Dukan v Atkins

[LuckyC]

Is Dukan same as Atkins? I lost lots of weight on Atkins but felt so disgusting that I had to stop. Considering Dukan but sounds like it might not be for me. Any thoughts from anyone who has tried both?

Dukan is basically a low fat version of Atkins. The first few days (how long depends on how much weight you need to lose) is the attack phase and you can only eat lean protein and fat free dairy along with two spoonfuls of oat bran. After the attack phase you start alternating between pure protein one day (like in the attack phase) and protein with as many vegetables from the allowed list as you like the next day. Once you've lost the weight you need to lose you spend 5 days for every pound you lost in the maintenance phase (so if you lose five stone you'll spend a year on maintenance) which introduces limited fruit and grains. Even after the maintenance phase is over you still need to have a pure protein day one day a week for the rest of your life to stop you putting the weight back on.

I've been doing my own version of cutting most carbs and definitely only felt bad for first week. But so worth it as appetite really shrinks.

Fluffy, what's your own version?

Thanks Queen, that's good info.

I eat normal dinners such as a roast but miss out the carbs and avoid all-in-one type meals like shepherds pie as hard to eliminate the carb bit. For lunch I have lean protein and salad or an omelette. I know it's naughty but never have or had breakfast. I snack on ham or tiny pieces of cheese. I still drink tea and coffee and a latte is my treat . I have absolutely no biscuits, chocolate,ice-cream, cake or crisps or non diet drinks such as lemonade etc. There is no weighing or measuring involved . I lost a stone between Easter and early summer by just cutting out the biscuits etc then stepped it up a pace and cut out most carbs and lost another 3 stone. 2 lb every week , no funny weeks or weeks where I gained. If I was to have carbs with my meal it would be 1 or 2 roast potatoes or a few chips ( which I now do at the weekend) as got to my goal weight) but definitely no bread. I was 13 and a half stone now 9 and a half stone. Cutting all sugary stuff from my diet first worked for me as I didn't find the carb bit that hard.

I did own version, basically lean protein plus veggies each day. Don't believe in pure protein days, you just loose water weight plus its not healthy.

Try and do 2-3 dukan days a week (ie protein and veggies), and plan to long term, would rather than than one pure protein day. Even on the other days I eat a loss less carbs than I used to.

You might want to try what I did, I managed to side step the "low carb flu" completely. First thing I did was stop snacking on high carb food so rather than a slice of toast I'd have a carrot or a piece of fruit. A week or so later I stopped eating starchy carbs at breakfast and started reducing my carb servings at lunch and dinner. A week or so after that I stopped eating carbs at lunch and shortly after that I stopped eating them for dinner too. For the next month or so I increased my protein, ate whatever veg I wanted except for the particularly high carb root veg, still ate berries most days and still had milk in my tea. I still had the odd bit of ice cream, slice of cake and pint of beer and my carb intake was about 80-100g a day. I lost 2-3 pounds a week (starting weight of 15 stone) during this process mainly due to the fact that my calorie intake was 1,000-1,200 a day because that was all the food I wanted - 100 calories worth of beef or broccoli is just more satisfying than 100 calories worth of bread or pasta. The last month or so I've cut my carbs down to 25-40g a day and am still losing 2-3 pounds a week despite the fact that I'm 2.5 stone lighter than I was at the start. Other than feeling a bit crap over the weekend after eating a load of carbs at a Christmas do on Friday, I've not felt anything other than fantastic since I started low carbing.

Hi - I have lost 23 lb on dukan but again I do my own version now. I started on 6 days of attack and stuck to the protein days but realised I lost the same on the veg days. I now have introduced berries, a few nuts, small slices of apples but like fluffy have cut out all sugary food and bread, pasta etc. it works for me, am rarely hungry and am much healthier!

It seems that the whole low-carb thing is really worth pursuing from what you all say. I love the thought of cutting stuff out in slow stages rather than doing an Atkins-style pure protein 2 weeks (especially Atkins with all that fat, so revolting, at least Dukan is low-fat.) But why I like the thought of this is that I KNOW I will fail if I kill carbs completely, but I can easily face reducing them from diet meal by meal and doing a few protein-veg days.

Right you have inspired me. I am starting now. And I am going to build in some Christmas fail time...

Thanks very much all, very interesting.

Agreed, it's a tough one over Xmas but great for January!

Good luck Lucky, let us know how you get on.