Cabbage Soup Diet Plan
You'll be happy to see that the Top 100 weight loss tips keeps on keeping on with article 53 in this series.
With the aim to bring you a complete set of one hundred unique and relevant articles to help you achieve your goal to lose weight, I'll now take a look at the diet plan that uses cabbage soup as its base and see just how effective this one can be.
What is Cabbage Soup Diet Plan?
The cabbage soup diet plan was originally formulated to cause heart patients to lose weight fast prior to life saving operations. This was necessary as they were often far too overweight to be considered safe to undergo the anesthetic needed while being prepped for the operation.
The diet was seen as so successful that it became taken up my mainstream dietitians as a means to provide a way to lose weight fast.
The plan itself revolves around a base meal made from cabbage soup, hence its name. The soup itself contains very little in the way of nutrients and almost zero calories while making you feel full. The great thing is that you can eat several bowls of this soup a day but its pretty boring to do that. Not only that, but in the first few days, you eat very little else!
To this end, the soup can have other vegetables added to it to improve its flavor and nutrient content. However, whatever you add to it reduces its effectiveness as a rapid weight loss food.
Make the Soup Tasty
The best additions to the soup to retain its very low calorie properties include onions, garlic, tomatoes, water cress, herbs and spices. Sure, that doesn't sound like much but it at least improves the flavor!
If you include any of carrots, turnips, parsnips, beetroot peas or beans, you increase the calories some, but it makes a more nutritious and flavorsome soup. Its your call how you make it, but if you want to know how to lose weight fast and effectively, then go for the most minimal soup you can.
Main Drawback
The downside to this diet is that it only works in the short term. There are no long term benefits to be obtained by this kind of diet so it is not recommended as a way of achieving a long lasting slimmer body. It is purely to kick start the weight loss process to cause the body to drop a few pounds over a period of a week. After that it must be stopped and a normal diet resumed.
The main reason for this is that the soup itself contains few nutrients. Prolonged use can result in malnutrition, which is a dangerous state of heath and could bring with it dangerous health related problems.
Certain diet plans have grown up around the base cabbage soup that provide nutritious foods by altering the types of foods you eat each day. These systems are more successful in the longer term it you stick to them.
However, unless you're prepared to exercise as well to augment any low calorie diet, you are highly likely to put the weight back on again as soon as you stop the diet and resume normal eating.
100 Weight Loss Tips number 52 follows in the next post!
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Posted on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 14 Comments
14 thoughts on "Cabbage Soup Diet Plan"
Robbie says:
There is obviously a lot to know about this special cabbage soup diet. I think you made some good points about its effectiveness also and I want to add that I tried this a while ago and was very impressed by my sudden weight loss - I dropped 6 pounds in that week and I'd never been able to lose weight before. I have to say that the food got very boring, very quickly, but a week on this diet is not so bad and sets you up for a diet switch to a more balanced, healthy diet afterwards to help keep those pounds off.
Robbie
Terry says:
That's a really good diet for the short term and losing several pounds fast.
Peter says:
I read with interest your article on the cabbage soup diet plan and I agree with your sentiments. I tried this diet a few years ago when I was about two stones overweight and within two weeks I had lost about 16 pounds. I had to then stop the diet and resume a more nutritious one, but went at it gradually while exercising daily and the weight did not come back on!
I was amazed and carried on doing what I was doing. Today, I can pretty well eat what I like and I stay at mu ideal weight. Its all thanks to this great cabbage soup diet kick starting my metabolism, so Id recommend it to anyone, although they should exercise as well or I don't think it will be anywhere as effe4ctive or long lasting.
Peter
Lincoln C says:
There seems never to be enough data regarding the cabbage soup diet. Nice post that helped me a heap with my research. I'm writing a lot of comparable articles on using cabbages in other ways for dieting and losing weight. Carry on with the great work, this is an excellent, well researched and informative blog.
Gina says:
Thanks for that support.
Terry says:
Hey Gina, good luck with it.
I actually tried this myself several years ago because I wanted to experience something firsthand I was talking to some of my weight loss hypnosis clients about. The soup is ok for a few days as long as you spice it up. I used some curry spices to give it a Mulligatawny style flavor and it made it more interesting to eat. Even though I was pretty close to my correct weight at the time, I remember actually losing around 5 pounds in a week, but I felt great.
I don't think I'd want to do the soup for more than a week. But the main diet plan is reasonable, although I had to quit early because I didn't want to lose any more weight!
Gina says:
I plan to do this diet for a month without eating the soup, having a 2 day break when completed 7 days. I will weigh myself at the end of the month, I will pot again to update you.
Terry says:
Hey, good luck Gina! :-)
Gina says:
Of course, end of 3 weeks tomorrow and still going strong.Next Wednesday will be the truth when I step on those scales. Wish me luck.I will feed back my results.
Gina
Terry says:
Haha, yeah losing weight is a pretty serious business but it shouldn't be too serious. I think if you can see the funny side of some aspects of it at least, then it makes it a more human experience. Which it is, of course.
Gina says:
Terry, just read your feed (cant get away from food) found it very amusing. Having my 2 day break tomorrow mmmmm egg and bacon for breakfast cant wait!
Gina says:
Ok, I am back 13lb lighter which makes me feel positive to do another month. This is so exciting.I have actually found something that works for me and that thing is having a 2 day break after each week.
I will be back!
Terry says:
That's great Gina!
I think for a lot of folks, the end result is more about looking great (in the mirror and in smaller size clothes) than the actual number of pounds you lose. But seeing a big difference on the scales as well as looking good is the icing on the cake... both of which (icing and cake) you can't have by the way lol