The Dukan, The Duchess & Me: Diet Like Royalty

Kate Middleton followed the Dukan diet before her wedding. Now the book is also reduced.

LOSING IT | Losing weight wasn’t at the top of my To Do list. It hovered somewhere between sorting out the basement and organizing the family photos, promising to be just as much of a chore. Then recently, I looking around on Abebooks.com and I noticed that they are practically giving away copies of the The Dukan Diet. 

This celebrity diet, designed by French physician Dr. Pierre Dukan, was used by the Middleton women to slim down before the royal wedding. Although none of them was demonstrably overweight, judging from their current skinniness it seems to have been effective. After looking online for information about the diet,  I thought it looked easy, so I pulled out my credit card and bought a copy of the book.

The Skinny On The Royal Diet

Like the Atkins diet, the Dukan regime focuses heavily on proteins and restricts carbohydrates. Unlike Atkins, it restricts fat. Also like Atkins, there are four phases. The first, the attack phase, lasts two to seven days during which you can eat unlimited amounts of specified types of protein ranging from lean meats and fish to tofu and nonfat dairy products. You also drink lots of low- or no-calorie beverages, ingest a tablespoon and a half of oat bran and walk 20 minutes a day.

Following the attack phase are the cruise phase, when you add vegetables every other day, the consolidation phase and the permanent stablization phase.

Now on Day 4 of the attack phase, I have to say it is pretty easy. I  seem to be losing about a pound a day without being hungry.  As a vegetarian, I am finding it a bit monotonous—my proteins are no-fat yogurt, eggs, tofu and wheat protein—so I am looking forward to adding vegetables. Carnivores, however, have many choices, clearly outlined in the book. While Dukan seems to disapprove of vegetarians, he does outline the various nonmeat proteins in detail. He also provides recipes.

Dukan says this is a “low-frustration diet.” So far, I’d have to agree. —Sasha Pope

I found my inexpensive copy of The Dukan Diet at Abebooks.com

Photo: Celebuzz