If you haven't already heard about the popular Dukan diet, here's a quick recap: It was created by a Doctor named Pierre Dukan and was released in 2000 to the French public. It's popularity was local until in 2011, it was speculated that Kate Middleton, bride of the famous Royal wedding used this diet to look amazing. It was then that the popularity of this diet plan exploded and with it came questions, most commonly "How does the Dukan diet work" and if it's worth trying.

The Dukan diet is broken down into 4 phases: Attack, Cruise, Consolidation & Stabilization. Here's how each works:

Phase 1 requires users eat only protein for 5-10 days.

Phase 2 adds vegetables to the mix, but requires you still eat protein only every other day. Ex: Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun: Protein/vegetables. Tues, Thur, Sat: Protein only.

Phase 3 continues in the same manner as Phase 2, but each day you are allowed 2 fruits and 1 slice of bread.

Phase 4 basically ends the diet. You eat anyway you want 6 days out of the week, but must still eat protein only 1 day out of each week. Dr. Dukan recommends Thursdays as the best day to do this.

Important facts you need to know about the Dukan Diet:

• This diet can take months to finish!

• With each phase you go through, the flexibility of foods increases, but the weight loss results greatly decrease.

• Phase 1 is the only phase where you lose a lot of weight. Up to 1 pound a day.

• With phase 2, expect to lose 0-2 pounds a week. You must stay on phase 2 until you reach your weight loss goal.

• Phase 3's weight loss results lessen even more. But it is also the longest phase out of the entire diet. You must stay on this phase for 5 days for each pound you lost during the first 2 phases. In other words, if you lost 10 pounds during phases 1 and 2, you will be on phase 3 for 50 days.

• Certain health institutions in Europe have been critical of the Dukan diet, labeling it "Risky".

To conclude, how does the dukan diet work? It works by removing foods from a persons diet that lead to weight gain and substitutes that with a mainly protein based diet while slowly re-introducing other foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains and more.

Is it a good diet? I personally am not a fan of it. This diet is VERY restrictive. I personally prefer an alternative approach to weight loss, such as calorie shifting, a method of weight loss in which you can eat as much as you want, but mix up your caloric intake to trick your metabolism into increasing.

This method of dieting can yield 1 pound or more of weight loss results a day, just like phase 1 of the Dukan diet, except without the food restrictions and long dieting.