Can we lose our fat tummies for ever?
I read an article in the New York Times a couple of days ago called ‘The Fat Trap’ and was a bit dismayed to read the final summation ‘Once we become fat, most of us, despite our best efforts, will probably stay fat.’
That is a sobering thought as the article suggests. However, it should be qualified. The reason people who lose weight ‘on a diet’ often gain that weight and more afterwards is because (as the article suggests) that the body goes into a survival mode following weight loss and it absorbs every ounce of energy it can to ‘restore’ the body to its normal weight – or in this case, overweight weight.
As the article says, ‘Their still-plump bodies were acting as if they were starving and were working overtime to regain the pounds they lost’.
Changing behaviour patterns for eating and exercise can help you stay trim for life
This is why the Consolidation Phase of the Dukan Diet is so important. It is this time that the body tries to regain the weight you have lost. What the Consolidation Phase does is retrain the body to accept the lower weight as the normal body weight. Dr Dukan talks about the ‘weight rebound reaction’ in his book – exactly what the article is talking about.
In the transition period of the Consolidation Phase, Dr Dukan advises to follow a modified eating pattern that will retrain your body to accept your new weight. And the length of time for this transition period is calculated on the amount of weight you have lost. He works in pounds not kilograms. If you have lost 20 pounds, then you calculate five days for every pound lost = 100 days.
The Consolidation Phase allows all the foods that were allowed in the Cruise Phase during weight loss with the addition of:
- one piece of fruit a day
- two slices of wholemeal bread
- one serving of cheese per day
- two servings of starchy food per week
- additional ‘fatty meats’ such as leg of lamb and roast pork once or twice a week.
In addition, you can have one or two celebration meals a week with at least one meal between celebration meals (preferably longer).
That’s not a bad eating regimen to live by for the duration of time needed to stabilise your weight to maintain your new slim body. And of course, exercise is a must. You don’t have to work out crazily. A good 40 minute walk each morning before breakfast will increase your metabolism and the exercise will work to help keep your weight off.
I have not regained any weight over the past 12 months. Christmas did see a 2-kilo (approx 4–5 pounds) increase. But a couple of protein-only days has fixed that and we are back on the Consolidation/Stabilisation program that will keep the weight off for good.
Link to New York Times article, ‘The Fat Trap’.
