We can talk about my absence and lack of dieting another day. Right now I have the Dukan diet on my mind as does everyone else. They have been thrashing it over on all the news and talk shows because everyone believes the future princess of GB might be on the diet and losing too much weight. OK a lot of people have become exited over the idea of a new diet. I have been dieting most of my 62 years so even MY ears perked up.
The diet is from France, has supposedly been around for many years and there have been a lot of comparisons to Atkins by skinny little women reporters who have never had a diet problem a day in their scrawny little lives so they got most of it wrong. Barbara Walters interviewed Dr. Pierre Dukan, the creator, on The View and was downright snarky and rude to him. She brought up the old myth of kidney failure on high protein diets, she kept insisting that it was Atkins and that SHE doesn't believe in diets. Puhleeeeze. This tiny woman's idea of a diet is skipping one meal a week.
In August 1970 I delivered a 10 lb (minus 1/4 ou) baby boy and began the quest for my old body. I am an avid meat eater so I tried all the low carb diets that were hitting the market. There was the Martini's and Whipped Cream Diet, The Drinking Man's Diet and Dr. Stillman's Quick Weight Loss Diet. They all were based on a high protein diet with 15 or less carbs per day. Stillman required removal of fat from him meat while the other two pushed alcohol and lots of heavy cream desserts.
I have been told Atkins was around about the same time but I did not hear about him until his big revival in the late 90's. Atkins is Stillman's QWL diet plus limited low carb veggies. Stillman added a second diet plan - The Quick Inches Off Diet which was supposed to be used in rotation with the QWL. If you stalled on QWL you could use QIO to help you get back in shape without a lot of hanging flab and to help jump start you back into QWL. For extremely obese dieters it was suggested to alternate the diets 3 weeks QWL, 1 week QIO. For people with 20 or less to lose, it was suggested to alternate every other week.
The Dukan diet, much like Atkins, has phases. Phase one you eat nothing but protein for 2-7 days with all the fat removed. This is more like Stillman's QWL. Atkins has you eat mostly protein with low carb vegetables for 14 days. If you are not losing, you may have to stick with that for an additional month or more until you start to lose. People who have done low carb have a harder and harder time getting the fast weight loss that a low carb diet brings to those new to it..
Phase 2 of Dukan adds in the vegetables. Like Stillman, he suggests you alternate but instead of weeks, he suggests rotating days. It is your choice, every other day, 2 days on - 2 days off, etc. You decide what is best for you but it is a strict low carb diet of protein and vegetables and, unlike Atkins, no fats. Atkins allows butter, cream sauce, melted cheese, etc on your veg and regular dressing. So did Stillman. Dukan says none of this is allowed. The only dressings are vinegrettes and super low fat. No sauces or cheese. This is a VERY bland and tasteless diet in my opinion. Anyone who could stand this for more than a week can stand any diet and has the mental fortitude to just cut back. Atkins' phase 2 is adding a few more carbs into your diet until you begin to gain again. At this point you cut back and find your ideal carb set point for losing weight. You can also add in berries at this point.
Phase 3 of Dukan is for when you reach your ideal weight. You must continue on this phase 5 days for every pound you lost. You can now add in two slices of whole wheat bread and one serving of watery fruit (melons, apples) per day. You can also have one serving of a high carb item per week (pasta or rice). You can have one "celebration meal" per week where anything goes (reminds me of South Beach and the Carb Addicts diets). With Atkins you would now be increasing carbs again to find your set point for maintaining your weight. Stillman would have you staying at 30-60 carbs per day to maintain the weight. Stillman was very radical on what he believed ideal weight to be. He felt everyone should be at least 5-10 lbs less than the ideal charts of the day. I weighed 148 in 69 and you could count the ribs in my ribcage and my hip bones stuck out. However according to my doctor's charts I was obese and should weigh 125. Stillman said I should be 108!!!!
Dukan has a Phase 4 - you go back to eating anything you like but one day a week you must eat an all protein diet. He picked Thurs for his book but says you can pick any day convenient for you.
OK so there are some basic things alike in the Stillman/Atkins/Dukan diet and there are some differences. It is a matter of personal dietary preference which you should try IMO. I should mention Dukan advocates walking 20 minutes per day but the other two doctors outline various exercise programs in their books which usually get overlooked but they are there.
Dukan has one other difference the others don't - 1.5 tablespoons of oat bran per day. You can mix this into yogurt, sprinkle it over a salad or shove it in a burger but you are supposed to eat this daily. He says it will clear the digestive track and keep you from binding up. Well, for me that would be superfluous. When I eat low carb with lots of meat and veggies and maybe a little fruit, I am fine. Nothing binds. However, add one slice of bread, a bit of rice, cereal or pasta and I am bound up. Then I need the muesli, which binds me up too LOL.
So there you have it. A comparison of the low carb diets I have known and loved with this new upstart LOL. They are all pretty much the same. I have to admit I like the Atkins diet better because I love meat and vegs. With the recent discovery about my heart I have no choice but to get on something NOW so it will be a low salt and slightly low fat version of Atkins. I will be back in a few days to complain about how much I hate it all LOLOL. Right now I am clearing the cabinets of all the high salt and high carb stuff.
Happy dieting,
Linda B in TN:)
