It's the silly season, which means it's nearly time to make a new year's resolution, and if you're in the majority, you'll want to look slimmer in 2012.

Mums Natalee Hubbard and Amanda Lord want to shape up and tone up for the warm weather. In a five day kickstart challenge they’ve been given five days to lose three kilos.

Lord says “it's the time of the year when you want to put your bikini on and go to the beach, play with your kids on the beach and feel confident and comfortable in your body. And being able to lose a couple of kilos at this time of year is a perfect time to do it.”

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And the Summer Dukan Diet promises to do just that - dropping three kilos in five days on a high-protein, low-fat diet.

“Currently I weigh 65 kilos and I'd like to get down to 62 after I finish doing this trial diet,” Lord said.

Hubbard hopes to lose the same amount of weight too. “I'm currently 74 kilos, and it'd be amazing if I could lose three kilos to get down to 71.”

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As part of the diet plan, they loade up on meat, eggs, fish and low-fat dairy products.

Hubbard doesn’t seem too phased by the large portion of meat. “I think it will be okay. I normally do have meat with every meal at dinner time, probably not so much at lunch, so that's going to be interesting. But I guess my only concern is the lack of fibre for the week, but I'll see how that goes.

“It's going to be a challenge, I think it will be challenging with all this meat, but I'm willing to give it a go.”

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Lord is game to give it a go too. “I think I'm pretty good with discipline and committing to things, so I don't think I'm not going to struggle too much to stick to it. It is only five days.”

Although the Dukan Diet is not new, it has now cemented its place as the number one diet in the world. In fact, five million people have found success thanks to the French man by the same name.

Dr Pierre Dukan's book has been printed in seventeen languages.

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“In my diet, what people like is they are in a program very, very precious, very concrete just like a road map - a military road map,” Dr Dukan said.

Stars Penelope Cruz, Gisele Bundchen and Jennifer Lopez have all managed to shift some extra baggage on the program, and so too have those heavily photographed Middleton girls.

Nutritionst Zoe Bingley-Pullin praises the Dukan for its kickstart approach, but guarantees that any weight lost in five days will not be body fat.

“My opinion on the Dukan diet is, I don't think it's good for any one particular diet, whether it's Dukan, whether it's the High GI, or Low GI to be cutting out key foods groups. To get those key vitamins and minerals we need in our diet we need a variety of foods, and focusing on one particular food group or limiting other food groups is not a good idea,” Bingley-Pullin said.

“The reality is, you're not going to be losing three to five kilos of fat. You're more likely to be going to losing fluid and unfortunately, for some people, you're also going to be losing muscle. Loss of muscle can be a loss of metabolic rate, so it's not a good approach.”

Isabel Coulson couldn't disagree more. “I've been on the diet for about eleven months now, and I have lost 13.5 kilos, and I have maintained it. It's a great confidence for me. I just feel as though I have more energy, I play sport, I can get on the treadmill, go for a walk with the dog, I'm just much more energised.”

And after five days, Hubbard and Lord are feeling just as good.

“In five days, I've lost four kilograms,” Lord said.

She struggled with the high-protein foods, and says she felt unnatural not to be eating her greens, but now, she can indulge.

“I think the thing I'm going to enjoy the most is being able to get amongst the festive season, and enjoy some fresh fruit, some nice steamed vegetables with my meals again, and certainly being able to enjoy a glass of wine or two.”

Hubbard lost three kilos in the five days. She also felt relieved to be back on her normal diet, and attributes her loser fitting clothes to Dukan.

“The three kilos have made my favourite jeans a bit loser and a bit more comfortable, and I'm now looking forward to wearing my little black dress again as well,” she said.

For these women to maintain their new figures, they must continue into phases two, three and four.

Phase two is a continuation of phase one, but with unlimited vegetables. Phase three allows fruit, bread, cheese and two celebration meals a week.

And the final stage will let you eat as much protein and vegetables as you like, as well as one serve of fruit a day. And the golden rule is to keep one day a week purely protein.

• Dukan Diet - www.dukandiet.co.uk
• Nutritional Edge - www.nutritionaledge.com.au