What is the Points 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 re-elaborated by the more widespread health magazines, it aims to solve the problem of superfluous pounds, definitively and without too many sacrifices.
How does it work?
In relation to this parameter, a certain point credit is assigned, which the subject must then spend with rationality during the day.
Thus, for example, a woman of 60 kg can count on a bonus of 18-24 credits, while a man of 85 kg will have available from 24 to 29. 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, in one bite, as many as 20 credits.
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 point diet.
After entering the height in cm, the weight expressed in kg and the sex of belonging, 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 how many points are equal.
Write the score and build your own food plan »
Benefits and Criticality
A valid professional of wellness, at any level, would have many difficulties in expressing a fully positive judgment on this diet and on the countless variants that regularly appear on sites and newspapers in the sector. In short, by forgiving the play on words, when it comes to attributing points to the points diet, it is difficult to overcome the sufficiency.
The reason is soon said: this food model lends itself to misinterpretation. In other words, if a person merely observes the constraint of the points without acquiring the knowledge necessary to balance the various dishes in the best way, he risks creating highly unbalanced menus.
The idea of the points diet, in itself, is not evil; the fact of attributing a very low score to fruit and vegetables and very high to sweets and elaborate dishes is, for example, fully acceptable.
So let's see a balanced 22-point dietary example, ideal for women weighing less than 70 kg.
| BREAKFAST: | Semi-skimmed milk 200 ml A small slice of jam tart (80g) |
| SNACK: | Low-fat yogurt with cereals A Kiwi |
| LUNCH: | Pasta (50 g) Bresaola (60 g) A teaspoon of oil peppers |
| SNACK: | Apple (150 g) |
| DINNER: | Bread (50 g) Smoked salmon 1-2 slices (60 g) A teaspoon of oil Zucchini |
| T OTAL POINTS: 22 |
Although the proposed one is a valid food plan, the points constraint can lead an inexperienced user astray.
Even if their recruitment is strongly discouraged by a particularly high "cost" in terms of points, a person could, for example, create menus of just desserts or just fat dishes. In other cases, someone could consume too much fruit and vegetables, running into problems associated with excess fiber.
In short, while limiting the possibility of gross errors, the points diet is likely to be a double-edged sword for those who, by taking it too lightly, will not go into the single points and consult an expert's prior opinion.
Download the summary of the article and the points diet tables |
