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Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 20 – I tasted the 170s for one day and it felt great

by Marshall Brain | September 14, 2010

Here is my journey so far with the Dukan Diet:

- I wrote an article on the Dukan diet: How the Dukan Diet works – The French diet that is supposed to end the obesity epidemic

- I started with a 5-day “attack phase”: Yesterday I finished a five-day “Attack Phase” on the Dukan Diet and lost 6.6 pounds – here’s a report on how it went (days 1 to 5)

- I have been in “cruise phase”, also known as Phase 2, for eighteen weeks. Here are reports on the first seventeen weeks:
- Week 1 (days 6 to 10)
- Week 2 (days 11 to 16)
- Week 3 (Days 17 to 25)
- Week 4 (Days 25 to 32)
- Week 5 (Days 32 through 39)
- Week 6 (Days 39 though 46)
- Week 7 (Days 46 though 53)
- Week 8 (Days 53 through 60)
- Week 9 (Days 60 through 67)
- Week 10 (Days 67 through 74)
- Week 11 (Days 74 through 81)
- Week 12 (Days 81 through 88)
- Week 13 (Days 88 through 95)
- Week 14 (Days 95 through 102)
- Week 15 (Days 102 to 109)
- Week 16 (Days 109 to 116)
- Week 17 (Days 116 to 123)
- Week 18 (Days 123 to 130)
- Week 19 (Days 130 to 137)

And today I am reporting on my twentieth week (days 137 through 144) on the Dukan diet. This has been a “normal” week – no great amount of exercise like last week, no huge transgressions. But there was one exciting moment on the diet front – I tasted the 170s for one day. Yesterday I weighed 179.6, although today I had inched back up to 180.0. Overall, I lost 2.0 pounds for the week. Here is how the week unfolded:

Day 137 -

Today on the scale I did lose weight. I lost 1.6 pounds. I now weigh 182.0.
Today I ate a pound of chicken, half a pound of salmon, 3 eggs, 2 cups of cottage cheese, 2 ounces of mozzarella cheese, a slice of cantaloupe and a slice of watermelon. The fruit is probably a transgression, but still a pretty good day.
For exercise, Leigh and the twins and I went kayaking tonight.

Day 138 -

This morning on the scale I weigh the same as I did yesterday – 182.0. Had I not had the bad day on Day 131 (one week ago today), I would probably weigh 179.2 at this point. Sheesh.
Today I ate 2 pounds of chicken, half a pound of salmon, 3 eggs and 3 cups of cottage cheese. About 2,100 calories, which is a little high.
Leigh, David and I walked about 3 miles today.

Day 139 -

On the scale this morning I lost 0.2 pounds. I weigh 181.8. There is still water weight from Day 131 that has not been lost yet.
I was very good today. I ate a pound of chicken, a pound of Tilapia, 2 cups of cottage cheese and a box of antioxidant vegetables. No transgressions, no nuts. About 1,500 calories for the day.
I also did well on the exercise front. I walked for half an hour, played a little soccer with the kids and rode the exercise bicycle for an hour and burned 450 calories. I watched episode 3 of Lost on Hulu. This is the first ride I’ve done since the 100 mile ride on Sunday. Riding on the exercise bike is effortless. It felt great.
Having done well on food, and having gotten good exercise today, I expect to lose weight tomorrow….

Day 140 -

…But on the scale this morning I weigh the same as yesterday – 181.8.
If you go look back at Week 18, it really seemed like I was going to effortlessly waltz into the 170s. Day 131 seems to have changed that in a big way. Which I guess indicates that blow-out bad days on the Dukan diet are not a good idea. I wonder when I am going to get unstuck?
How to get unstuck? Today I decided I would try something different. This decision was also forced upon me because I wasn’t paying attention to the cottage cheese supply and ran out. Horrors. How long has it been since I had a day without cottage cheese? With no time to go grocery shopping until tomorrow, today I ate 1 pound of salmon, 1 pound of tilapia, half a pound of chicken, 3 eggs and two boxes of antioxidant vegetables. No transgressions, no nuts. About 1,700 calories for the day.
No exercise to speak of today.

Day 141 -

Today I actually lost weight. I dropped 1.2 pounds and now weigh 180.6 – a new low for me.
Cottage cheese is really salty (like 1,000 mg per cup), and normally I eat 2 or 3 cups a day, so the weight loss could simply be a salt thing caused by lack of cottage cheese yesterday. Or maybe the vegetables? But it is nice to see any weight loss since Day 131.
BP is 110/75 this morning, which is also nice to see. It is the lowest morning reading I have had in a long time. That could be a salt thing too.
Today I ate a pound of chicken (500 cals), a pound of salmon (500 cals), 6 low-carb meatballs (340 calories, 10 grams carbs), 2 ounces of lunch meat (70 cals) and 3 cups of cottage cheese (400 cals). Probably 4,000 mg of sodium today though (2,000 from cottage cheese, 500 from lunch meat, 1,500 from the rest).
For exercise I worked in the yard all day today. Big, stupid yard project.

Day 142 -

My weight is unchanged this morning. I weigh 180.6 again.
Today I ate half a pound of chicken, half a pound of tilapia, 6 low-carb meatballs, 3 eggs and 1 cup of cottage cheese. That’s a 1,300 calorie day, which is amazing because…
…today I continued working on the yard DIY project from hell. I spent the entire day (from 8:30 AM to 7:30 PM) (with the exception of occasional water breaks, lunch and dinner) outside working. Certainly doesn’t burn the kind of calories I did on the bike ride last weekend, but it still beats sitting in a chair all day when it comes to the calorie burn rate. And keep in mind that I consumed 3,000 calories on the bike ride day, not 1,300.

Day 143 -

This morning on the scale it finally happened. I lost 1.0 pounds and now weigh 179.6. This is the first time I have seen the 170s since college or so, and for me it is really exciting. Now I feel like I have accomplished something significant. Why the drop? I ate less salt yesterday than the day before, and definitely ran a calorie deficit yesterday that exceeded 1,000 calories. Add that to the exercise and it produced weight loss, it seems.
My blood pressure this morning is 129/81, the highest it has been in awhile. It wasn’t particularly good yesterday either. I could be salt. It could be cottage cheese. Or maybe there is something else going on.
Today I have been really hungry (perhaps a side effect of yesterday’s low caloric intake?). By 11AM I ate half a pound of chicken, 3 eggs, a handful of walnuts, 6 meatballs and finally resorted to lunch meat (4 ounces?) to try to put the brakes on things. Fortunately the lunch meat worked. The rest of the day I ate half a pound of Tilapia, half a pound of chicken and a cup of cottage cheese.
No exercise to speak of today. I have been taking aspirin all day for muscle aches incurred yesterday. Lots of lifting was done yesterday, apparently using muscles unused on a bicycle.

Day 144 -

And so today I gained 0.4 pounds and now weigh 180.0. I suppose it is better to have tasted the 170s and lost, than to have never tasted the 170s. I know I am close. These are water fluctuations. For the week I lost 2.0 pounds. I have lost 47.6 pounds since starting the Dukan diet.

This was a pretty normal week, and I lost 2.0 pounds. I have 5 pounds to go before reaching my target weight of 175. In theory I can knock that out in 2 weeks.

Then there is idea that has been suggested in the comments of dropping below the target weight, say to 170. I would do that so, once carbs are consumed again, there is room for my weight to inevitably rebound immediately up 3.0 to 4.0 pounds. That way I would still be at my target weight in the consolidation phase. 4 weeks? We will see. Onward!

More info:

- How the Dukan Diet works – The French diet that is supposed to end the obesity epidemic

- Yesterday I finished a five-day “Attack Phase” on the Dukan Diet – here’s a report on how it went

- I have finished the first five days of the “Cruise Phase” on the Dukan Diet – here is a report on how it went, plus a menu for a typical protein day

- I have finished my second week on the Dukan Diet “Cruise Phase” and lost 5.4 pounds during the past seven days. Here is a report on how it went, and a “secret ingredient” that may have helped.

- A report on week 3 of the Dukan Diet Cruise Phase. The whole thing has become a straightforward habit, and the weight loss seems very consistent

- I finished my fourth week in the Dukan Diet Cruise Phase and lost another 2.4 pounds – plus I saw an amazingly good blood pressure reading and survived a pot luck dinner

- I have finished my fifth week in the Dukan diet cruise phase and lost another 3.0 pounds – and now I know the secret to avoiding calories in an Italian restaurant

- In my sixth week on the Dukan Diet Cruise phase I lost “only” 1.8 pounds, and I am now halfway to my 50 pound goal

- Today I finished my seventh week on the Dukan Diet cruise phase and lost 2.6 pounds – I have almost broken through the 200 pound barrier

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase Week 8 – wherein I learn the perils of parties

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 9 – I’ve lost 32.0 pounds with no “plateaus”