The Dukan Diet has four phases: attack, cruise, consolidation, and stabilization. The attack phase looks a lot like an extremely high-protein diet or carnivore diet, where you eat an unlimited amount of animal protein to curb your cravings and shuttle out excess water. What’s different is that you’ll be consuming oat bran for carbs and fiber to help with digestion. If you have less than 10 pounds to lose, you’ll follow this phase for a day or two. More weight requires a few more days. You’ll also gradually introduce morning exercise in this phase to help with fat burning and continue exercising through the program.
The cruise phase adds 32 non-starchy vegetables to your protein to ensure you’re getting fiber, vitamins, and minerals that you would miss on an all-protein diet. You continue this phase until you reach your goal weight. You begin to add starchy foods to your diet during the consolidation phase, where you work to maintain the weight that you lost during the cruise phase. This phase might last for up to five days for every pound that you lose. However, every Thursday you eat similarly to the attack phase, meaning all protein. The stabilization phase is about maintenance, where you continue your attack on Thursdays, eat 3 tablespoons of oat bran each day, and take the stairs as much as possible.