The Cabbage Soup diet is considered to be a radical weight loss plan in which you consume heavy amounts of low-calorie cabbage soup over seven days time. If you don’t mind eating a bottomless bowl of cabbage soup for a week straight along with some other low calorie foods, then this diet will lead to some quick weight loss.
However, you should be aware that although you will drop the pounds, you are bound to become bored and suffer from inadequate nutrition. This diet is very restrictive and is by no means individualized. Versions of this diet have been printed, faxed and emailed so many times, but it has withstood the test of time. There are no exercise recommendations nor is there a strict list of what to eat each day, just a bowl of cabbage soup that is low in calories and fat.
The Cabbage Soup diet promises that you will lose ten pounds in one week and you are restricted to only using the diet a week at a time. If you want to lose more weight, it is suggested that you alternate weeks to ensure that you don’t suffer from a lack of vitamin and minerals too much, as this diet is very low calorie and the food choices are very limited.
Here’s how the Cabbage Soup diet works:
Day 1: Eat all the cabbage soup and fruit you want. You cannot have bananas though. You can drink water, cranberry juices, unsweetened tea and black coffee.
Day 2: Eat cabbage soup and all the low calorie vegetables you want including peas, beans, corn and a baked potato with butter.
Day 3: Eat cabbage soup and a mixture of vegetables and fruit, except bananas.
Day 4: Eat cabbage soup and up to eight bananas. Have two glasses of skim milk.
Day 5: Eat cabbage soup and 20 ounces of meat. Acceptable meats include chicken, fish or beef. You can also eat up to six tomatoes and have at least six to eight glasses of water.
Day 6: Eat cabbage soup and up to 3 beef steaks. You can have all the vegetables you want.
Day 7: Eat cabbage soup, 2 cups brown rice, and all the vegetables you want. You can also have unlimited amounts of fruit juice.
The Cabbage Soup diet has been referred to as a “modified fast.” It contains very few calories and causes you to lose weight very quickly. However, most of the weight that is lost is in fluids and not fat. Although, you can lose 10-15 pounds, the problem is that the weight lost will come back once you go back to eating normally.
This diet contains dangerously low calories and any diet under 1200 calories per day is unsafe unless you’re doing it under the care of a doctor. Beware that it is impossible to get all of the nutrients that are necessary in a diet and your hunger is less likely to be satisfied, even with a bottomless bowl of cabbage soup.