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” (Phase 1): 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 went through 25 weeks of “cruise phase” (Phase 2) and lost a total of 52 pounds, going from 221.0 pounds down to 175.4. (Days 6 through 179). You can see my before and after photos and a summary of my cruise phase exploits on this page.

- I am now on my sixth week of “consolidation phase” (Phase 3), where I am trying to eat more normally and maintain my weight. You can see what happened in previous weeks here:
– Week 1 (I lost 0.2 pounds – 175.2)
– Week 2 (I gained 2.2 pounds – 177.4)
– Week 3 (I gained 2.8 pounds – 181.2)
– Week 4 (I lost 5.0 pounds – 176.2)
– Week 5 (I gained 6.8 pounds – 183.0)

Before talking about this week, this article deserves mention. It describes a study on obesity, and the results confirm what the Dukan diet teaches:

Danish researchers finally solve the obesity riddle

Researchers at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE), University of Copenhagen, can now unveil the results of the world’s largest diet study: If you want to lose weight, you should maintain a diet that is high in proteins with more lean meat, low-fat dairy products and beans and fewer finely refined starch calories such as white bread and white rice. With this diet, you can also eat until you are full without counting calories and without gaining weight. Finally, the extensive study concludes that the official dietary recommendations are not sufficient for preventing obesity.

We also learned that obesity is creating a diabetes epidemic that has the potential to cause extreme suffering:

In 10 years, you have a 50/50 chance of having diabetes if you live in the U.S.

Yikes. One good way to eliminate the diabetes problem described in that second article is to do what is described in the first article. Which is basically the Dukan diet.

Here is how the week unfolded for me:

Day 214 -

• I weigh 183.0 today at the morning weigh in. Thanksgiving day is 2 days away.

Day 215 -

• Leigh and I take the Brain family on the road. We start eating in restaurants.

Day 216 -

• Thanksgiving day, on the road. A rather strange Thanksgiving feast.

Day 217 -

• Back home, we officially celebrate Thanksgiving as a family with the traditional Thanksgiving meal – a roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, rolls, lots of gravy and pumpkin pie for dessert. Leigh’s parents join us. A good time is had by all.

Day 218 -

• Lots of thanksgiving leftovers. For dinner, Leigh has a gift certificate, and we take the kids to a “nice restaurant” (e.g. it has menus and waitresses and someone who holds the door for you when you arrive). It is an absolutely wonderful outing on every level. The kids are well-behaved, the food is fantastic, and the manager even buys us dessert. We stay almost two hours and eat far too much.

Day 219 -

• So by today, Sunday, I get on the scale after several days of not-getting-on-the-scale, and I weigh 187.2 at the morning weigh-in. Not something to be proud of, but the reality is that perhaps 10 pounds of that is water.
• I eat a pretty good phase-3 diet today. Chicken, cottage cheese, blueberries and plain yogurt, an apple, peanuts and walnuts, etc. For dinner I make turkey and black bean soup to try using up excess turkey and re-introduce legumes into my diet. It is very good soup, and I probably ate too much. Overall I would say this was a very healthy day food-wise, but I would guesstimate something around 2,800 calories, which is too many.

Day 220 -

• Today on the scale there is already a reward. I weigh 185.6. So I dropped 1.6 pounds since yesterday.
• Today I ate 2 pounds of chicken, 2 cups of plain yogurt, 3 cups of blueberries, 200 calories of peanuts and walnuts, 3 cups of turkey-and-black-bean soup (probably about 600 calories according to this page) and 700 or so calories of junk (this is going to be how I describe the inevitable post-thanksgiving transgressions involving everything from Christmas cookies to leftover Halloween candy). About 2,900 calories, which is bad.

Day 221 -

• But I still lose a little weight – this morning I weigh 185.4.

So it is time to eat healthy AND get the calories in line, back down to 2,000 or so per day. Which will have to be done by eliminating the junk. But the problem with the junk is that it is all around us this time of year – everywhere I turn there cookies, candies, cakes, ice cream (has anyone else ever noticed the “c” thing going on here? What is that?). This is going to involve self-discipline. Fortunately, the last six months on the Dukan Diet have taught me a good bit about self-discipline.

But I will repeat my thought from last week. My body has 2 weights right now – 175 when I eliminate all carbs, and somewhat more (7 or 8 pounds more) when I eat Phase 3 carbs. The fact that we had Thanksgiving this past week is an aberration. What I need to do is continue eating the Phase 3 carbs and get my Phase 3 weight down to 175. The only tool available to do that is portion control and the elimination of junk.

The high point this week is the re-introduction of legumes. I had forgotten how good bean soup is, and it is supposed to be really healthy. Beans (even in multi-cup quantities) don’t seem to be increasing my weight. I’ll be doing more of this.

The next week will be interesting, and telling. Thanksgiving really is an aberration, and I am willing to overlook it. Do I now get back on track, and what does an “on-track diet” look like for me in Phase 3? We will see…

See also:

- 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

- 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”

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 10 – Lesson: Don’t eat smoked turkey legs!

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 11 – Are my kidneys failing? Is my cholesterol exploding? Plus vacation.

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 12 – Vacation transgressions take their toll and I gain weight for first time

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 13 – I get back on track and lose 3.2 pounds in a week

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 14 – I lost 0.4 pounds this week

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 15 – I lost 2.8 pounds this week, 40.2 pounds since starting diet

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 16 – I lost 2.0 pounds, have reached my Dukan target weight

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 17 – I lost 0.8 pounds, learned to stay out of Cici’s

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 18 – I lost 3.4 pounds, now in striking range of the 170s

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 19 – One really good day and one really bad day

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

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 21 – I hit the 50.0 milestone and reaffirmed the power of asparagus

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 22 – Yikes! I gained 2.0 pounds rather than losing weight

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 23 – I lost 3.6 pounds and now fit into 32-inch pants

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 24 – I am a little bit stuck this week

- Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 25 – I have reached 175 pounds, before and after pictures, heading to Phase 3!

- What is your “ideal weight” if you want to be healthy?

- What if everything that we are taught about carbs is actually propaganda?

- How much does the Dukan Diet cost per day?

- Today I officially reached the “50.0 pounds lost” milestone on my Dukan Diet journey – and you can too

- How does your appearance change when you become obese?

- Drew Carey loses 80 pounds with a no-carb diet

- Would you like to lose weight? Video shows the latest science on what works and doesn’t

- How to do proper crunches to (theoretically) get six-pack abs

- What can you do when you “get stuck” at some weight plateau on the Dukan diet (or any diet)

- How Carbohydrates Don’t Work – in fact, carbs are probably causing the obesity epidemic. If you are overweight, it is probably the carbs.

- All the dire warnings I have gotten about the Dukan diet have turned out to be wrong

- Very cool calculator for calculating your specific dietary needs – Protein, carbs, fat, vitamins, etc.

- How Treadmills and Exercise Bikes Don’t Work – if weight loss is your goal, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a better option

- This has got to be the easiest weight loss tip ever

- When a person is fat, how is the fat distributed in the body (amazing x-rays)?

- Why America is obese #1 and Why America is obese #2 and Why America is obese #3

- How Seitan (also know as Wheat Meat) Works – a vegetarian form of protein made from wheat gluten

- How to make tofu

- How to make Greek yogurt at home and cut your yogurt costs in half and I made half a gallon of Greek yogurt this weekend – talk about cheap and easy! And Tasty!

And:

1) How to live to be 100 years old

2) How Cholesterol Works – The leading cause of the #1 killer

3) How Dieting Works

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