What is the Point Diet?
The points diet is a food strategy born in the 70s, thanks to the work of the Italian dietician Guido Razzoli. Recently re-proposed and reworked by the most widely circulated health magazines, it aims to solve the problem of superfluous kilos, definitively and without too many sacrifices.
How does it work?
In relation to this parameter, a certain credit of points is assigned, which the subject must then spend rationally during the day.
Thus, for example, a 60 kg woman can count on a bonus of 18-24 credits, while a 85 kg man will have 24 to 29 credits available. Each food costs a certain number of points, in relation to its characteristics nutritional. Thus, while most vegetables are given a score of 0, a 4-cheese pizza takes away 20 credits in one bite.
The points diet provides a long and tabulated list of foods, giving each of them a given score. By keeping these data at hand, each person can stimulate their culinary vein and create the menus they prefer. Obviously, in the composition of the various dishes it is always necessary to have an eye on the cumulative score, which must never exceed the maximum imposed by the diet.
Calculate Food Points Online
To facilitate all these operations, indigestible to those who are not very familiar with mathematical formulas, we have prepared a simple calculator, based on the principles of the points diet.
After entering the height in cm, the weight expressed in kg and the gender, the calculator returns the number of daily credits. Remembering this parameter, you can indulge yourself with the form below, building your own food plans and discovering with a click to how many points are equal.
Write down the score and build your personalized meal plan "
Benefits and Criticalities
A valid wellness professional, at whatever level he works, would have many difficulties in expressing a fully positive opinion on this diet and on the countless variations that regularly appear on websites and newspapers in the sector. In short, forgiving the pun, when it comes to attributing points to the points diet, it is difficult to exceed the sufficiency.
The reason is obvious: this dietary model lends itself to misinterpretations. In other words, if a person limits himself to observing the constraint of the points without acquiring the necessary knowledge to better balance the various dishes, he risks giving life to highly unbalanced menus.
The idea of the points diet, in itself, is not bad; the fact of giving a very low score to fruits and vegetables and very high to confectionery and elaborate dishes is, for example, fully acceptable.
So let's see a balanced dietary example of 22 points, therefore ideal for women weighing less than 70 kg.
A small slice of tart with jam (80g)
A Kiwi
Bresaola (60 g)
A teaspoon of oil
Peppers
Smoked salmon 1-2 slices (60 g)
A teaspoon of oil
Zucchini
Although what is proposed is a valid meal plan, the constraint of points can lead an inexperienced user astray.
Even if their intake is strongly discouraged by a particularly high "cost" in terms of points, a person could, for example, create a menu of only sweets or only fatty dishes. In other cases, someone may consume an excess of fruits and vegetables, running into the problems associated with an excess of fiber.
In short, while limiting the possibility of gross errors, the points diet risks being a "double-edged sword for those who, taking it too lightly, avoid delving into the individual points and consulting the prior opinion of an expert.
Download the summary of the article and the tables of the points diet
