The Dukan Diet (33 page)

If you have had one or more lapses, you will have told me about it in the website column, which also grades them from the very minor to the very major. If you have succumbed, then the following morning, don’t be surprised when I ask you to make up for this with a much stricter day and increased exercise.

As most of my Internet patients progress, they experience a time of stagnation. This is when, having followed my instructions to the letter, their weight stubbornly refuses to budge. They may even—yes, this does happen—have gained a few ounces. If this happens to you, it is okay for 1, 2, or 3 days, but if you go for 5 or 6 days without results, things can get tricky, because you may wonder whether the stagnation is due to your body or to the method and be struck by a tremendous urge to comfort-eat.

This is when support is essential
. Sometimes all it takes is a word of explanation to hold on for another day or two and allow the weight loss to finally appear on the scales. If you don’t give up, it is the body’s resistance that will finally give way. However, no one knows precisely when this will happen. The main thing is to hold on and not give in.

In difficult cases, it may become necessary to step up the pressure to force things along. I then might suggest a “blitz operation” with 3, 4, or even 5 days of Attack proteins with a much increased water intake, restricting salt, a full 60-minute walk, and an herbal detoxification agent. Then the stalled engine springs back into life.

Each day, I answer questions from subscribers live and in person. A number of female dietitians work alongside me to answer those general questions that are not addressed to me personally.

The questions cover every topic. There are lots about the foods you are allowed, as well as about “tolerated” foods. There are 30 or so foods in this category that do not officially belong on my authorized food list.

During my consultations, my answers during chat sessions, or my replies to e-mails, I sometimes agree to requests from individuals who would like to take the rough edges off their diet, as they have much weight to lose or because they are going through a very trying time emotionally. As long as this deviation from the prescribed diet prevented frustration and did not interfere with weight loss, I have given in to their friendly pressure.

For one person, it was adding a bit of cream cheese to an authorized oat bran pizza base. Another, a chocoholic, wanted a little fat-reduced cocoa. The same goes for light sour cream with “just 3 percent fat.” And to improve the taste of muffins or the oat bran gingerbread (which can be found on my website), a small spoonful of cornmeal.

I call these foods “shock absorbers.” However, they may only be used if your weight loss is on schedule and satisfactory. They have to be abandoned as soon as weight loss stagnates. Furthermore, we ration their use, both as far as quantity goes—for example, 1 teaspoonful of cocoa per day—as well as the number you can have—no more than 2 tolerated foods per day. You can find more information on
www.dukandiet.com
.

The dietitians who work alongside me during the chat sessions are all women who have lost weight with my method and who at times know it even better than I do. They are kind, understanding, and have great empathy and rapport. Sonya, Cristel, and Hannah look after the English speakers. Lorena and Mercedes look after the Spanish speakers.

Since the site was launched, I have already answered over 15,000 questions personally. Together these replies make up a body of information that more or less covers every scenario and every question that people might encounter during their treatment. You can access this information by using a search engine and typing in your keyword, such as “thyroid,” for example, or “constipation,” or “nonfat yogurt.” You’ll then see the 24 answers for thyroid or the 52 answers for constipation. Many subscribers simply dip into this store of information, finding everything they need here, and they read the daily chat session content to soak up
what is happening within the community. The website is a mighty vessel with many different people on board, all sailing toward the same destination—to “be cured of being overweight.”

Dear reader, please understand that I have taken the time to go through this process with you as it is now an integral part of my method. Reading this book and applying its instructions are enough for you to lose weight and then permanently stabilize the weight you get down to. However, for anyone with a “complicated” weight or a long history of a “difficult condition” who has a genuine and serious need to lose weight but who does not feel confident about the battle looming before them, they will find the help and support they need in this.

With the publication of this new edition of the Dukan Diet, I would like to ask a favor of my readers. The purpose of the questionnaire that follows is to collect as many replies as possible to enable us to set up the first weight study looking at more than 1,000 cases of weight loss greater than 17 pounds, which will help progress the science behind the Dukan Diet. In return we will keep you regularly informed of the progress of the study.

Dear reader, only send me the completed questionnaire if you have definitely decided to follow this diet seriously, with the firm intention not only of losing weight but of stabilizing the weight by following the last two phases in my program, the Consolidation and the Permanent Stabilization phases.

As soon as we receive your first completed questionnaire, you will have started out with me on this diet, and I am convinced that this study will help you to follow it better. I will keep you informed about how this project is progressing, whose results will make a massive contribution to the fight against weight problems in the world. The study is going to be launched in nine languages and in seventeen countries at the same time. From its results, from you taking part, I hope to give my method—which will become yours too if it enables you to lose weight and conquer your weight problems—its final legitimacy and its reference value.

Please photocopy the questionnaire, fill it in, and send it to the address on
this page
. If you are chosen to be part of the study, I will contact you.

If you have already lost weight using the Dukan Diet, I would be very grateful if you could let me know this by filling in this questionnaire and telling me how long ago you reached your True Weight and in particular if you carefully followed my program’s two Consolidation and Permanent Stabilization phases.

If you supply your e-mail address, I will send you regular updates about this study. You will also be able to take part in chat room discussions to get replies to any questions that crop up as you follow this diet and for which the book does not provide the full answer.

To take part, please send your questionnaire to

DR. PIERRE DUKAN
has been a medical doctor specializing in human nutrition since 1973. He is the author of many works on nutrition for the scientific community, as well as works for the general public. He writes regularly in the press and appears on television. Dr. Dukan chairs R.I.P.O.S.T.E., an international association of nutritionists.

The popularity of Dr. Dukan’s methods and works in countries as different in culture as Korea and Bulgaria show how he has become the most widely read French nutritionist in the world. In 2009,
The Dukan Method
was the best-selling book in Poland.

Nowadays, many health professionals and epidemiologists believe the Dukan Diet to be the method best equipped to put a halt to the weight problems that are still on the increase the world over.