Dukan Diet – Consolidation Phase

Reviewed by Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RD

The Consolidation Phase is designed to prevent rebound weight gain, which often occurs when a person reaches their target weight. The theory is that after weight loss, our bodies are primed to regain weight once we start eating normally.

After a period of ‘starvation’ we burn fewer calories through moving around, we become more effective at storing calories from food and usually have greater hunger pangs, with the result that weight gain is much easier. As a result, it’s important to consolidate your new weight.

Dukan Consolidation Phase Overview

This phase follows a very precise timescale – five days for every 1lb you lose – so if you’ve lost 20lb you need to follow this phase for 100 days.

During the Consolidation Phase, you continue with the same rules as the Cruise Phase (including 2tbsp oat bran daily) but you now have vegetables every day.

On top of this, you add one serving of fruit each day (all fruits are allowed except bananas, grapes, cherries, and dried fruit as these are higher in carbs).

Consolidation Phase in detail

Pierre Dukan advises that the best order for choosing fruits to add during this phase is:

• Apples
• Berries
• Melon
• Grapefruit
• Kiwi fruit
• Peaches
• Pears
• Nectarines
• Mangoes

Each day you also add two slices of wholemeal bread – you can serve it with a scrape of low-fat spread – and one 40g serving of cheese (you can eat any cheese except blue cheese, brie, camembert or goat’s cheese).

During the Consolidation Phase you can also add lean lamb and pork and can introduce small amounts of starchy foods. For the first half of the phase you introduce one portion a week, then in the second half you can have two portions weekly.

So for example, if you have lost 20lb, your Consolidation Phase will be 100 days. That means for the first 50 days you can have one portion of starchy carbs a week and for the last 50 days you can have two portions of starchy carbs each week. Pasta is the best choice, followed by couscous, bulgar wheat and polenta. Then it’s beans and lentils.

For all of these foods, you should stick to a 225g serving. Rice and potatoes are also allowed but the other carbs are preferential and you should ideally choose brown rice. If you’re going to have white rice, have just 175g (you can have 225g of brown rice) – and potatoes should always be cooked in their skins and never made into chips.

Celebration Meals on Dukan

As well as the addition of starchy foods, you can also have up to two celebration meals a week where you can eat anything.
As is the case for starchy carbs, for the first half of this phase you are allowed one celebration meal a week; in the second half of this phase you can have two celebration meals a week.

These meals are designed to give you pleasure but are not intended to be a binge so you must avoid second helpings and you mustn’t eat two celebration meals in a row. So if you ‘celebrate’ on a Saturday lunch, you shouldn’t also have a ‘celebration’ on Saturday night, too.

But here’s another catch: every Thursday, you go back to having nothing but pure protein. In other words, on Thursdays, you’ll be following a diet from the Attack Phase. If Thursday doesn’t suit you, you’ll need to choose another day – but it should be the same day every week.

As for exercise, you should do 25 minutes of walking a day.