• Avoid as much as possible fatty food, including fat from vegetables.

• Reduce salt quantities.

• Drink a lot, like 2 liters/day (slightly more than 1/2 gallon). Water is your best partner here, if possible drink diuretic waters like Evian or Vittel (sold at Wholefoods). Avoid sparkling water due to the sodium (salt).

Thoughts…

As soon as he started practicing, Dr. Dukan realized that all the Cartesian theories and principles around nutrition and diets, were based on the fooled assumption that one could remove the temptation within overweight people for eating and convert them into calory-counting bureaucrats!!!

According to Dr. Dukan, most obese people are not obese by chance; there’s a psychological side that has to be considered and understood and which goes down to the profound explanation of eating habits and self-commitment.

His conclusions were that overweight persons who are trying to loose weight need a fast return with, quickly, tangible results to build up their self-confidence and motivation. They also need precise objectives to be set with pre-defined and predictable phases in order to enable them to appreciate their efforts, comparing the results against the initial objectives.

“This method is dedicated to those who tried everything, who lost weight, often – too often – and who are looking, beyond everything else, for the certainty that in return of a committed and flawless effort, but limited in time, they will, first of all, lose weight and, even more, will enjoy the result of their effort and will live with the comfort and the body that they are reclaiming.” Dr. Pierre Dukan.

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Pierre Dukan, M.D.

The renowned nutritionist Pierre Dukan, M.D, in an exclusive interview for the Bulgarian National Television: There is no one hurt by the protein diet.

•    Teenagers should not follow any diet programs. Prevention is paramount for them.
•    The attack phase should last 7 days maximum.

This recommends the author of the best seller “Je Ne Sais Pas Maigrir” Pierre Dukan, M. D. in an exclusive interview for the Bulgarian National Television.

Pierre Dukan’s book released in Bulgaria with logo “Colibri”, caused a revolution among the female population. This success had the counter effect – Bulgarian nutritionists declared that the diet in question is very dangerous for the kidneys and lever and it can cause permanent damage to the population that follows its course.

Pierre Dukan as a specialist in healthy eating and nutrition offers an addition to its book called “My diet in 350 recipes” which has been recently translated and released to the Bulgarian market. There the doctor shares his personal experience accumulated during the years of study, research and testimonials.

- Dr. Dukan, you diet has become quite popular here in Bulgaria. However, there are critics, which brand your diet to be extreme. What can you answer to them?

- I am confident that the people saying that are not read or understood fully my diet. They accuse my diet of being only protein, which is wrong. The diet composed on four phases. Only the first phase – “attack” is based on protein consumption. However, this first phase last only 2 days for people trying to reduce their weight by 5 or 6 kilograms, and 5 or 6 days for people which are seriously overweight.
What are the proteins? There are not drugs but just a daily portion of what the primitive homo-sapiens daily intake – meat, fish, eggs, and milk. There are not poison. Eating only proteins for 5 days is not dangerous but has a rejuvenating effect. Following the “attack” phase is the so-called “weight loss” phase, which last until the target weight is reached. During that phase the average weekly weight loss is 1 kilogram. This means that if you want to lose 10 kilograms you should maintain this phase for 9 weeks. It does not include only proteins but all vegetables, which means that you can consume at least 100 different types of food. 72 are animal products, 28 – plants. The great thing to say here is that the person can eat these 100 types as much as they want. This fact gives the diet its strength.
Everyone knows that they cannot eat every food that they want to but that can consume as much as they want from these 100 allowed foods.
Fact is the vegetables and meat are hard coded into our bodies from thousand years.

- Should pay attention to something, in order to keep our health during our diet.

- No. I am putting this diet on practice for 30 years now and I do not a single patient that had even a slightest complaint or got ill. Of course, vegetarians or patients with kidney problems cannot use this program. However, such cases are rare and such people are in all case not overweight. There is not a single case that someone got ill by following my program.

- What about people with high cholesterol or predisposed to it?

- I treated 25000 people with high cholesterol. In all cases their cholesterol level was decreased due to the fact that in the diet program fat meats, butter, cheese and all fat food are avoided. If you follow the program strictly your blood pressure and cholesterol levels will improve and also the overall body condition. The diet should not be mixed up with Atkins diet, which allows all fats. My plan decreases the fat intake dramatically.

- There is something curious in your diet plan, though. You allow the intake of light Coca-Cola. By comparison all other diet programs forbid aerated beverages.

- In all countries Coca-Cola light is approved by all organizations. It contains aspartame, which is harmless. Our government allows even pregnant women to consume it. The obesity is treat, which cannot be compared with the treat of aspartame. So it does not harm if we drink a few cups of Coca-cola light. I don’t want to promote Cola-Cola since I even do not like this company. Let’s say that every aerated beverage or milk with sweeteners can be consumed.

- Do you recommend your diet for teenagers?

- No, absolutely not. I do not recommend my diet for children or teenagers. By principal they do not get fat. Nowadays, it happens as a result from too much time in front of the TV or computers. I am not supporting dieting in such early stage. It is best to try and prevent future obesity. Teenagers can drink aerated beverages because they do it all the time. However, it is best they drink such without sugar. Normally, young people are very radical and they are prone to hold the “attack” phase for too long. No, no – I do not recommend the diet for them.

- I much time should the “attack” phase continue?

If you target is to lose up to 10 kilograms, I recommend 1 or 2 days. Then 1 day with vegetables and again 1 day with vegetables. If anyone wants to lose 10-20 kilograms, the “attack” phase should last between 1 and 5 days. For people weighing over 100 kilograms can keep up the phase up to a week’s time. However, after 1 week the phase loses its effect.

- Please, say a few words for the people who are practicing your diet program.

Speaking as nutritionist with more than 30 years of experience, after researching in details all present programs and in my role a chairman of the International Nutritionist Organization, I truly believe that my diet program is the best.

Important recommendations:

•    You should drink a lot of water – 1,5 to 2 liters a day. The water has many advantages in all diet programs and in this one particularly.  The water cleanses the organism and improves the diet program results. The combination – water and clean proteins has a great effect on skin cellulite. Drink water during your meals. It fills your stomach and dampens the hunger.

•    It is good to eat oath meals – better done in the morning. The goals are two: relaxing the intestinal functions and increase of calories intake. Two possible ways for this are eating the oath meals with water or low fat milk. The only setback is that oath meals are difficult to find on the market. There can be substituted with wheat meals but you can experience stomach swell.

•    There are no limits in quantity that you consume from all foods allowed during the diet program. This is the place to say one of the most important rules: “In order to lose weight, one must eat”. Do not miss a meal, ever. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are mandatory. The best thing to do is to eat every 4 hours.

The path to success:

•    Be patient. The program works slowly in small steps. There period during which you lose weight, and ones when you keep you current one.
•    Measure your body. The program will help you decrease your measurement faster then your weight. Measurements are more important than kilograms.
•    Listen to your body. Different things work for different people. Often removal of milk products from the daily diet increases the weight loss. The last to exclude is the yogurt.
•    Be mindful of your daily salt intake. It leads to holding water in your body and slows the weight loss process.
•    Read food labels. Many meat products often contain ingredients like salt and other that will slow down your progress.

Translated from Bulgarian by Ivan Georgiev.

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MY WEIGHT BOOK FIRST “PERSONAL BOOK” FORMAT, CONCEIVED BY FRENCH MD WITH 32 EXPERTS, OFFERS INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS OF WEIGHT CONTROL ISSUES AND PERSONAL SOLUTIONS FOR LOSS AND LIFELONG MAINTENANCE

“You have gained weight in a personal way. You will lose weight well, quickly and long-lastingly in a manner just as personal,” says Dr. Pierre Dukan, MD, in MY WEIGHT BOOK, the first “personal” book in existence. Dr. Dukan was joined by 32 specialists in areas of study such as weight and–Stress, Nutritional Therapy, Physical Activity, Tobacco Weaning, Menopause, Early Childhood, Pregnancy, Anti-ageing, and other aspects of personal experience. These experts joined Dr. Dukan in an effort to fight obesity on a world wide scale.

Pierre Dukan evolved his method and total plan over thirty years of practice in France. Many patients came to him with weight control problems that affected their health. But no matter what diet methods they employed, after the initial loss, they regained their weight and more. Working with each patient individually, he came to understand weight gain is as individual as a person’s life experience, heredity, food preferences, and emotional circumstances. Ongoing stresses—from family, a job, or the general angst of a modern life with few natural releases—often led to the immediate satisfaction of eating.

As his patients came to understand their own motivations and behavior, he was able to work with them so they could lose their weight without deprivation and, most importantly, keep it off. As requests for his work grew, he decided to come up with a book and a format that would offer an individual approach to as many people who wanted it. The figure is 1 million readers in France and, millions more in Italy, Korea, Russia, and Portugal. It was noted in France, that Dr. Dukan’s book was good in relation to other plans in loss of weight, but significantly more effective in keeping it off.

The breakthrough in his personal approach is mirrored in the “Personal” book, a format now available for women in the U.S. A reader goes on-line at www.myweightbook.com and decides they want MY WEIGHT BOOK, pays and receives a password and the essential questionnaire. She answers 154 questions, which detail the personal factors that led to her weight gain and the strengths that will help her regain control. These questions are the basis for the book that is put together for her specific weight control plan. Her copy is printed individually and reaches her in ten days. And because Dr. Dukan feels support is essential, he includes personal instructions to encourage dieters. They soon find there is no deprivation and fight against a starving body with this diet, less of a struggle. Weight control is an obtainable goal.

Dr. Dukan’s MY WEIGHT BOOK has four basic phases; attack, cruising, stabilization, counterattack. The attack phase is extremely short, it can go from two to seven days for the obese. It also can vary according to age, sex, weight to be lost, history of overweight, facility to lose, heredity etc. The reader chooses from 72 foods rich in proteins, seven meats, twenty-four fish. These foods are like a full refrigerator from which the user eats as much as she wants, at any hour and in any combination. In this period confidence sets in as weight is lost. It’s also important because the loss combines elimination of grease and water. This phase encourages and strongly reinforces motivation.

The cruising phase, improves the attack mode with 28 green vegetables. These are added in alternation to the food proteins and according to a rate which varies with the parameters of the individual’s needs. It lasts until the Right Weight is obtained, the weight ideal for the person calculated according to many parameters.

Consolidation of the weight lasts ten days for each two pounds lost. That’s 50 days for ten pounds. In this phase, fruits are added, as well as cheese, and starches. If all consolidates well, weight is maintained in the period of definitive stabilization. This establishes practices to be included for life, such as a protein only Thursday, to act as a safeguard for the other six days.

Dr. Dukan’s unique format, the personal book, means for the first time his readers are holding a book intended only for them. No two copies of MY WEIGHT BOOK are the same, just as no two readers are the same. Yet all readers can use it to obtain not just weight loss, but weight control for life.

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• Pierre Dukan, M.D. – Exclusive Interview

Weight Loss and Diet Q& A:
Pierre Dukan on the “Book of My Weight”

Official site http://www.pierre-dukan.com

Dr. Dukan, could you tell us about your new weight loss program and diet book that you are calling the “Book of My Weight”?
I’d be delighted to. The objective of this book is to give every person who is overweight – a weight loss solution with a scientific analysis outlining the reasons for their excess weight and provide them with a solution and plan to correct it. I want to allow everyone who is overweight a chance of hope. I want to offer everyone who is overweight – something not proposed before. It is a plan to lose weight which includes “The Book of My Weight”, a unique program and analysis that offers each and every unique individual – their best chance for NOT regaining their excess weight back again in the future.I created this system with a team of specialists I assembled just for this purpose. The program and the team focus on each book and each reader. The weight book is central and the reader must fully understand that no one can lose any excess pounds for them. While t is possible to make an individual lose weight artificially by temporarily muzzling them, to really lose weight and to get out of the “fat person” category, a person must “play their own leading role” in the battle of excess weight.

The “Book of My Weight” structure and strategy was conceived, created and produced by a team of experts, “to research, to explain and to give each reader their very own, personal formula and ideal method of losing and maintaining their “Just Weight” permanently”.

• The Book of My Weight sounds like a revolutionary book?

The advent of printing was an incredible revolution. But this novel type of book is the exact reverse. In this regard, it is no longer a case of an author writing for the largest possible audience but that of a team of professionals – writing on a given subject for one sole reader. And today, the subject is overweight.The book consists of 154 questions designed by 32 specialists from weight-related disciplines creating a unique investigative tool. The 154 answers (and their billions of possible combinations) are treated in record time by a powerful computer system that deciphers and analyzes each unique individual’s relationship to their weight.The result is a synthesis that allows for the completion of a graph designed to classify all the interconnected reasons leading to the particular weight of a particular individual. In reference to the genetic code as well as digital-prints, I named this the “WEIGHT CODE”.We use this information as the material to first elaborate an all-out analysis. Then, to compile a guide-book containing everything a person needs to know – to lose weight as quickly as possible with the least amount of frustration and to stabilize to the desired weight as slowly and durably as possible.

Advanced technology, computer science and artificial intelligence are some of the means to reach our goal. We favor affective, emotional, social and psychological relations like the dimension of pleasure and instinct. For example, how does a person deal with or compensate for stress? How do they build self-esteem or self-image and with that, their view of beauty or seduction? It’s important to understand how a person deals with their own history and the way they live the story of their own weight.

• Doctor Dukan, could you explain the “Weight Book Diet Strategy”?

It’s not a diet but rather a global methodology which uses several successive diets. The methodology is composed of the following four phases:1. An attack phase, short and powerful. This can be compared to launching a rocket that in turn, in a few days, obtains the necessary results to deeply reinforce a person’s motivation, or “thrust” so to speak.
2. A cruising phase or orbiting phase, which lasts until the attainment of what I call the Just Weight.
3. Just Weight is different for every person. This weight is the easiest weight to attain and also to maintain. However, if you don’t choose your Just Weight properly, you can spend a lifetime trying to reach it.
4. Then there’s the stabilization phase, the After Weight Loss, which stands firmly at the heart of the battle against weight gain, overweight and obesity.

Until recently, doctors and patients agreed on weight loss objectives. As soon as weight loss was attained, everybody acted like the problem was solved, and now one could just pick up one’s life where it was left off.

That’s all very nice, but after a dieting things are never as they used to be. A body that has lost weight doesn’t forget it and it learns to resist. This means stabilization often requires even more effort when you take up the weight battle again.

• Are you questioning our way of living!

Absolutely! Gaining weight is not a disease.
Gaining weight is a natural way of reacting to an artificial way of living.
Dieting, however, is anti-natural. No animal in the world has ever gone on a diet. Whales sometimes commit suicide collectively by beaching, but no form of life at any given period of time, ever arbitrarily considered reducing its food intake.

The major reasons for excess weight lie in our modern-day lifestyle. Contrary to what one might believe – the price one pays for easy access to comfort, abundance and hyper-consumerism – is a rough, tough and stressful lifestyle, rich in superficial pleasure but poor in natural, vital sources of satisfaction.

In our rich and modern societies we often eat to obtain gratification, to feel pleasure, or to be appeased. We seldom eat to simply nourish ourselves.

• Can you develop this idea more?

Putting food in your mouth, while watching television, are the two best ways to gain weight. One adds fuel to the weight mechanism while the other reduces your energy expenditure.  Many paths that one could choose leading to simple and natural happiness are seemingly obstructed or blocked. We can observe how food, television and games are now being consumed as happiness substitutes.

• Are contemporary foods too rich or fatty? If so, how?

Yes, our bodies are not equipped to support such rich food. 70% of what we eat is industrially produced. Food manufacturers are in a perpetual race to market attractive products that appeal to our palate, which means that they are often too sweet, too greasy and too salty. Our organism, the human body, was originally conceived to survive in a world with a higher degree of scarcity. We are structurally unable to assimilate our current levels of food abundance – which is further combined with the eradication of almost all of our physical effort.

• What diet solution or system you suggest?

First of all, TEMPORARILY LOSING WEIGHT and PERMANENTLY LOSING WEIGHT are two totally different things. Most people, including many health professionals confuse these two topics.You can lose weight by following a diet. Any diet… Even the most extravagant or absurd diet you can find.
But losing weight permanently is an entirely different approach. It also starts off by losing some pounds. But to can talk about weight loss with the condition that the loss was acquired through a durable and healthy solution. This necessitates a phase of rehabilitation and a modification of the causes leading to the weight gain.

It is necessary for the person who has attained their Just Weight to understand this and to act intelligently and accordingly to decrease their chances of gaining weight.

Understanding the difference between these two processes makes it possible for everyone to develop a new strategy. I believe that someone with 40 pounds to lose is like someone who is drowning. You wouldn’t offer swimming lessons to a drowning man. You would pull him out of the water as fast as possible. Then you could take the necessary time to teach him to swim.

So, I repeat:
First, lose weight quickly. Then, find and attain Just Weight and Stabilize slowly – over a long period of time.

To lose weight you need a Backbone, Landmarks, and Reference Points. The only landmarks that make sense are the ones that are in harmony with our species and which emanate from our very origins and our specific manner of feeding ourselves.

In order to do that, we go back to the Genesis. The human lineage follows the great apes’ lineage. But there was an important mutation in our genetic code between, shall we say, the most modern of the great apes and the first humans.

Some of these mutations are connected to eating and feeding. Apes are vegetarians, whereas man is a hunter-gatherer. Or to be more precise, men hunt protein – game, fowl, and fish – while women traditionally gather varieties of vegetables.

To confront obesity, I’m proposing that we get back to a more natural way of eating and feeding ourselves – losing weight by eating protein-rich foods and vegetables.

To succeed with this difficult undertaking, I adapt a nutritional code of conduct to the specific profile of each user, to one’s weight history, heredity, tastes, and physical activity…

Then I add the “six magic words”: EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT!

Armed with an array of nutritious, tasty, appealing and satisfying foods – I request and even insist that my patients eat without limitation in regards to quantities, mixes, and schedules.

This is not a promotion gimmick. I honestly think that since everybody only has one stomach – the more it is filled with human food, the less room there is for greasy, salty, fattening artificial foods. So, the more you are able to eat in this manner – the more weight you will be likely to lose.

• Is primitive man the marker you use to locate a human being’s real needs?

Yes, exactly. Original or primitive man is the one that I find the most naturally human. He is the fruit of genetics and of the environment at a precise moment in the evolution of our species, totally pure of any cultural necessity or influence at that period in time,  Nutrition is one of the great issues of our natural life, but only one. The other issues concerning our evolution have had to adapt to successive cultural changes and civilizations too.We live at a time when culture and technology are at the service of mankind. Every woman and every man alive today, has seen the quality of their existence improved, by those who have preceded us. Our needs and aspirations are better satisfied, our illnesses better cured and our lives are more prolonged.But in order to benefit from these gifts, this Manna, the individual has to step back and bow to the society that has made it available. As a result, he must also accept the economic rules of growth. And the artificial necessity to be a better consumer this season than in the season preceding it…But all human being are governed by instinctive and biological needs. And these needs (on condition that they are met and satisfied) are the only ones which truly have power to maintain our biological and psychological balance, the stability of our emotions or put another way, our “happiness and fulfillment”.Consumerism amuses and entertains us and can even give us a kind of a high. But consumption doesn’t have the physiological or cerebral ability to make a person happy. And when a person doesn’t feel happy, “they desperately try to grab a bit of pleasure out of life and get intensely attached to any event that puts some life back inside of them at whatever cost”.Most often the simplest and easiest first gesture consists of putting food in one’s mouth disregarding any future consequences for weight, health or personal well being.

• What about obesity and the future?

I am optimistic. More and more, leaders from many countries are alarmed with the situation. Excess weight is a reliable marker for measuring general wellness and weight increase is a sure sign of difficulties in other areas of life. I believe that more and more voices will speak up, to refuse to accept or allow that the essentials, the “basics of human life” continue to be threatened by the superfluous.Doctors will likely play an increasingly important role in this collective awareness. They are the clinical witnesses to the absurdity and the toxicity of certain modern-day lifestyles. Depression, spasmophilia, anxiety, asthenia, obesity, the use of psychotropic drugs and societal violence – all are loud, clear signals that point to an individual lack of the human essentials. And anti-depressants and tranquilizers won’t treat the core of these problems. They may reduce the collective pain and suffering temporarily but they won’t increase the pleasure or sustainability of living.

• What “Future” do you see for the “Book of My Weight”?

This new approach is radically innovative. The price is quite reasonable for the majority of people who are gaining weight today so the “Book of My Weight” is capable of effectively addressing societal and individual dietary needs. The “Book of My Weight” provides individuals a durable, sustainable weight loss solution and system as well as a proven weight control program and weight loss plan.

• The Book of My Weight – In Closing

I personally feel that the information contained in each and every individuals unique “Weight Book” will provide, (perhaps for the first time since the global appearance of mass obesity), a halt to the systematically unchecked march toward obesity, now occurring in numerous countries throughout the world. Thank you.

Indeed, it has been proven that 100 calories coming from sugar, oil or seafood are not treated the same by our bodies. Calories are coming from 3 distinct nutriments.

Carbohydrates

Refined sugars and its pairs, sweets, candies… are almost pure carbohydrates, rich and quickly assimilated by our bodies. Starches, even if they don’t taste as sugary, are extremely rich in carbohydrates. Starches includes breads, crackers, cereals, pasta, potatoes, lentils, beans… Bananas, grapes and cherries are among the fruits with the most carbohydrates. Obviously wine and all alcohols are not your friends there.
Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per grams directly assimilated.

Lipids

Lipids are definitely your enemies. There are 2 main sources of lipids: animal and vegetal. You’ll find them typically in their almost pure stage in delicatessens, pate, sausages and so on, but also in the meat, like lamb, goose and duck. Beef is normally way leaner. Vegetal lipids are mainly found in oils (olive, sunflowers, peanuts etc).
Lipids provide 9 calories per grams that get assimilated slightly slower than carbohydrates.

Proteins

Proteins are mainly coming from animals and most specifically their meat. Horse meat contains the most protein. Beef meat, although slightly fattier, are extremely good sources of proteins. Again, lamb, pork, goose and duck have too much lipids to be considered a good source of protein. All the seafood, fishes, shrimp, crab, scallops are very lean and with a good amount of proteins. Eggs are good although, ideally, you should eat only the white…yuck
Proteins provide 4 calories per grams that get assimilated very slowly (at least 3 hours).

Let’s do some maths

Because of the protein molecules size, our body needs to spend some energy to digest them. Typically, to extract 100 calories out of proteins, our body has to spend 30 calories (vs 12 calories for the lipids and 7 calories for the carbohydrates). Also, take into consideration that only 50% of the proteins are really assimilable, the rest is pure waste. So a 100g beef steak will provide only 200 calories (100g * 4 cal * 50%) that will require 60 calories to get assimilated…hence your net calories intake will be only 140 calories….which is the equivalent of a spoon of olive oil that we’re pouring so easily onto our salads…

Calories intakes (100g)
Calories assimilated (100g)
Calories diet efficiency (100g)

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