Fricker diet: principles, advantages and disadvantages

Written By The HealthMeth Team - Updated On Friday, December 25, 2020 9:07 PM

Developed by Dr. Jacques Fricker, nutritionist doctor at Bichat hospital in Paris, this diet offers a combination of balance and eating pleasure to lose weight without starving. Here is the detail.

What is the Fricker diet?

For this slimming specialist, there is no secret: to lose weight sustainably, you must reduce the number of calories consumed each day, without making it an obsession.

This diet can be summed up in three main stages:

  • A "High Speed" phase. Also called "TGV", it is to be followed between 4 to 8 weeks depending on the importance of the number of pounds to lose. Fairly strict, it allows you to lose many pounds quickly. For this, it gives pride of place to proteins, in order to prevent the muscle wasting which accompanies the loss of fat mass, as well as to fruits and vegetables for their contribution in vitamins, fibers and minerals. It contains little fat, few sweet products and no starchy foods or bread. This rapid phase is not compulsory, it is possible to start directly with the following phase, more diversified.
  • A stabilization phase. It consists of very gradually reintroducing starches, cereals and bread, previously not recommended in the TGV phase.
  • A "full form" phase. It allows you to return to a balanced diet but without excess. It should be followed long term so as not to gain weight.
  • How does the Fricker diet work?

    It consists of taking three meals a day:

  • Breakfast includes: a hot drink without sugar for hydration, one to three dairy products for calcium and protein, one or two fruits for fiber, vitamins and minerals. On the other hand, during the TGV phase, you will not eat bread or cereals. If you are allergic to milk or want to vary your menus, you can replace each dairy product with an egg, a slice of skinned and defatted ham or 50 g of cold meat.
  • Lunch and dinner should each include: approximately 100 to 200 g of poultry, meat or fish with at least 200 g of vegetables. The starter, soup or raw vegetables, as well as the desserts, fruits and / or yoghurts, are optional.
  • Snacks. If you are not hungry for breakfast or lunch, you can save fruit and dairy products for snacking in the morning or during the afternoon.
  • What can I eat?

    Recommended foods

  • Dairy products: plain yogurt, flavored yogurt with 0% fat or with fruit, plain white cheese with 0 or 3.2% fat, semi-skimmed milk or fermented milk;
  • Fruits: apple, pear, orange, peach, nectarine, kiwis, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, currants, apricots, plums, bananas .
  • Drinks: every day, 2 liters or more of unsweetened drinks;
  • Meats: rabbit, skinless poultry, veal rib or cutlet, lean pork tenderloin, cooked or raw ham without the fat, steak, minced steak with 5% fat, sirloin of beef;
  • Fish and seafood: fatty or lean, fresh, canned or frozen, all fish or seafood are allowed;
  • Vegetables: all.
  • Foods not recommended

  • Starches and bread during the TGV phase;
  • Cakes ;
  • Sweets (candies, chocolate, ice cream, etc.);
  • Pastries ;
  • The same homemade fruit juices.
  • Foods to moderate

  • Dairy products: whole milk yoghurts, fermented milk with 6 or 10% fat, fromage frais and Petit-Suisse with 40% fat, Greek yogurts, Bulgarian yogurts, cottage cheese and non-low fat yogurts with fruit;
  • Meats: beef rib steak, 20% fat minced steak, andouille, blood sausage, p??t?? and sausage, ribs and roast pork, roast veal, duck;
  • Fish: anchovies in oil, sardines in oil, tuna in oil, breaded fish, fish cakes.
  • Is The Fricker Diet Easy To Follow?

    Because it eliminates starches and breads, the first phase of the diet can be difficult to follow, with the low-carb diet adherence score dropping with months. Nevertheless, the weight loss is motivating and encourages to continue the experience. The second and the last phase of the diet do not pose any particular problem: the fact of being able to draw from a wide range of foods to compose your menus allows you to diversify your plate, to keep the pleasure of the table and even to eat easily outside (restaurant, with friends, in the canteen???). 

    How much does it cost ?

    The cost of following the Fricker diet is quite moderate because it is possible to replace the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish with their canned or frozen alter ego. In addition, it does not require the purchase of food supplements or specific products (foods from particular brands, etc.).

    Effectiveness and monitoring of the Fricker diet

    The alleged weight loss during the TGV period for a woman is between 1 and 1.5 kg per week and for a man between 1.5 and 2.5 kg. It varies according to age and physical activity. For the rest of the program, the loss ranges between 2 and 4 kilos per month, depending on the foods chosen.

    What type of physical exercise should accompany the Fricker diet?

    In the TGV phase, the Fricker diet does not recommend playing sports, unless you did not do it before. In this case, you should provide a snack (yogurt, fruit) in case of craving. Subsequently, from phase 2 and then over the long term, in order not to regain the lost weight and to compensate for the extras, it is advisable to do three hours of sport per week (favoring endurance sports) or one hour of walk a day.  

    Is this diet dangerous for health?

    By losing the pounds and excess fat, it helps regain health and energy.

    However, losing weight very quickly is not good for everyone. Because the TGV phase is very restrictive, it should not be followed for more than 8 weeks in a row. This diet is contraindicated in children2. Unless medical advice, it will be preferable for adolescents and people over 70 years to start in the intermediate phase, with bread and starchy foods. For these people, a diet that is too low in calories may lead to increased fatigue and be harmful to health3.

    Cardiovascular risks

    In case of excess weight, the body has a larger volume and needs to be more irrigated, which requires more work for the heart. Work also increased by high blood pressure, often associated with obesity. Ultimately, this increased activity may be responsible for health problems such as heart rhythm disturbances (palpitations, arrhythmia, hypertension, etc.) or coronary insufficiency (angina pectoris). Note also that adipocytes, adipose tissue cells secrete hormones having a direct effect on the heart muscle. Losing weight greatly improves the situation and allows the heart to regain its good capacities4. On the other hand, certain heart problems, in particular certain arrhythmias, constitute a contraindication to low calorie diets.

    Risks associated with blood sugar

    There is no shortage of studies to extol the merits of weight loss in reducing type 2 diabetes. A reduction of even 5% of its initial weight can reduce the risk of developing this metabolic disease and reduce drug intake4. A strict and low-calorie diet, as in phase 1, has shown remission of type 25.6 diabetes and in 60% of cases, a healthy lifestyle over the long term, as in phase 3 of the diet, allows to tame disease 7.

    However, before embarking on this diet, it is better to talk to your doctor: if necessary, he will adapt the diet, in particular by reintroducing starchy foods, or modify your medical treatment in order to avoid hypoglycemia.

    What type of meal does this diet offer?

    Example of a typical day

    Breakfast

  • Unsweetened tea or coffee;
  • 0% fat yogurt + cottage cheese;
  • A boiled egg ;
  • Two kiwis.
  • Lunch and dinner

  • Grated lemon carrots (optional);
  • About 150 g of skinless chicken;
  • About 200 g of green beans;
  • A yogurt and an apple (optional).
  • Having dinner

  • Gazpacho (optional);
  • 150 g of baked salmon with shallots;
  • 200 g of leek fondue;
  • A yogurt and a pear (optional).
  • During the stabilization phase, you can reintroduce starchy foods:

  • For breakfast: 50 wholemeal breads, with seeds, cereals or bran for breakfast or 40 g of unsweetened cereal (about 4 to 5 tablespoons)
  • For lunch or dinner: 100 to 150 g of cooked starch (pasta, rice, semolina, etc.). 
  • Benefits of the Fricker diet

  • The method is easy to understand and implement.
  • This flexible diet allows you to diversify your menus, offers food alternatives to suit your tastes and offers the possibility of making snacks.
  • It is effective: on average, in a month, a woman can expect to lose between 4 and 6 kg, a man between 6 and 10 kg.
  • The attack phase is short-lived.
  • Finally, it does not exclude some variations such as a glass of wine or a glass of champagne.
  • Disadvantages of the Fricker Diet

  • Due to the fact that it excludes carbohydrates during the TGV phase, that it provides only 900 Kcal per day and that it is deficient in certain minerals and vitamins, it can cause fatigue in some people. 
  • A low calorie diet (less than 1000 calories per day) should be reserved for obese or overweight people whose state of health requires weight loss and must be supervised by a health professional. To avoid regaining weight, which is inherent in 80% of people who have followed an excessively restrictive diet, indicates ANSES8, the Haute Autorit?? de Sant?? recommends not losing more than 1 to 2 kilos per month9. When the weight is normal (body mass index less than 25), ANSES advises against following a hypocaloric diet for aesthetic purposes and recommends, in this case, to balance meals and increase physical activity.
  • It can be a source of stress: an American study has shown that following a restrictive low-calorie diet increases the level of cortisol, the stress hormone. Food deprivation causes frustration and can be a source of anxiety. This is one of the reasons given for weight gain later10.
  • Finally, this diet does not offer food education and does not allow you to understand your initial mistakes.