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.
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What can I use in my coffee as creamer? I drink coffee every day but I cannot drink it black? any suggestions?
I am banana intolerant. Any suggestions on what to do on day four? Also, someone said this diet produces LOTS of gas! Any truth in that and what can you do to relieve it aside from the obvious!?
I tried this diet a few months ago, it went fine the first day, although the soup gets boring, fast. The next morning I woke up with a huge headache and I felt weak. I don't recommend this diet for anyone looking to lose a few vanity pounds, it's not worth it.
THE DIET IS COMING ALONG GOOD LOST 3LBS ON DAY 2
i am not fat, and am fairly close to my goal weight. im on the cabbage soup diet (day 6) and have hardly lost any weight. does the diet only work for people who have the weight to lose?
dearest shelly, i also enjoy the peeing portion of this diet. I feel like its detoxing my body. i feel very nurished and revitalized after eatting loads and loads of cabbage soup.gallon after gallon! YUM! loves it. hope alls wearing pink. its wednesday you know. love, your biggest[litteraly] fans. Holly & coliee
The seven day regime does not specify how the beef is to be cooked on the fifth or sixth day. Anybody have any suggestions?
This diet does the trick. I did it a few times in college, just right before Spring Break or a Bachelorette party. The original recipe for the soup may be very bland so I changed it up a bit. I used shitake mushrooms and instead of V8 juice I just used water and seasoned it with "Vegetarian Chicken Buillon". This is an awesome seasoning without the MSG! You can find it at an Asian store. I also add a lot of pepper/garlic seasoning and cilantro. You can change the soup everyday to suit your own taste. I also do atleast 30 mins of cardio a day. Its not so bad of a diet if you're a veggie/fruit lover. But then again it's only 7 days! If you have the right set of motivation (such as a wedding) it shouldn't be so bad! And you get to eat meat at the end of the week. If you stay focused throughout the week and visualize your end results....it'll all be worth it! Good luck
i just started today but i accidentally cheated.is this bad?
I am on day five and am losing . .so far 6 lbs. I have coffee every morning with regular international creamer in it. Got to have that! It hasn't matterd though. I eat a lot of thew soup. sometimes with curry. sometimes with banana peppers or tobasco. i do not make it with the soup mix. it is only the vegetables and water and juice from the can of tomatos I put in the pot. I have kept a big variety of fruits and vegetables. on banana day i made a shake milk,banana, ice, vanilla, a pinch of equall. just some ideas to pass along.
I started the diet on Monday and I must admit I am rather satisfied with the results. Granted it is mostly water weight I'm losing but to get on the scale and see such a drastic decrease in my weight is motivation to keep going. I did experience a deathly headache that I had to take medicine for but the other side effects I have yet to experience. To date, I have lost 8 pounds which is pretty impressive considering I've only been on this diet for 3 days. I want to continue for another week which would make it two weeks but that is not recommended. I don't feel hungry, I'm taking a multi-vitamin and I don't see why can't I continue. Has anyone done this diet continuously without a break? If so, let me know your findings?
I am on a fruit and veggie detox right now, I just finished a water, juice, tea, and all natural soymilk fruit smoothie detox (14 days) I have lost 16 Pounds in 14 days on that. Hopefully I will lose atleast another 7 pounds on this fruit and veggie. I am excited to start the cabbage soup diet in about 12 days. I really want to lose weight but more importantly I want to change my life. I have discovered on this journey I call life, I must renew my mind to have a right relationship with food. I also have to watch what I say, if I say things like "I am fat, it's hard, I'll never lose weight, then what I say will be what comes to past. I am not just losing weight but I am changing my "stinkin thinkin"
Do you still have to eat if your not hungry?
what about drinkin diet pop when on the diet
I'm starting today. I had an apple for breakfast and I have a huge container of the soup in the fridge:D My question is...if you're going out to eat can you get a brooth based soup with just vegetables (such as thai tom yum) without any starches in it?
Just finished my 1st round of the cabbage soup diet. Had done this years ago and it worked. Soup taste the same but the other foods you can eat are a lot different. I lost 8 lbs and feel great. Had lots of energy. I also exercised daily. Think I'll probably give it another round in a few weeks. I'd highly recommend it if you have only a few lbs to lose or if you want to jump start your weight loss and then transition to heathier eating. Oh, I did drink diet sodas but also lots and lots of water.
I was given this diet back in 1989. It took me a couple of tries to make it through the first day. I stayed on it very strict for 4 1/2 months and only planned 1 day in all that time of cheating by eating a chicken sandwich with fries from Burger King, which I had been craving. I did this 1/2 way through my weight loss. At 5'3" I went from 168 lbs down to a very thin 108. If it wasn't on the diet, I did not eat it, not even one bite except I did drink lots of coffee with Sweet-n-Low and skim milk (an appetite suppressor). I kept the weight off for many years afterwards. Whenever I would put on up to 20 lbs (in a year's time) I'd go back on it and drop the extra pounds. I look back at the pictures of myself when I was at such a low weight and see how sickly I looked so now I'm around 125-130. A much more desirable weight. Whenever I feel like my clothes are getting too tight I will go back on the diet for about 3-4 weeks and drop around 20 lbs. I do agree that if you really want to do this diet you must do 5 things. 1. You must be in good health. (good idea to check with your doctor) 2. You must be ready mentally and emotionally. 3. If it is not listed on the diet, don't eat it. (no, sausage is not on it). 4. You must take a multi-vitamin. You will get dizzy and light headed if you don't. If you find you are getting this way anyway, then go off of it. Your body is telling you that you are not getting the vitamins you need. 5. Do some sort of exercising, (my job alone provides me with that). Also I had eaten so much of the soup that I can no longer stand the smell of it, much less eat it so whenever I go on it I drink V-8 juice instead. If you do eat the soup there are so many different things you can do to change it like on beef and tomato day (never heard of eating chicken) you can always cook your beef, hamburger, steak, etc. and add it to the soup. On the 6th day of all you can eat beef and vegetables I would bake a roast for my family and add potatoes, carrots and onions. I just would not eat the potatoes. On brown rice day (I hated the most) I would add some of the rice to my bowl of soup. I would sometimes make a vegetable & rice stir-fry using "Pam Cooking Spray". On some days I have even blended the soup up in a blender to make it a little different. The juice had to be unsweetened. If I start the diet and cheat at any time I would start all over again the next day because I would find that I would not lose the weight I was told I'd lose. I went on the diet last year and dropped around 25 lbs and my doctor jumped all over me and told me that this was not healthy. He said it was too much too fast. If know I need to drop a few lbs not by what the scales say, but by how my clothes fit. I never try to get back to the 108 lbs., size 3-4. I just like to lose enough where I don't have to go out and buy new clothes. My closet gets full of the different size clothes, I like to stay around an 7-8. So when they feel snug I just have to diet for a couple of weeks and drop the lbs. You cannot do this diet, stop and go back to old eating habits and expect to stay at that size. You must change the way you eat. You cannot go back to eating chocolate cover donuts before going to bed. I had to change the way I did my grocery shopping. Like buying "Light", "Sugar Free", and "Fat Free". This way you can have your pancakes and syrup, chocolate pudding, but without the unwanted calories, and not every day. You should never completely deprive yourself of everything you like that is high in calories. Use these things as a reward. The key rule to that is in moderation. Plan for it, don't eat these things every day. I think if you can make it through the first day, then you can make it through a week. I've been doing this diet on and off for the past 18 years and it does work for me when I follow it exactly. Good Luck!
i think the fresh fruit, fresh raw veggies and cabbage soup every day is what we should be eating all the time. that's not a fad. what is a fad is stuffing yourself with one food on each of those days. i've been "following" the diet, but been eating a boiled egg with lettuce salad every morning to make sure i get protein (i'm a vegetarian). it has totally refocussed me on what is healthy eating and if there's a quiche around i just have a thin sliver. glad i started this "diet" even though i didn't follow it through properly. i've lost the bloatedness i had, and it's great when you're premenstrual cos it is so diuretic. i think eating cabbage soup every day is a great way to get lots of fibre and liquids, and fill you up before the temptations of fattening, unhealthy foods are served at a meal. highly recommend you eat a bowl of cabbage soup before you go out to eat so that you're not tempted by an unhealthy option.
I am on day 2 of the diet. I am hungry all the time and have to pee from all of the water and soup that I'm drinking. I can't wait to have my baked potato tonight.
ERIKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR OUTCOME WITH YOUR SECOND ROUND OF THIS DIET. YOU CANT JUST LEAVE US ON A CLIFF H ANGER LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!! -love holly and nicole, cabbage soup fans
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