In a world where being thin is seen as attractive and images of slim models are plastered across magazines, TV and films it is no wonder that most of the nation always seems to be on a diet. In between images of impossibly thin and toned women are articles on the next great diet guarantying you mega weight loss in an impossibly short period of time and celebrities who have miraculously dropped 4 dress sizes in two weeks.

The number of diets available to do is incredible, from faddy diets like the Cabbage Soup, Grapefruit and Hollywood to diet to longer term and more sustainable diets like Dukan, Weight Watchers and Slimmers World. Diets that promote healthy eating and educate people on healthy diet plans are more successful in achieving long term weight loss as they are looking at changing your way of eating forever, not a quick fix where you lose a stone in a month then put two on the next month which is what often happens with fad diets.

The Dukan diet has been around for about 30 years but has only relatively recently reached celebrity status and is now considered a good long term eating plan. The diet looks at burning fat by eliminating carbohydrates initially then slowly reintroducing food over time. There are four Dukan diet phases to follow – Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilise. As it is a very high protein diet people often draw comparison to the Atkins diet however Dukan is considered safer as it recommends oat bran for fibre and looks at ens

As weight loss plans go Dukan is effective as it provides a varied diet – 100 food items that are good to eat in the attack phase and new foods introduced in each phase. It is created to be sustainable in the long term, a lot of people diet and then gain weight as soon as they return to normal but Dukan is more a way of eating for life then a short term fad.

(Thanks for the guest post Samuel Winters)