NYC Blog

The Dukan diet is a high-protein, low-carb weight loss diet separated into four stages—two phases of weight loss and two phases of maintenance.

How long you stay in each step depends on how much weight you have to lose. Each stage has its own dietary pattern.

How it works

The weight reduction stages are mostly focused on eating limitless high-protein foods and obligatory oat bran.

The other steps are the inclusion of non-starchy vegetables followed by some carbs and fat. There will be less and less pure protein days later to sustain your current weight.

Weight loss

In one study, women on the Dukan diet consumed around 1,000 calories and 100 grams of protein a day and lost an average of 33 pounds (15 kg) in 8–10 weeks. Also, several other studies suggest that high-protein, low-carb diets can have substantial weight loss benefits. These involve a higher metabolic rate, a decline in the starvation hormone ghrelin and an increase in other fullness hormones.

Other advantages

Apart from weight loss, there are no reported effects of the Dukan diet in scientific literature.

The downside

there is so little consistency study on the Dukan diet.

The Dukan diet limits all fat and carbs—a technique not founded on evidence. For comparison, the intake of fat as part of a high-protein diet tends to increase the metabolic rate relative to both low-carb and low-fat diets.

Moreover, accelerated weight loss due to extreme calorie restriction continues to cause substantial muscle loss.

Loss of muscle mass and extreme calorie restriction can also allow the body to retain fat, making it very easy to regain weight after losing weight.