Inside King Charles' rigid diet and strict exercise routine

In the decades he spent waiting to ascend the throne, King Charles always made sure to maintain a strict diet and a strict daily exercise routine.

The 75-year-old monarch was diagnosed with a form of cancer on Monday, after a checkup last month found an unrelated enlarged prostate that turned out to be benign.

Despite Buckingham Palace's statement that he remains in good spirits, the diagnosis will come as a painful shock to the king, who is worried about his health.

While he will now temporarily step away from his public-facing duties, he has lived an impressively healthy life so far, barring several injuries during a long polo career and two coronavirus infections during the pandemic.

In a list of 70 facts published by Clarence House in 2018 to mark the then Prince Charles' 70th birthday, it was revealed that he limits himself to just two meals a day.

Fact number 20 listed: “The Prince does not eat lunch.”

Gordon Rayner, former royal correspondent for The TelegraphHe once said that the King believes lunch is a “luxury” that interferes with his busy schedule.

His former press secretary, Julian Payne, also said: “The King does not eat lunch; So one of the first lessons I learned when I was on the road with him was to eat a big breakfast or bring some snack bars to keep me going. The work day is quite unforgiving. Starting with the radio news headlines and a breakfast of seasonal fruit and seed salad with tea.”

The King is also said to prefer homemade bread with nutrient-rich flours such as rye and spelled, as well as eggs and salads with every meal.

To be more specific, coddled eggs that have been cooked for just two or three minutes are said to be his favorite, and he is known to enjoy mashing them into a mayonnaise-like texture.

The wild mushrooms and plums she picks in her gardens at Highgrove are also among her favorite foods, as are salmon, cheese and crackers.

Charles also abstains from eating meat and fish two days a week, while avoiding dairy products on one of those days as well, according to an interview with the BBC in 2021.

The month Charles was crowned, Buckingham Palace advertised for a resident vegan chef to prepare meals for the monarch.

He has previously stated that the main goal of his on-again, off-again veganism is to benefit the environment and that he stays away from meat from factory farms.

The king is also passionate about organic produce, as former royal chefs Darren McGrady and Carolyn Robb told Delish in May 2023.

McGrady said Charles focused on organic produce “before it was even invented,” and Robb reiterated that the monarch's farm was one of the first to be certified organic in the entire United Kingdom.

In addition to his strict diet, the monarch is also believed to follow a strict exercise routine.

The Telegraph reported in 2020 that Charles completes the Royal Canadian Air Force's five basic exercises, known as plan 5XB, twice a day.

The regimen was designed for pilots who need to be able to exercise without a gym.

The 11-minute workout involves two minutes of stretching, one minute of sit-ups, one minute of back and leg raises, one minute of push-ups and six minutes of running in place, while performing 10 eagle leaps every 75 steps.

In his explosive memoir Spare, Prince Harry revealed that the King regularly did a half-naked handstand to manage chronic pain caused by old polo injuries.

The Duke of Sussex wrote that Charles performed these exercises daily wearing a pair of boxers and “leaning against a door or hanging from a bar like a skilled acrobat.”

Queen Camilla also revealed that the king is an avid walker. She described her husband in 2020, when he was in his early 70s, as “probably the fittest man his age that I know.”

“He will walk and walk and walk,” she said. “It's like a mountain goat. He leaves everyone far behind.”

He went on to say that King Charles often goes on walks that are miles long.