The Planck diet is one of those diets often advertised in women’s magazines or on the Internet as a last-minute remedy for excess weight before the “bikini test”.
It has nothing to do, even if it is sometimes connected, with the prestigious Max Planck Society, an organization dedicated to research with more than 80 locations (called Max Planck Institute) in Germany and many other European countries.
This society is dedicated to the progress of science and takes its name from the German Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (1858-1947), father of modern quantum physics. Some institutes of this society are also involved in research in the fields of food and biotechnology, but none of them has ever developed a diet. The combination between the Planck diet and the various Max Planck Institute is therefore purely arbitrary. To the point that in many sources the name of the diet even loses the “c” (Plank’s diet).
The Planck diet is not based on rules or nutritional principles, but it is simply a classic list of breakfast-lunch-dinner to be followed strictly for two weeks.
Its popularity (currently in drastic decline) is due to the fact that it is very simple to achieve: just limit yourself to eating as planned. The latter, in turn, is reduced to a minimum: breakfast only with unsweetened coffee or tea and, a few days, three rusks or a sandwich.
Lunch and dinner consist of only one dish. The foods are not weighed and the indications are very generic (such as grilled chicken or ham as required). Bread, pasta, bread sticks and crackers, spirits, drinks are banned. The dishes for lunch and dinner are mainly protein (grilled meat, boiled eggs, boiled fish). The use of fats is not quantified, although it is recommended to season everything in moderation. Fruit is provided only once a week, while on Sunday evening it is at pleasure.
Analyzing the food program we see that it is very repetitive and Spartan.
The promises are of the most disparate, up to 9 kg less in two weeks. The Planck diet is a “shock diet” that does not involve any maintenance phase. Given the highly restrictive diet regime, generally the lost kgs are taken back in a short time.
The many weaknesses of the Planck diet
The Planck diet has only negative aspects and only those who do not have a conscience can think of following it to obtain lasting results.
Although it is devoid of any attempt to measure the weight of foods and calories, and being so generic as to prevent a rough calculation of the breakdown of macronutrients, it can be deduced that the carbohydrate intake is actually reduced to a minimum, being exclusively based of foods like meat, eggs and fish.
Being strongly unbalanced, even just 15 days of Planck diet place the body under considerable stress.
Other critical points are the low intake of fiber and micronutrients, breakfast reduced to a minimum, the granting of a dinner a week in which it is permissible to eat anything, all negations of the basic principles of a correct and modern diet.
In conclusion
Exercise is by no means considered in the diet, this is not a good recommendation.
In short, it is a diet to forget, strongly unbalanced, which transmits wrong messages, contrary to the modern principles of healthy eating for a proper lifestyle.
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Franco Nero
Franco defines itself as a person trapped in a sedentary lifestyle, however, he is an avid fitness "addict" and like, many more in his environment spends vast parts of his leisure time on a gym, running, cycling.
