The Cabbage Soup Diet Review – 7 days to quick weight loss, but be assured that it’s mostly water weight you will be losing!
About the Program
Many versions of this soup diet have been around for years. The weight loss claims have varied from ten to fifteen pounds in 7 days.
It’s not a long term program and I consider it a “fad diet”. You can repeat the plan but only after allowing some time to elapse before doing it again. (That is if you can stomach doing it again!)
Although the actual foods you eat are healthy, the daily caloric intake averages between 800 and 1,000 calories. This deprives your body of many needed nutrients and also promotes side affects such as dizziness, headaches and fatigue.
Foods You Can Eat
The foods are very resticted on this plan. Drink plenty of water and you can also drink cranberry juice, unsweetened tea, and black coffee. Follow the foods for the 7 days as follows:
– Day 1: Fruit (no bananas) and unlimited soup
– Day 2: Vegetables (except peas, corn, or beans), baked potato with butter, and unlimited soup.
– Vegetables and fruits, and unlimited soup
– Up to 8 bananas, unlimited soup, unlimited skim milk
– Between 10 and 20 ounces of fish, chicken, or beef, up to 6 tomatoes (fresh), and unlimited soup
– Unlimited vegetables, 2 to 3 beef steaks, and unlimited soup
– 2 to 3 cups of brown rice, unlimited vegetables, unlimited soup, and unsweetened fruit juice
Varied versions of the cabbage soup recipe are also floating around. However when I tried the diet I had this recipe:
– 1/2 head of cabbage
– 1 stick of celery diced
– 3 carrots chopped
– 1 large onion diced
– 1 green bell pepper diced
– 4 fresh tomatoes diced
– 1-3 chicken bouillon cubes
– 1 package onion soup mix or vegetable soup mix (dry)
Use a large pot and spray it with cooking spray – sautee all of the vegetables except the cabbage and tomatoes. Once they are tender add twelve cups of water, the cabbage, tomatoes, and bouillon cubes. Cook until tender.
Exercise
No exercise is included or promoted.
Costs
You can use the above or there is actually a book you can purchase called “The Ultimate Cabbage Soup Diet”.
Pros
– This does promote quick weight loss.
Cons
– It’s not a healthy diet and the caloric intake is extremely low.
– Exercise is not promoted
– Quick weight regain if you don’t continue on with a healthy diet plan and exercise
– The weight loss is mainly water loss
Summary
I can sincerely say the Cabbage Soup Diet is unhealthy and extremely hard to stick with even for 7 days. I made it through Day 2 but ended up very sick at my stomach. A lot of people have used it for purposes of losing 5 pounds or so if they had a special event coming up such as a wedding, class reunion etc. But remember, it’s water weight loss – it’s definitely not something you can use for permanent weight loss.
