The Dukan Diet: Stay slim with cruise control

The Dukan Holiday Diet is the weight-loss plan that everyone’s talking about. With its high-protein, low-fat eating plan, the Dukan Diet has a worldwide reputation for rapid weight loss — as much as 7lb in five days. Now, exclusively for the Mail, its French creator, Dr Pierre Dukan, has adapted his plan to get you ready for the beach this summer. Dr Dukan is, however, the first to accept that such a restrictive diet, with its protein only Attack phase and rapid weight loss, is rarely sustainable in the long term. He believes that the secret of effective dieting is a plan which promises unlimited quantities of fresh, healthy food, and a steady drop in pounds that you won’t want to back out on. This is the key to the second phase of the Dukan diet, which, if you started on Monday, you’ll be moving onto over the next few days. To find out how many days you should stay on the Attack phase, visit dukandiet.co.uk and answer 11 simple questions to find your ideal weight. If you want to catch up on how to follow the Attack phase, just visit mailonline.co.uk/dukandayone Today, in the latest part of the Mail’s exclusive series, Dr Dukan explains how you ease gently from the Attack phase into what he calls the Cruise stage, during which he says you should expect to lose around 2lb every week. Cruise is the workhorse stage of the diet, where you alternate the pure protein days of Attack with days when you include a delicious array of unlimited salads and vegetables to your wide selection of meat, fish and no-fat dairy products. The most efficient way to work this stage is to spend one day on pure protein, and the next on a protein-based dish and vegetables, then alternating between the two for as long it takes for you to reach your target weight. The pure protein message remains the same, but on vegetable days you are free to begin your meal with a crunchy salad or soup, have vegetables with your main course, and enjoy delicious crudites as a snack. You can introduce the following veg either raw, steamed, boiled, or baked (in foil) with your meat or fish: artichoke, asparagus, aubergine, broccoli, cabbage (white, red, savoy, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts), celery, celeriac, chicory, courgette, cucumber, fennel, French beans, leeks, mangetout, mushrooms, onions, peppers, pumpkin, radish, salad leaves, sorrel, soya beans, spinach, swede, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnip. In principle, you can eat as many of these vegetables as you like — but if you want speedy weight loss, Dr Dukan believes it’s best not to eat with complete abandon. Better to eat until you no longer feel hungry. Carrots and beetroot are permitted, too, but they are quite starchy, so avoid having them too often. And while you’re in the Cruise phase, steer away from starchy vegetables such as potatoes, rice, corn, peas, beans (haricot, cannellini, kidney), lentils and avocado (which is technically a fruit anyway). The beauty of the Cruise phase is its flexibility. You can juggle your pure protein (PP) and protein and vegetable (PV) days to fit your schedule. You may like to try five days PP, followed by five PV; or, if you only have a little weight to lose, try two days PP (say Mondays and Thursdays) a week, and the rest PV. Others find PP easier to stick to during the week, but prefer the relative normality of PV at weekends. CRUISE RULES:     1-5 pure protein days (with no-fat dairy products just like the Attack phase) interspersed with 1-5 days when quantities of salad and vegetables can be eaten, too.     2 tablespoons of oat bran per day.     Take a 30-minute brisk walk daily.     Drink 1.5 litres of water each day.     You should be aware that the incredible weight loss you enjoyed in the Attack phase will very likely plateau a little when you introduce salad and vegetables back into your diet, but don’t panic!     The protein-only diet has a powerful water-loss effect, because a diet rich in meat and dairy products raises the levels of uric acid and urea in the blood.     These are toxic by-products of protein breakdown and metabolism, and the body tries to eliminate these by sucking water out of the tissues and pumping it into the kidneys and urinary tract to help it flush out.     So some of the weight loss you notice on the scales will be water that has been stagnating in your tissues for a long time. But when you start eating vegetables again, your body will naturally start to retain a little water once more.     The secret is to be patient — and to keep the faith! You’re definitely heading in the right direction, and you’ll be losing fat, too.     As soon as you switch to a pure protein day, the water expulsion will return and you’ll be able to see quite clearly on the scales exactly how much weight you really are losing. INSIDER TIPS:     Eat a lot and as often as you like. Don’t let yourself get hungry.      Never skip meals.      Drink whenever you eat (it makes you feel full and slows absorption).      Never let yourself run out of the foods you need.      Eat as many Dukan-friendly snacks and treats as you like.     Add flavour (herbs and spices) at every opportunity. Extreme flavours stimulate an area of the brain called the hypothalamus, which in turn triggers feelings of fullness.      Experiment with agar agar (from health shops). This marine gelatine is made from sea algae, which works in a similar way as pectin and oat bran to thicken food. It is useful for making jelly-like custards. It reduces the speed at which sugar is assimilated by the body, reduces cholesterol and cuts down calories absorbed.      make a batch of Dukan-friendly sauces and dressings to spice up your meals. For a simple yoghurt dressing, simply beat a tsp of Dijon mustard, a dash of vinegar, pepper, salt and herbs into non-fat yoghurt.      Make a batch of mini oat bran pancakes each morning — you can nibble on them when hunger strikes.      Weigh yourself frequently. While you are on Dukan, the scales are your daily reward. Weight loss, no matter how tiny, is the best incentive.      Drink a large glass of cold water before your meal, another during, and a third glass before you leave the table. Dr Dukan says this makes you feel full, disrupts the absorption of solid food, rinses the taste buds, and slows the meal down, allowing the chemicals that send out messages of satisfaction more time to pass through the blood and reach the brain so that you stop feeling hungry.