Atkins or Dukan - Any recommendations?

[londonone]

Have Atkinsed before and was ok, Generally find low carbing works for me. Like the idea of the Dukan oatbran pancake things but think I would miss the cheese on |Atkins?

Anyone got any success/horror stories. Have 2-3 stone to lose but hoping to have a decent start as am off on hols in April

Dukan worked great for me - lost over 2 stone in two months

Hard to stick to at first but then it was great. Much better than Atkins which made me ill. I did miss cheese but after the attach stage allowed myself tiny bits now and then . Quite like the Dukan pancake

Good luck

The only thing that keeps me low carbing is the fact that I can have blue cheese, mayo and cream in my coffee! Take all that away and I'd be reaching for the chocolate.

Dukan seems pretty tough and bland to me but I know the weight loss is good.

The Dukan diet is bordering on an eating disorder whereas there are good arguments to be made that Atkins is how we should be eating (as long as you avoid all the over processed low carb food).

What do you mean QueenStromba?

On the Dukan diet you are severely restricting two out of the three macronutrients. Cutting out carbohydrates is fine (and in my view a good idea) because dietary carbohydrates are not necessary - we can make all of the carbohydrates we need which is nowhere near as much as people get from the recommended diet full of "healthy" wholegrains. Your body does need fat and protein though. The Eskimos eat a diet that is almost entirely animal based and they are perfectly healthy. There was a study back in the 30s on an explorer who had come back from the arctic and said that when he lived with the eskimos he had survived on just meat. The medical establishment didn't believe him so he volunteered to let them study him. He just ate fatty meat for a year and was in perfect health but when they tried him on lean meat he got sick.

Cool. Any chance can get away with a dukan galette on the Atkins? IS the oatbran fibrous enough to negate its carbiness?

QueenStromba - the Dukan diet is very heavy on protein.

You are right it disallows fat though which we do need.

It bloody works though

You should check out the Atkins website, there are lots of options for things that are like carby things which are far better than the Dukan galette. You can make a similar pancake type thing as follows:

1 tbsp parmesan
1 tbsp ground almonds
1 egg

Beat them all together with a fork and then fry - turns out like an american style pancake.

Another thing that you can have on Atkins which wouldn't be allowed on Dukan is the following which turns out exactly like a normal muffin which shouldn't be allowed on any diet:

1 egg
5g butter
30g ground linseed (I buy them whole from tesco and grind them in a coffee grinder)
1-2 tsp sugar equivalent sweetener
0.25 tsp baking soda
o.25 tsp cream of tartar (it will be next to the baking soda in the supermarket)
Whatever flavouring you want e.g. 10g of cocoa powder or half a teaspoon of cinnamon and some ginger powder

1. Melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds
2. Meanwhile mix all of the dry ingredients together well
3. Beat the egg with the butter and then mix into the dry ingredients
4. Microwave for 60 seconds

It's really nice cut in half then covered with butter, philadelphia, quark, clotted cream etc.

If you search on google for flaxseed (linseed) recipes you'll find loads of recipes for low carb baked goods.

Catgirl - it works in the same way that anorexia works. It's a starvation diet just with adequate protein. Protein is the last thing you want your body to be using as fuel really. I eat a reasonable amount of protein but I think that most of it is probably used around the body as building blocks rather than burned as fuel. If all you eat is protein then your body will switch to primarily burning protein as a fuel which means that it is probably happier to eat your muscles than it would be normally.

Eeww that's off putting :-( I was thinking of doing it again to shift my baby weight but maybe not

Dukan is low fat but not no fat. Cheese with up to 10% fat allowed.

Red meat allowed - has at least 20% fat, maybe more. Salmon 25% fat.

My problem though was the lack of vegetables! But I cheated and even on protein days had some green veg with dinner and it didn't affect weight loss.

Personal choice - I love dairy and would rather have cottage cheese and yoghurt that butter / hard cheese. Also atkins constipates me! I need the oatbran to stay regular.

Also I did allow myself occasional nuts / seeds / pulses / dark choc - Dukan isnt a ketosis diet so occasional amounts of things that don't really affect blood sugar wouldn't be a problem like on atkins.

Even on strict dukan days I was still getting 20%-25% of calories from fat - from oily fish, beef etc. Its not a starvation diet as you can eat as much as you want.

And re: muscles - if you look on the dukan thread, one of the great side effects of dukan is fantastic muscle definition which doesn't fit with body eating muscle!

When I did tesco diets (like weight watchers) at the start of my diet I lost roughly 80% fat and 20% lean muscle mass. Thats normal on a weight loss diet.

Once I changed to dukan all my weight loss was fat, no further muscle mass lost. (I have body fat scales, weighed daily and plotted results).

Muscle mass loss is inevitable on a diet unless you:
a) eat enough protein
b) do sufficient weight bearing exercise.

At the start of my diet I did neither.....

Also due to dairy dukan can be around 30% calories from carbs.

I did my own version of low carb. Baisically just cut the carb bit from all my meals and lost four and a half stone. Going from 13 and a half stone to 9 stone. I still had tea, coffee and lattes.

I have tried both- hated both. Dukan was particularly awful. But started Pig to Twig a week ago (low carb with fat, cheese and veg) and have lost 7lbs in my first week. And it was no way as hard as the other two.

So I recommend Pig to Twwig!

Pig to twig?

Am googling now - its cheese I miss the most on Dukan

Personally I prefer atkins as it seems like an easier way of eating, and you do actually eat just wholesome food. My diet is mainly oily fish, eggs, green vegetables, tuna, salads. I don't go into ketosis as I eat a lot of veg, but it works very well. I have been vaguely low carbing since January 1st, and more dedicatedly low carbing for 2 weeks or so, and have lost 20lbs in 8 weeks or so.

I tried Dukan but really didn't like the fact that it recommended such processed foods like muller lights and seafood sticks. It is also hard to keep to the diet as it is particularly joyless. At least you can eat nice things like butter, cream cheese on more atkins based plans.

My mum does Dukan and loves it. However she's been wheat free for 10+ years so pasta/bread/cakes etc aren't a massive deal for her. She's now at her target weight so has carbs once a day and allows herself veg. She had very little to lose TBF.

I really need a kick up the arse. Wedding in 2.5 months. I do really well on no/low carb and as PP said do it myself just cutting carbs out of my diet. Anyone know if low carb is OK while BF? Tried SW but it had a massive impact on my milk, DS2 stopped sleeping & dropped 1.5 centiles.

HI I have been doing the Dukan thing for 4/5 weeks now and lost 5 kg fairly quickly. I have another 4 - 5 kg to go, which shouldn't be a problem. HOWEVER I have been really sick with it??? About half way through I felt great, then my tummy started getting really cramp and basically had the runs on and off for 13 days??? so much so that I couldn't stray too far from the loo and was sick as a dog the other night form 4 am and couldn't go to work. My GP advised to re introduce carbs slowly. I am posting on another forum and one of the other girls doesn't feel well either. Anyone got any advice???