Dukan Diet Gets Put To The Test
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - It's the diet of celebrities and possibly princesses, and it just hopped the pond.
The Dukan Diet was used by Princess Catherine's mom to lose weight before the Royal Wedding. There are even suspicions that Princess Catherine used it too.
The diet book was just released a few weeks ago in the United States and KDKA-TV's Kristine Sorensen recruited a local woman to try it out.
Kate Middleton, Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Lopez and Nicole Kidman have reportedly used the Dukan Diet to lose weight.
It claims there will be no hunger, no portion control and no counting calories.
"It's basically a lower carbohydrate, high protein diet that goes in phases," UPMC Dietician Leslie Bonci said.
Phase one is the Attack Phase.
"The purpose of the attack is it's the attacking of the fat," Bonci said.
You do that by eating only lean meat, fish, eggs, certain fat-free dairy products and oat bran, and drink a lot of water.
"You're [going to] see fluid loss, lean mass loss, but also fat loss and that's the big number," Bonci said.
After answering some questions on the website, it diagrams how many days to stay on each phase and how much to expect to lose.
After about a week on the attack phase, you start the Cruise Phase.
Now, you can add non-starchy vegetables every other day.
Again, there is no limit on how much you eat, but the choices are still very restrictive.
The Cruise Phase could last a couple of months. The next step is the Consolidation Phase.
The Stabilization Phase is last. That's when Dr. Pierre Dukan promises you can eat whatever you like, if you do the Attack Phase one day a week, continue eating the oat bran and exercise.
The question is, does it work and is it livable?
Ginny Corbett from Sewickley was willing to give it a try because she wants to lose 40 pounds.
Corbett lost six pounds in the first six days of the Attack Phase, just like her computer model said she would.
She's now in the Cruise Phase and has lost two pounds a week for the first two weeks.
"I don't feel hungry or tired. At first, it was frustrating because there aren't a lot of choices. So, I can't eat that and can't eat that," Corbett said. "But, there's some freedom in that because you don't have to make any choices."
The very restrictive nature of the diet may be the best and worst parts of it.
For breakfast, Corbett eats omelets with non-fat cheese and turkey bacon.
For lunch, she eats turkey or chicken and Greek yogurt.
For dinner, she eats red meat with non-fat feta on top with lots of water. She's now adding in some veggies.
"At the end of the day, whether you're doing this in France or here in Pittsburgh, you're consuming fewer calories and that is the bottom line for success with weight loss," Bonci said.
Bonci said the oat bran is fiber, which can help with gastrointestinal issues that can be a problem on many high protein diets.
The computer program said Corbett should reach her goal at the end of August.
Sorensen plans to follow up with her to see if she can hang in there on this restrictive diet.
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