The Dukan Diet, it's the diet of choice for Pippa and Carol Middleton and followed by celebs like Jenifer Lopez and Katherine Jenkins.
More than 250,000 copies of the Dukan Diet book have been sold in Britain, which gives you 350 pages on the virtues of high protein, low carbohydrate meals. But what if you like your diet advice to be a little more personal? Well you can always turn to the Dukan website, which promises: "Unique and truly personalised weight loss coaching." Rebecca Wilcox signs up to the online coaching programme and discovers it's not exactly the personalised approach she expected.
The Dukan Diet website claims to offer "Unique and truly personalised weight loss coaching" and if that's not enough they promise Dr Pierre Dukan himself "personally monitors your progress throughout your tailor-made slimming coaching experience". All of this comes at a price: up to £1 a day, and that's for as long as they estimate it will take to achieve your so-called true weight and keep that weight off.
But according to some Watchdog viewers it's bad value, and they also found the "personal touch" to be lacking. So Rebecca Wilcox went to find out more for herself. She signed up for the online coaching and stuck to the diet for two weeks. Rebecca quickly discovered she was getting baffling, confusing or even contradictory advice. And to top it off it was in poorly written English.
Four Watchdog researchers also signed up to the coaching. Again the advice seemed to be far from personal, with three of the researchers all receiving exactly the same motivational tip. And one of the researchers was even congratulated on completing the first phase of the diet, the Attack Phase, despite the fact that she'd never reported any weight loss or even submitted a daily report!
Dr Catherine Collins, Principal Dietician at St George's Hospital NHS Trust, looked through the advice Watchdog received and said "Overall I'd say it's a rather careless and confusing website and it doesn't seem to deliver on the promises that it claims."
Whilst Rebecca stuck to the diet and exercise plan and lost 4 pounds in 14 days, it cost her £100 whether she stuck to the diet or not. All in all it seems she could have lost just as much weight - and saved a lot more time - simply by reading the book.
Statement to Watchdog from Dr Pierre Dukan
"I'm extremely saddened by the comments made by the Watchdog programme. I've been helping patients for over 40yrs to successfully lose and maintain a healthy weight and to hear that some dieters in the UK are unhappy with my online coaching service is upsetting.
Your research is well detailed and we certainly agree that our service can be further improved, which we will continue to do based on the feedback that we receive.
It does however appear that your analysis primarily focuses on our website's weaknesses. My main concern and fear is that some people who really need to lose weight for medical reasons may now be discouraged to consider my method. In the UK alone, it is estimated that 80 000 people die each year as a direct consequence of being overweight. Obesity also costs the UK taxpayer, with the NHS reportedly spending £4.2billion a year tackling this issue.
My online coaching service has room for improvement and may not work for some people. However, the vast majority of our customers have had a positive experience and weight-loss results. Please let me share with you some IFOP statistics: 75% of our customers reach their True Weight at the scheduled date, and 20% at a later date, but still reach their True Weight. 78% of our customers having stabilised their weight do not regain weight within 9 months. 92% of our online customers would recommend our service to friends and family. And most interestingly for Watchdog, less than 2% of our customers ask for a refund.
I would also like to defend the fact that we provide a personalised service and would like to draw a distinction between this and the provision of a 'personal' service. Every subscriber has to answer 91 questions when they join us and everyday they are asked to fill a report. Our personalised service relies on Artificial Intelligence but takes into account the very detailed profile of each customer and their daily report. Moreover, all questions posed by subscribers are individually answered by my team. We do not have automated answers unlike most of our competitors.
We also provide a number of support systems free of charge including our online diet calculator and Facebook support page which combined, are used by over 150,000 people in the UK per month.
For those subscribers who are genuinely unhappy with the service and the results of dukandiet.co.uk we humbly apologise and do remind them that we offer a 7 day cancellation policy and we have provided full refunds for those experiencing specific issues."
The Dukan Diet: food for thought...
More than 250,000 copies of the Dukan Diet book have been sold in Britain, which gives you 350 pages on the virtues of high protein, low carbohydrate meals. But what if you like your diet advice to be a little more personal? Well you can always turn to the Dukan website, which promises: "Unique and truly personalised weight loss coaching." Rebecca Wilcox signs up to the online coaching programme and discovers it's not exactly the personalised approach she expected.
The Dukan Diet website claims to offer "Unique and truly personalised weight loss coaching" and if that's not enough they promise Dr Pierre Dukan himself "personally monitors your progress throughout your tailor-made slimming coaching experience". All of this comes at a price: up to £1 a day, and that's for as long as they estimate it will take to achieve your so-called true weight and keep that weight off.
But according to some Watchdog viewers it's bad value, and they also found the "personal touch" to be lacking. So Rebecca Wilcox went to find out more for herself. She signed up for the online coaching and stuck to the diet for two weeks. Rebecca quickly discovered she was getting baffling, confusing or even contradictory advice. And to top it off it was in poorly written English.
Four Watchdog researchers also signed up to the coaching. Again the advice seemed to be far from personal, with three of the researchers all receiving exactly the same motivational tip. And one of the researchers was even congratulated on completing the first phase of the diet, the Attack Phase, despite the fact that she'd never reported any weight loss or even submitted a daily report!
Dr Catherine Collins, Principal Dietician at St George's Hospital NHS Trust, looked through the advice Watchdog received and said "Overall I'd say it's a rather careless and confusing website and it doesn't seem to deliver on the promises that it claims."
Whilst Rebecca stuck to the diet and exercise plan and lost 4 pounds in 14 days, it cost her £100 whether she stuck to the diet or not. All in all it seems she could have lost just as much weight - and saved a lot more time - simply by reading the book.
Statement to Watchdog from Dr Pierre Dukan
"I'm extremely saddened by the comments made by the Watchdog programme. I've been helping patients for over 40yrs to successfully lose and maintain a healthy weight and to hear that some dieters in the UK are unhappy with my online coaching service is upsetting.
Your research is well detailed and we certainly agree that our service can be further improved, which we will continue to do based on the feedback that we receive.
It does however appear that your analysis primarily focuses on our website's weaknesses. My main concern and fear is that some people who really need to lose weight for medical reasons may now be discouraged to consider my method. In the UK alone, it is estimated that 80 000 people die each year as a direct consequence of being overweight. Obesity also costs the UK taxpayer, with the NHS reportedly spending £4.2billion a year tackling this issue.
My online coaching service has room for improvement and may not work for some people. However, the vast majority of our customers have had a positive experience and weight-loss results. Please let me share with you some IFOP statistics: 75% of our customers reach their True Weight at the scheduled date, and 20% at a later date, but still reach their True Weight. 78% of our customers having stabilised their weight do not regain weight within 9 months. 92% of our online customers would recommend our service to friends and family. And most interestingly for Watchdog, less than 2% of our customers ask for a refund.
I would also like to defend the fact that we provide a personalised service and would like to draw a distinction between this and the provision of a 'personal' service. Every subscriber has to answer 91 questions when they join us and everyday they are asked to fill a report. Our personalised service relies on Artificial Intelligence but takes into account the very detailed profile of each customer and their daily report. Moreover, all questions posed by subscribers are individually answered by my team. We do not have automated answers unlike most of our competitors.
We also provide a number of support systems free of charge including our online diet calculator and Facebook support page which combined, are used by over 150,000 people in the UK per month.
For those subscribers who are genuinely unhappy with the service and the results of dukandiet.co.uk we humbly apologise and do remind them that we offer a 7 day cancellation policy and we have provided full refunds for those experiencing specific issues."
The Dukan Diet: food for thought...