THE PROS AND THE CONS OF THE DUKAN DIET

First of all, let’s take a look at the pros

You can eat as much as you like

There is no calorie counting on the Dukan. Of the one hundred permitted foods you can eat them in any quantities you like. Imagine a diet in which steak, chicken, fish can all be eaten in abundance if you feel like it, and you still lose weight! If you feel hungry and you want a snack you could eat an enormous steak with onion and tomato salad, a whole chicken from the deli (minus the skin) or a huge bowl of smoked salmon with cottage cheese sprinkled with cracked black pepper. As long as the food is on the permitted list, you can eat it whenever you like and in the portion size you like and you’ll still lose weight.

You will not feel hungry or crave treats and snacks so often

Due to the fact that you can eat whenever you are hungry and when you do eat, you can eat as much as you want, you won’t often feel hungry. However, there is more to it than that. The high protein content of the foods you eat on the Dukan diet results in you feeling satisfied more quickly and you will feel fuller for longer. After the first few days on the Dukan diet you will almost completely stop craving sweets and treats altogether. Obviously, you need to be realistic. If you see a delicious looking cake you will probably want a slice but you will spend a lot less time thinking about food and it will be much, much, easier to resist.

You will lose weight quickly

During the first few weeks on the Dukan diet you will lose weight very quickly. Obviously some more than others but we don’t all start off at the same weight with the same body sizes. But everyone will lose weight. Most people will be receiving positive comments out their weight loss after a week or two on the diet. Within a month, you’ll be looking for new clothes or getting back into the old ones tucked into the back of the closet for being too tight.

Not putting the lost weight back on is factored into the plan

The biggest pitfall for people who have lost weight on a diet is putting it all back on again once the diet is over. The Dukan diet has this anticipated and there is a whole phase of the diet catering for returning back to non-diet menus. Sweets, treats and celebration meals in which you can eat whatever you want are all factored in.
You can do it on your own if you want, no fees or special food packages to buy
You can sign up for personal coaching if you want but that is not essential.  You can do it on your own with just normal foods you can buy in the grocery store. You are only fooling yourself if you say you never lost weight on this diet, if you stick to the diet and do not cheat YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT. You will have  periods of stagnation but it will start up again. There are ways to stimulate it too.

Now we’ll take a look at the cons

You may experience being tired and slight to mild headaches during the first week

As your body adjusts to a life without the energy it is used to getting from high fat, high sugar foods you will experience tiredness and perhaps a slight headache. After a week, these symptoms clear up and you feel better than before. It is like going cold turkey from junk food. You also can experience constipation at the beginning but as time goes on your body adjusts and as protein is used by the body with very little waste you may not need to go as often.

You need to plan your meals in advance

Due to the food restrictions on the Dukan diet it is difficult to just pop into a store and buy lunch or a snack to eat while you are out. Obviously, you can take food out with you or just purchase something like chicken slices and cottage cheese but is isn’t as convenient as grabbing a burger or getting a sandwich.

It can be expensive

If you are buying a lot of steaks, expensive fish and so on, you may find your food bills rising. What you need to take into account is the money you are saving by not spending it at fast food places or on snacks, money that you don’t see being spent when you do your grocery shopping.  Of course, the Dukan doesn’t have to be expensive if you shop carefully. Ultimately it is up to you to decide what you think is worth spending your money on.
You can not eat fruit
For the Attack and Cruise phase you can not have any fruit of any kind. You do get a small amount back when you go into Consolidation.  We take a good Multi Vitamin every day to cover this area.

You can not have any alcohol

You can not drink alcohol while you are on the Dukan diet, as it is high in sugar and carbs and in excess it will make you hungry and you will eat wrong foods. Once you get to consolidation you can have 1 glass of wine with your celebration meal each week if it is tolerated.
This was taken from the blog at http://dukanmemoirs.blogspot.com/