Don't eat anything that won't fit on a fork: It's the daftest diet ever, but it actually works!

Diets used to be something that started on a Monday morning - and would usually be ditched that evening. But since I moved to France, my attitude has changed.
I am married to a Frenchman, who watches my weight as closely as I do. We are perfectly aware to the nearest pound what we each weigh - and how much weight we need to lose.
In France, diets aren’t just for fat or obese people; they are followed meticulously by everyone who wants to stay slim. Make no mistake: Vanessa Paradis, Marion Cotillard and Carla Bruni were not born with a magical skinny gene.

 

 

Make no mistake: Samantha says that French stars such as Vanessa Paradis (right) and Carla Bruni (left) were not born with a magical skinny gene

The French don’t just obsess over every exquisite morsel that passes their lips, they drastically restrict their calorie intake by following a strict diet at least once each season. At least one person in my husband’s extended family is usually trying to lose weight. 

At a lunch for my father-in-law’s 72nd birthday (number of diets he’s been on so far this year: two), my sister-in-law Veronique announced she’d just lost a stone.
‘But you didn’t need to!’ I cried (and she really didn’t). ‘It’s not about whether I needed to, Sam,’ she sniffed. ‘I look better and feel happier.’ She then pushed away half of her chocolate mousse.

Weighty trend: The latest craze to hit France - the country that gave us the worldwide best-seller the Dukan Diet - is Le Forking

Two weeks later, an email with a photograph attached arrived. To my horror, Veronique had taken a picture of me asleep on a sunlounger after that birthday lunch.
‘I thought you should see this,’ she had written. Mortification flooded through me as I took in my double chin, chunky thighs and spreading middle. I knew what she was saying: I needed to go on a diet. And I knew which one: the latest craze to hit the country that gave us the worldwide bestselling Dukan Diet is Le Forking.

THE RULES OF LE FORKING

You must eat three meals a day - but do not use breakfast  and lunch as an excuse to over-eat.

At dinner, you can eat only with a fork - no knives, spoons or fingers are allowed...
Strict version: Do not eat anything that’s been prepared with a knife or spoon at your evening meal.
Gentle version: You can eat only with a fork - but you can use a knife to prepare your food.
Foods allowed during the strict version: pasta, pulses, cereals, fish and most types of vegetable.
For the gentle version, you can also choose from the following: salad, white meat cut into small pieces, shelled seafood, eggs (scrambled, poached or an omelette).
The following foods are forbidden at  the evening meal  in the strict and  gentle versions:
Nibbles: No peanuts, cashew nuts, almonds, crisps, sausages, pizza, quiche, soup, soft-boiled eggs, avocado, cold meat, taramasalata, hummus or pate.

Snacks and mains: No sandwiches, burgers, chips, steak, roast meat,  liver or stew.

Sweets: No fresh or dried fruit, yogurt, cake, chocolate, sweet desserts, fruit salad, jelly, ice cream, cereals, pancakes or waffles.
Other: No bread, sauces, butter or margarine, cheese, mustard or ketchup.

There’s no draconian reduction in calories for weeks on end. The only meal that is strictly controlled is dinner, when you are allowed to use only your fork.

Dine With A Fork was invented by Ivan Gavriloff. He isn’t a nutritionist, but a team of diet experts has checked that his theory really works. The principle idea is that certain food types just won’t make it on to any of those fork prongs. In particular, those containing fat or sugar.
According to Gavriloff, it’s the food we need to use a knife to eat that causes us to pile on the pounds: cheese, meat and sausages (not to mention the sauces and other garnishes that accompany them).
Consequently, all animal protein is off limits for the evening meal.
Also banned are the foods we eat with our hands: pizza, hamburgers, nuts and bread.
There are two versions of the diet to follow: the strict one means knifes, spoons and hands are even banned in food preparation.

But it’s not a crash diet — Le Forking is promoted as less of a diet, more of a way of living. The idea is steadily to lose up to 5lb a month, so you don’t need to cancel your social life.

You also follow that old adage of breakfasting like a king, lunching like a prince and dining like a pauper — which is not something the French normally do. Most of them slug a shot of coffee in the morning and off they go. Their meals get steadily more calorific throughout the day.
The theory of Le Forking is that if you eat a proper breakfast and a hearty lunch, you’ll have no desire to binge on high-calorie foods in the evening.
It’s odd that it’s a Frenchman who has invented this because dinner is the most important meal in France. It’s mandatory to sit down together and indulge around the dining table. 
There was no way my husband and stepson were going to give up their nightly slap-up dinner, so I had to cook normal meals for the rest of the family and practise Le Forking by myself. During the first week, I followed the strict version — steamed vegetables and grilled fillets of fish.