: why do they need the professional help of a nutritionist? The answer is simple: the majority of those who lost weight returned to their previous eating habits, which means that the original weight within a few years. Unfortunately, this is the side of most diets that people resort to in search of thinness. And the Ducan diet is no exception.
But these are not the most important arguments because I would not recommend resorting to this diet.
The main disadvantage of this nutrition is the lack of essential macronutrients and nutrients for a long time. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can be compensated by special biologically active complexes, but this does not replace the natural intake of natural macronutrients and micronutrients. Such deficiencies lead to a reduction in immunity, a deterioration in the functioning of all organs and systems of the body.
Dukan diet increases the load on the excretory system, liver, therefore it is absolutely contraindicated for people with chronic kidney and liver failure, for pregnant and lactating women, for those who have impaired protein metabolism, gout, urolithiasis and gallstones. And also during the exacerbation of chronic diseases - gastritis, ulcers, pancreatitis, gallbladder inflammation, cystitis.
The Ducan diet is a serious strain on the body, the potential harm outweighs the benefits and the result is very unstable in the long run.
Follow the principles of best nutrition, get adequate exercise and monitor your sleep and drinking. The desired result will not wait long and your health will be fine. "