The Duke Diet and Fitness Center, affiliated with Duke University and located in Durham, North Carolina, first opened its doors in 1969. The residential program integrates healthy diet and weight loss programs with exercise, behavioral management and lifestyle adjustment. Doctors, certified nutritionists, registered dietitians, exercise physiologists and clinical psychologists make up the Duke Diet and Fitness program.
Four-Week Program
The four-week Duke Diet and Fitness residential program begins with a series of medical evaluations and laboratory tests, which include blood pressure, cholesterol screening and bone density. The program also includes a comprehensive fitness screening and evaluation. Based on the results of your medical and fitness test, the program administrators assign probate consultations with professionals who recommend diet, exercise, behavioral management and lifestyle adjustment plans. Program attendees attend lectures, group therapy sessions, healthy cooking lessons and supermarket tours. Exercise classes include aqua aerobics, Pilates, core training, step aerobics and yoga. Duke diet and fitness also offers condensed two and three-day programs, as well as five-day programs. If you'd like to stay longer than four weeks, you can arrange to stay up to 12 weeks in the residential program.
Online Program
If you can't make it to North Carolina for the residential program, Duke Diet and Fitness offers an ongoing, online program. The program includes online behavioral assessment quizzes, a customized fitness plan, complete with an exercise video library, a weight tracker, a nutrition guide, a food log and a lifestyle journal. the online program also offers tools such as a fitness calculator, a BMI calculator and a calorie calculator. As of May, 2011, the online program costs $4 a week.
The Carbohydrate Conundrum
The Duke Diet program offers a moderately-low carbohydrate diet plan, which is less restrictive than other low carbohydrate diets. Elisabetta Politi, nutrition manager of Duke Diet and Fitness explains that people who dramatically decrease their carbohydrate consumption will replace them with protein and fat. Politi asserts that a high protein diet may increase your risk of cancer. Howard Eisenson, a professor of medicine at Duke and director of the Duke Diet and Fitness center agrees. He warns that extremely low carbohydrate diets restrict fruit, vegetable and whole-grain consumption, which are important cancer prevention foods.
Evaluation
Since Duke does not believe in a one-size -fits-all diet plan, they adjust your carbohydrate and protein requirements according to the results of your initial screening tests, and the appropriateness for your lifestyle and activity level. Lalita Kaul, Ph.D., RD, LDN of the American Dietetic Association reviewed the book titled "The Duke Diet: The World-Renowned Program for Healthy and Lasting Weight Loss" and reported that is similar to, but less restrictive than the Atkins Diet. While she praises the Duke Diet's commitment to exercise and behavioral management, she warns that since it is less restrictive, followers must be highly motivated, and may require a registered dietitian's assistance.
References
- Duke Health: Duke Diet & Fitness Center Programs
- Duke Diet and Fitness: Online Weight Loss Program
- "The Fat Girl's Guide to Life"; Wendy Shanker; February 2005
- 'Duke Magazine"; The Skinny on the Low-Carb Craze; Kim McDonald; October 2004
- American Dietetic Association; The Duke Diet: The World-Renowned Program for Healthy and Lasting Weight Loss Book Review; Lalita Kaul
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