The 5 mistakes most people make on the Dukan diet
Health FitnessThe Dukan diet is one of the fastest growing new diets. With so many people rushing to start and experience the rapid weight loss and hunger reduction program, it is possible that only a few make mistakes in their rush to lose weight. In this article, I’ll take a look at the five most common Dukan diet mistakes.
1. Not eating enough and being hungry
People accustomed to starvation and calorie counting diets have a hard time adjusting to the idea that they can eat as much as they want on the Dukan diet. There is a misconception that to lose weight you have to feel hungry all the time. Consequently, some people new to the Dukan diet will subconsciously reduce their portion sizes to avoid feeling full and therefore feeling like they are dieting (and losing weight). You don’t need to feel hungry all the time to lose weight! Dukan diet is a low hunger diet, you should not feel hungry while following this weight loss program. If you feel hungry, eat something (as long as it’s on the allowed food list!)
2. Not having enough variety in your diet
When you first start the Dukan diet, you may need to consult the Dukan diet book several times. It’s natural to want to double check which foods are allowed and which are not. It may take a week or two to have the list memorized for what to put on the Dukan diet friendly meals together become second nature. For some people, once they find a food they like to eat, they stick with that food, thinking it’s easier to stick with what they know is safe and easy. The downside to this plan is that meals quickly become repetitive and boring. The once enjoyable and eagerly awaited meal fix becomes a dreaded chore. So, to avoid getting tired of only seeing turkey kebabs in mint tikka sauce (for example), be sure to take the time to experiment and expand your Dukan diet menu.
3. Constantly stepping on the scale
Weight loss on the Dukan diet, especially during the Attack Phase, can be very rapid. Dieters will get a motivational buzz from stepping on the scale to see that the pounds have been dropping. However, weight fluctuates throughout the day. The scale may show an exciting loss of a couple of pounds in the morning, but show that you’ve actually gained a pound in the afternoon! One day you might see weight loss and another show weight gain. This is unnecessarily annoying.
You should also keep in mind that most home scales are not very accurate machines. Move the scales slightly to the left or right and you’ll probably find a different result when you step on them.
Weighing should not be done more often than once a week. Once a month would be better in my opinion. Weight loss should always be thought of in terms of week to week at a minimum, preferably month to month. Which brings me to the next error.
4. Taking too much advantage of casual slips
It’s very easy to slip on your diet and eat something you shouldn’t have. Someone can offer you a cookie and without thinking you are eating it before you realize what you are doing. You are in a situation where refusing to eat or drink would be inappropriate and rude. There are also small accidental slips on the Dukan diet, like accidentally drinking whole milk in your coffee or eating a fatter cut of meat than you thought you were eating. I remember when I was first at the Dukan I accidentally picked up a package of roast pork slices instead of roast turkey. For a couple of minutes I was devastated until I managed to get things in proportion!
A little slip up while on the Dukan diet is nothing. Imagine that one day you have a couple of glasses of wine. Naughty, naughty, wine is not allowed in the Dukan. But to exaggerate this slip would be madness! Let’s say the extra calories for the wine were 280 kcal. That’s 280 kcal that you shouldn’t have had for sure. But instead of thinking of this as an extra 280 kcal for that day, think of it as extra for the week. This means that this slip caused you to consume an additional 40 kcal per day for the next month.
So instead of wasting time worrying about drinking those glasses of wine and feeling miserable, think about burning those extra 40 kcals every day for a month. This will not be very difficult! Drinking a liter of ice water will burn that much (you don’t have to drink it all at once!) due to the fact that your body will burn calories simply by raising the temperature of the water.
5. Thinking that the Dukan Diet works like magic
It’s not hard to see why so many people seem to think the Dukan diet works like magic. Starvation and rapid weight loss seem so different from all other diets that food combinations must seem like magic. Some people talk about dieting as if their stomachs are cauldrons and the foods they eat are ingredients in a magic weight-loss potion. They think that if they get one thing wrong, eat too much or this or too little or that, eat the wrong food or drink the wrong drink, then the spell will be broken and all weight loss will cease!
Of course this is not the case. There is nothing magical about the way the Dukan diet works. All that happens is what happens with all diets that work. Dieters simply burn more calories than they take in, and weight loss occurs when their bodies use stored fat for energy. The great thing about the Dukan diet, which so many people sing its praises for, is that the entire process is so much easier and quicker than experienced with other diets. The high-protein, low-carb menus at Dukan mean people naturally consume fewer calories simply because they feel full faster and don’t feel hungry or crave for longer. If you make a mistake or eat the wrong food, you will have eaten more calories that day, nothing will be ruined or undone, as long as you go straight back to the program, the weight loss will continue as before.