The Dukan Diet is a unique 4-step programme, combining two steps to lose your unwanted weight and two steps to keep it off for good:

Dukan Diet Step 1: Attack

For 2-7 days eat as much as you want of 72 protein-rich foods.

Dukan Diet Step 2: Cruise

Continue eating the protein-rich foods with the addition of 28 vegetables.

Dukan Diet Step 3: Consolidation

Add fruit, bread, cheese and starchy foods, and 2 celebration meals a week, allowing 5 days for every pound lost.

Dukan Diet Step 4: Stabilization

Eat what you like without regaining weight by following 3 simple rules, including the famous `protein Thursdays’.

You know I always want to keep up with trends in diet, health and nutrition facts. Well, it so happens that a new hot diet just landed from Europe: it is called the dukan diet, and I’m trying to learn some facts about it. The Dukan Diet was designed by a French doctor called Pierre Dukan whose first publication was entitled “Je ne sais pas maigrir”, which in English means “I don’t know how to lose weight.” (BTW, remember how some time ago I discussed the whole thing about French not getting fat?). Dr Dukan claims that this diet is based on thirty-five years’ clinical experience. The truth is that this book has been translated into 10 different languages and sold in more than twenty countries… so I guess Dr. Dukan POCKETS are not getting any thinner, right?

The Dukan Diet has become increasingly popular in France and it was hailed by many celebrities, including Gisele Bundchen and Jennifer Lopez, who reported success, so that helped making it fashionable because we all want to be like celebrities, don’t we? (At least, to have their awesome bodies). There are press reports that have estimated that the Dukan diet community has reached over 5 million people in France and is still growing.

What makes the Dukan Diet somewhat different from most other diet plans is that it is split into four parts, or steps. While the first two are meant to lose your excessive weight, the remaining two are for keep it off for, supposedly for good. The crucial element that links the four steps is the days spent eating nothing but protein, just like in the Atkins diet. Unlike the last one, in the Dukan diet you are urged to stay clear of butter and oil. And, in successive layers, you go back from eating nothing but protein to adding the basic elements of healthy eating. This diet plan also requests to drink a lot of water: at least 12 glasses a day, I find it most difficult, I don’t usually drink between meals, unless I’m exercising but I guess I could set myself an alarm clock as a drinking reminder or something LOL.

Here’s the best part. Following the Dukan diet plan step by step, you are supposed to maintain your new desired weight for good, as long as you keep eating nothing but protein one day of the week for the rest of your life. The rest, you can eat unlimited servings, as much as you like. By sticking to protein one day a week, you can lose 1.5lb to 2lb instantly and, in so doing, correct any excess that may have occurred during the rest of the week, Dr. Dukan says. Sounds too good to be true! But according to the rumours, this is the famous French secret: enjoy food, eat all you want, but compromise to a small weekly sacrifice. Most dieters have stuck to Protein Thursdays, that probably makes weekend meals afterwards even more enjoyable…

I make really good custards but I am going to try the Dukan Diet recipe of the week Vanilla Custard.

Also check out the Dukan Diet reviews on Amazon.