Cabbage Soup Diet
The very definition of an ill-advised fad diet.
BACKGROUND
Look up the definition of fad diet and you’ll see a picture illustrating the Cabbage Soup Diet. It should not be followed as a long-term eating plan, as it is dangerously low in calories and could do more harm than good. It is possible to lose 10 pounds in a week when you stick to this uber-low calorie plan.
The Cabbage Soup Diet does offer fast weight loss, but it is completely lacking in nutrition, flavor and variety. You'll consume mostly soups of cabbage, onion, celery, carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms. Nutritionists argue that the pounds shed are more likely attributed to the dramatic and dangerous loss in calories and not the proposed fat-burning power found in the cabbage. This diet deprives your body of essential nutrients and has been correlated to difficulty concentrating, feeling light-headed and weak.
PRO
- You will lose weight
CON
- Unhealthy
- Dangerously caloric intake
- Primarily losing water weight
- Will regain lost weight if don't stick to healthy eating and exercise following completion
- Does not promote exercise; would be too weak to do so
DIET and NUTRITION
The one-week Cabbage Soup Diet relies on this simple plan:
Day One All-you-can-eat soup and fruit (no bananas). Consume plenty of water, cranberry juice and unsweetened tea.
Day Two Consume all the soup and vegetables you like (no beans, peas or corn). Have a buttered baked potato with dinner. No fruit today.
Day Three Eat all the soup, fruits and vegetables you like, nothing else.
Day Four Eat your soup, no more than eight bananas and all the skim milk you want.
Day Five Have at least one serving of soup today. You can also have 10-20 ounces of skinless chicken or beef and no more than six tomatoes. Drink plenty of water.
Day Six Eat plenty of vegetables and your servings of beef. Today is the day you can go a bit overboard with the meat (2 steaks if you like) - just make sure to add salad and vegetables. Stay away from the carbs - no fries, potatoes, etc.
Day Seven Have at least one serving of soup. Only eat brown rice, vegetables and unsweetened fruit juice.
EXERCISE
No recommendations are made. Given the severely low calories you'll be consuming, you likely won't have the strength for physical activity.
CONCLUSION
For rapid weight loss as a jump-start to a more healthy eating plan, the Cabbage Soup Diet could possibly be a solution. However, fasting or liquid diets like Cabbage Soup promising dramatic weight loss results in only a week are typically only helping you shed water weight. This weight will creep right back on once you stop the diet and continue with previous poor eating habits. Finishing the Cabbage Soup Diet and beginning a healthy eating and exercise regimen is the best advice anyone following this unhealthy approach can receive. Be sure to speak with your physician before beginning.
Common Misspellings
cabbge soup diet, cabbage soup deit, cabage soup diet, cabbagge soup, cabbagesoupdiet.com, cabbage diet, cabagge soup diet, soup diet
Related Diets: Juice Diet, Maple Syrup Diet, Grapefruit Solution, 21 Pounds in 21 Days, Martha's Vineyard Diet
Wikipedia
The Cabbage soup diet is a radical weight loss diet designed around heavy consumption of a low-calorie cabbage soup over the time of seven days. It is generally considered a fad diet, in that it is designed for short-term weight-loss and requires no long-term commitment. It has inspired several copy-cats based around similar principles.
> Leave Feedback
User Feedback
(Page 12 of 20)
I am 5'6" and 123 lbs......in 3 months I have gone from my usual weight range of 95-98 lbs to this weight.....I'm a model so I can't really get to be the weight I am now....it's weird how it came out of nowhere but I have been craving more food for the past 3 months....anyways I am starting this diet modified (just the soup) tomorrow and staying on just soup for 2 weeks and then introducing raw veggies for the next 2 weeks after that....I plan on using this to lose the new poundage and then get back into the raw food lifestyle I was in for the past 3 years.
IT WORKS!
Today is day one for me!! i had 2 apples fror breakfast and i have to admit it was pretty hard! I really hope I can make it through the week! i cant wait to see if it really works!!
In all I've lost 24lbs in 2 and a half weeks already... I only did the diet for the 7 days the diet I did was called the sacred heart medical diet.. but its the same thing as this one.. it really works, but you cant cheat and you really have to eat as much soup as possible, this will keep you from getting dizzy or lightheaded.. day one I had cut pineapples and strawberries 4 breakfast.. soup for lunch... lots of grapes as a snack.. soup for dinner.. late night snack of more pineapples grapes and strawberries.. and TONS OF WATER.. I regularly workout out 4 times a week for an hour at my gym(this is all prior to the diet) so I already had my excersise routine already b4 doing this soup thing...I cant stress the fact that you have to excersise daily to lose weight because there are no "miracles" in dieting.. anyways day two veggie and soup day.. I had raw carrot sticks and celery sticks and cucumbers(with salt cuz thats the only why I can eat the cucumbers) for breakfast, big bowl of soup for lunch, more raw veggies as after noon snack little bowl of soup for dinner and 2 baked potaotos from Wendys with lots of butter I was full, not shaking, because I basically ate all day.. thats the trick, the more you eat the better...3rd day.. soup, fruit like grapes, strawberries, melons pineapples. water water, and cranberry juice.. and yeah it makes u pee alot but that is the detoxification..4th day I made a milkshake of the skim milk, bananas, I added ice and it was actually tasty and sweet..soup for lunch and breakfast.. the 2 beef days I ordered the 15oz beef tips from Steak Out OMG they were soo good.. and just followed the diet as is the rest of the days... so 4 days a week doing my 45 min spin class, then 20 min on the elliptical and I have lost 24lbs in just 2 and half weeks and I feel great, I dont look sick, I am not dizzy or sick.. the only thing is that I pee a lot!!!! when making soup add boullion cubes, a little worchesteir sauce too.. eat tons of the soup.. and on fruit and veg days eat tons of fruit and tons of veggies and you'll be to stuffed and full to think about anything that is fattening to eat.. BUT WHEN U GET OFF THIS DIET IT DOESNT GIVE YOU A GREEN LIGHT TO HIT UP THE NEAREST TACO BELL, BURGER KING, PIZZA HUT DRIVE THRU lol.. so CHANGE YOUR EATING HABITS eat a nice fruit inspired breakfast.. snack on fruit b4 lunch, have a nice chicken salad with low fat dressing for lunch..maybe graham crackers as a sweet.. low calorie dinner with protein.. lots of water excersise daily for more than 30 min or do 4 times a week for at least an hour in cardio and you'll keep the weight off and be fine.......
THIS IS MY 2ND DAY AND IT IS BETTER. I STARTED AT 153.1 AND THIS MORNING I WEIGHT 150.0. I AM EXCITED. IT IS NOT THAT BAD. I ACTUALLY HAD A STROKE A YEAR AGO AND ALL MY MEDICINE DOES NOT ALLOW ME TO TAKE PILLS SO I AM GOING TO TRY THIS. WISH ME LUCK
Can anyone tell me if you can eat pickles on the diet????
im on my 4th day and i lost till now 7 pounds
The reason why you lose weight is because you are limiting your calories. If you eat a healthy amount of calories a day and exercise, you dont have to torture yourself. I would rather lose the same amount of weight in 2 weeks than I would in 1 eating would I like. I eat 1200 calories a day and only 20 grams of fat during the week. Saturday I bump it up to 1500 calories and 30 grams of fat. Sunday I eat what I want...Your body needs fat so I use my free day to consume what my body is asking for. You should never put your body through a diet that would cause your body to start shutting down, by feeling lightheaded and having headaches. I have lost 11 pounds in 1 1/2 months and continue to lose. I came on this site for a soup recipe and was really concerned with some the comments. Losing weight is not worth being unhealthy. It puts much strain on your heart. Be careful.
I don't know the last time this site was updated, but today is Cinco de Mayo 2008. I have always been overweight and have somehow reached my all time high weight of 250. For some reason that number really jolted me and caused me to take action. I have done a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF) in the past and was successful but it's hard to stick to. I think if I could stick to nasty protein shakes, fresh summer fruits, veggies, and steaks will be a walk in the park. I should think this diet would be much easier in the summer months when fresh produce is abundant and ripe, and steaks and hamburger patties call for the grill. I will be doing this diet throughout the summer, either until mid-August (when classes recommence) or Labor day. After seeing the stories of some other obese individuals who did so, I'm energized and enthusiastic. I will be swimming and walking daily and lifting weights on the higher calorie days. I'm halfway through my first day, and though I've only just begun, I have a renewed sense of well-being and empowerment. I will take any weightloss being that I have only succeeded in gaining weight in recent months, but I hope for 50-75lb. loss over the course of the summer. I have tried to begin this diet before, and here is what I think is different about this time: 1. If eating the soup is going to make you quit the diet, don't eat it, or change it to your liking. 2. Have a lot of food available and a wide variety. Previously I was stingy and bought little fruits and vegetables. Yesterday I bought cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew melon, peaches, plums, strawberries, blueberries, apples, and kiwi. For the vegetables I got mixed colors of bell peppers, jalapenos, portabello mushrooms (I think these are allowed), broccoli florets, sugar snap peas, and lettuce. 3. Get creative! Especially knowing that I'm going to be following this plan all summer, I'm in no hurry to gulp down boring food. I love to grill and I plan to grill the portobellos with some steak seasoning and vinegar marinade tomorrow night, char up the peppers, mince some jalapeno, and wrap in a lettuce leaf. Roasted asparagus is also very yummy. I tend to like anything on the grill. Sugar snap peas are the portable goldmine! I also love to broil zucchini and squash with rosemary-"yum-o." 4. Stay positive. Many of the diets I've started before I began with the thinking of "You know you'll never stay on it. Why are you kidding yourself? Just go ahead and stop now." This may not be easy, and it certainly isn't a long-long term plan, but I think the philosophies of eating more fruits and vegetables and lower GI foods is something everyone can benefit from. I look at it as being exciting and try to imagine how healthy it feels to not only look good but to not have so much junk clogging up my system. 5. The buddy system--sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Just make sure that you remember you're doing this for you and someone else's success/failure has nothing to do with you. It's like when you help someone up from a fall on the ice: you need to be strong enough that their fall doesn't pull you down with them. I know that was a lot of information, but I received so much inspiration from hearing the stories here that I hope my progress might inspire someone else.
guys can i just skip the skin milk??
hi this is my first day and i was wondering since im useing v8 juice in soup can i drink it as well water gets a little boring even with the added lemon juice and i dont like to drink cranberry juice. any help will be great
oh i hope will work for me as well..im starting today ...guys wish me good luck..im 5'7'' and 255 pounds
Hello everyone...my husband sister and I have all started the diet today. We are excited to loose weight and be healthy. A few years back my parents did the diet and ended up loosing a combined weight of 28 lbs. Dad lost 18lbs and mom lost 10. I am currently 220 and would like to drop down to 160lbs like I was when I married my husband.Wish me luck as I do to you all!!
I am on my 4th day (bananas and milk) and since yesterday it started getting very hard,I dream about food all the time but I am determined to continue.I started at 225lb and my goal is 150.Im only weighing myself on the 7th day.The biggest problem is that I find myself smoking alot more.At the end of the 7 days I will post how much I have lost.I was very exited to do this diet because of Rich´s experience! congratulations Rich!
Answers to some questions, just from my own research, I'm not an expert. The only "juice" you can have is Cranberry. Otherwise, water, unsweetened tea and coffee (no diet soda). On the meat day, you CAN substitute Chicken or Fish - Green Beans? The recipe I have calls for green beans in the soup (but all other beans are a no-no). And yes, you will be gassy! My question for anyone that I have been unable to find an answer to is: Can you eat dried fruit?
I am going to start this diet tomorrow. I am 165, hoping to lose about 5lbs to jump start my diet...more is better. Will post results.
4/21/08 - Hi guys! I started the diet today. I want to lose 15-20 lbs. My upper tummy is kinda crampy this afternoon, so I went and bought some gas relief pills. I hope this helps. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I am a little concerned about day 2 without fruits. But, it is for only 7 days.
What kind of "fruit Juices" can you have?
4/17/08 Hello everyone! This is day 2 for me and I have lost 4 lbs!!! I am very excited about getting this weight off. Yesterday morning I did 30 min. on the eliptical machine. Lastnight I did 42min. on the eliptical. The excercise probably helped in getting some pounds off. I'm looking forward to seeing what I weigh in the morning. A little tired but I have to keep going! *Always Stay positive* Regards, Determined
Hi all. I was just wondering if I could substitute raw salmon (sushi) for my meat day (day 5??) I'm SO looking forward to my banana and skim milk day tomorrow
See 109 more diets
