Dukan diet Cruise Phase (Phase 2) week 20 – I tasted the 170s for one day and it felt great

by Marshall Brain

Here is my journey so far with the Dukan Diet:

And today I am reporting on my twentieth week (days 137 through 144) on the Dukan diet. This has been a “normal” week – no great amount of exercise like last week, no huge transgressions. But there was one exciting moment on the diet front – I tasted the 170s for one day. Yesterday I weighed 179.6, although today I had inched back up to 180.0. Overall, I lost 2.0 pounds for the week. Here is how the week unfolded:

Day 137 –

  • Today on the scale I did lose weight. I lost 1.6 pounds. I now weigh 182.0.
  • Today I ate a pound of chicken, half a pound of salmon, 3 eggs, 2 cups of cottage cheese, 2 ounces of mozzarella cheese, a slice of cantaloupe and a slice of watermelon. The fruit is probably a transgression, but still a pretty good day.
  • For exercise, Leigh and the twins and I went kayaking tonight.

Day 138 –

  • This morning on the scale I weigh the same as I did yesterday – 182.0. Had I not had the bad day on Day 131 (one week ago today), I would probably weigh 179.2 at this point. Sheesh.
  • Today I ate 2 pounds of chicken, half a pound of salmon, 3 eggs and 3 cups of cottage cheese. About 2,100 calories, which is a little high.
  • Leigh, David and I walked about 3 miles today.

Day 139 –

  • On the scale this morning I lost 0.2 pounds. I weigh 181.8. There is still water weight from Day 131 that has not been lost yet.
  • I was very good today. I ate a pound of chicken, a pound of Tilapia, 2 cups of cottage cheese and a box of antioxidant vegetables. No transgressions, no nuts. About 1,500 calories for the day.
  • I also did well on the exercise front. I walked for half an hour, played a little soccer with the kids and rode the exercise bicycle for an hour and burned 450 calories. I watched episode 3 of Lost on Hulu. This is the first ride I’ve done since the 100 mile ride on Sunday. Riding on the exercise bike is effortless. It felt great.
  • Having done well on food, and having gotten good exercise today, I expect to lose weight tomorrow….

Day 140 –

  • …But on the scale this morning I weigh the same as yesterday – 181.8.
  • If you go look back at Week 18, it really seemed like I was going to effortlessly waltz into the 170s. Day 131 seems to have changed that in a big way. Which I guess indicates that blow-out bad days on the Dukan diet are not a good idea. I wonder when I am going to get unstuck?
  • How to get unstuck? Today I decided I would try something different. This decision was also forced upon me because I wasn’t paying attention to the cottage cheese supply and ran out. Horrors. How long has it been since I had a day without cottage cheese? With no time to go grocery shopping until tomorrow, today I ate 1 pound of salmon, 1 pound of tilapia, half a pound of chicken, 3 eggs and two boxes of antioxidant vegetables. No transgressions, no nuts. About 1,700 calories for the day.
  • No exercise to speak of today.

Day 141 –

  • Today I actually lost weight. I dropped 1.2 pounds and now weigh 180.6 – a new low for me.
  • Cottage cheese is really salty (like 1,000 mg per cup), and normally I eat 2 or 3 cups a day, so the weight loss could simply be a salt thing caused by lack of cottage cheese yesterday. Or maybe the vegetables? But it is nice to see any weight loss since Day 131.
  • BP is 110/75 this morning, which is also nice to see. It is the lowest morning reading I have had in a long time. That could be a salt thing too.
  • Today I ate a pound of chicken (500 cals), a pound of salmon (500 cals), 6 low-carb meatballs (340 calories, 10 grams carbs), 2 ounces of lunch meat (70 cals) and 3 cups of cottage cheese (400 cals). Probably 4,000 mg of sodium today though (2,000 from cottage cheese, 500 from lunch meat, 1,500 from the rest).
  • For exercise I worked in the yard all day today. Big, stupid yard project.

Day 142 –

  • My weight is unchanged this morning. I weigh 180.6 again.
  • Today I ate half a pound of chicken, half a pound of tilapia, 6 low-carb meatballs, 3 eggs and 1 cup of cottage cheese. That’s a 1,300 calorie day, which is amazing because…
  • …today I continued working on the yard DIY project from hell. I spent the entire day (from 8:30 AM to 7:30 PM) (with the exception of occasional water breaks, lunch and dinner) outside working. Certainly doesn’t burn the kind of calories I did on the bike ride last weekend, but it still beats sitting in a chair all day when it comes to the calorie burn rate. And keep in mind that I consumed 3,000 calories on the bike ride day, not 1,300.

Day 143 –

  • This morning on the scale it finally happened. I lost 1.0 pounds and now weigh 179.6. This is the first time I have seen the 170s since college or so, and for me it is really exciting. Now I feel like I have accomplished something significant. Why the drop? I ate less salt yesterday than the day before, and definitely ran a calorie deficit yesterday that exceeded 1,000 calories. Add that to the exercise and it produced weight loss, it seems.
  • My blood pressure this morning is 129/81, the highest it has been in awhile. It wasn’t particularly good yesterday either. I could be salt. It could be cottage cheese. Or maybe there is something else going on.
  • Today I have been really hungry (perhaps a side effect of yesterday’s low caloric intake?). By 11AM I ate half a pound of chicken, 3 eggs, a handful of walnuts, 6 meatballs and finally resorted to lunch meat (4 ounces?) to try to put the brakes on things. Fortunately the lunch meat worked. The rest of the day I ate half a pound of Tilapia, half a pound of chicken and a cup of cottage cheese.
  • No exercise to speak of today. I have been taking aspirin all day for muscle aches incurred yesterday. Lots of lifting was done yesterday, apparently using muscles unused on a bicycle.

Day 144 –

  • And so today I gained 0.4 pounds and now weigh 180.0. I suppose it is better to have tasted the 170s and lost, than to have never tasted the 170s. I know I am close. These are water fluctuations. For the week I lost 2.0 pounds. I have lost 47.6 pounds since starting the Dukan diet.

This was a pretty normal week, and I lost 2.0 pounds. I have 5 pounds to go before reaching my target weight of 175. In theory I can knock that out in 2 weeks.

Then there is idea that has been suggested in the comments of dropping below the target weight, say to 170. I would do that so, once carbs are consumed again, there is room for my weight to inevitably rebound immediately up 3.0 to 4.0 pounds. That way I would still be at my target weight in the consolidation phase. 4 weeks? We will see. Onward!

[[Click here to find out what happened next…]]

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