Another Diet Coming Your Way: The Dukan Diet

The Dukan Diet, developed by French physician Pierre Dukan, has been the craze over in France for the past decade, a few big name actresses have even followed the diet to lose weight following their pregnancies and now the book will be here in the U.S. in April. After reading a review on WebMD as well as a few others sources, you quickly come to realize that this diet, like all other diets, has many flaws. It is basically a four-phase low carb/high protein diet similar to the Atkins Diet. One of the issues that I have with this particular diet is the rapid weight loss seen in phase one. There have been reports that some people have lost 1-2 pounds/day. I know what your thinking but don't go there! This should be your first red flag. Safe and effective weight loss is 1-2 pounds a week! When your losing body weight at a rate of 1-2 pounds a day, your experiencing water loss and loss off lean tissue (muscle). Research has reported as much as 30-50% of the weight loss in diets can be from muscle tissue.

Your focus should not be all about what the bathroom scale reads but rather the density of the foods your consuming. Work on cutting back the starches and getting good quality sleep and most importantly, performing strength training at least 2-3x/week.

It is amazing to see just a few of the diets people have tried over the years - read the History of Diet.