Water, Body Weight, and the Scale...

It's normal to have day-to-day fluctuations in body water content, which actually follow variations in calorie intake (energy) as well as variations in the macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, fat and alcohol) and sodium content of the diet. Carbohydrate and sodium in particular can both cause rapid changes in extracellular water. Additionally, intracellular water increases or decreases (along with increases or decreases) in glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrate) and protein.

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Book Review: The Dukan Diet [part-1]

The Dukan Diet, authored by French doctor Pierre Dukan, is one of the latest best sellers among fad-diet books in the US, and it falls into the high-protein/low-carb approach.

It is not however one of the healthier choices in its genre. Unfortunately, the Dukan Diet is not only extreme in its protein regime, but also cuts out healthy fat sources along with carbohydrates. During its first (Attack) phase you eat only lean proteins, nonfat dairy, and eggs, supplemented with 1½ Tbl. of oat bran per day (no vegetables, grains, fruit, nuts or oils). During its second (Cruise) phase you get to add a selection of (low-carb) vegetables in every other day (still no grains, fruit, nuts or oils). According to Dr. Dukan’s numbers you would spend 2½ months in the Cruise phase to lose 25-pounds, or 4-months to lose 40-pounds. That’s in addition to the week you will probably have spent in the Attack phase.

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Weight Loss Plateaus: How to reignite your weight loss

A common development after a few weeks of losing weight is that your weight loss stalls, or stops. The scale isn’t budging. This situation—a weight loss plateau—has all kinds of mythology attributed to it.

When you start a diet, you reduce your intake of calories and a big part of that reduction is from carbohydrates. The reduction in carbohydrates leads to the depletion of glycogen (how your body stores sugar) from both your muscles and liver. Each gram of stored glycogen normally holds 3- to 4-grams of water with it.

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