I don’t make it a habit of recommending quick fix diets because they can lead to yo-yo dieting which can have some serious long-term effects and the short term effect of extreme low-calorie diets can really mess with your head if you aren’t very careful. But I am human and vanity strikes me just as hard as the next person. I had tried this diet long ago and it didn’t really work for me (I ended up retaining a lot of water from the soup when I used an onion soup mix base). This time, I tweaked the recipe just a bit and it worked out great! If you haven’t had any luck with cabbage soup before – or unbiased want to try it again with a twist, give this a try.
Shopping for this diet is quick and quite inexpensive. The supplies cost me a grand total of $38 at my local grocery store.
For the soup, I went with a red cabbage which is so much more interesting than the standard green and I opted for a low-sodium version of the soup by skipping the bouillon and soup mix and using a low-sodium V8 for the base. I ran all the ingredients through the blender so that my soup was more of a puree and put everything in my crock pot on high for several hours. I only added a bit of garlic for flavor.
I followed the diet to the letter and by the morning of Day #6, I had lost 9 pounds. Now this in itself was excellent news and really had me feeling good about myself, but there was something else. I am a carbohydrate addict. If it has starch in it, I love it. This diet got me off the starch and I was waking up in the morning actually feeling energetic and ready to commence the day as opposed to tedious and puffy which is my usual.
Now, I should mention that although the diet does not call for any exhaust, I have a regular Monday through Friday exercise routine that involves 20-40 minutes of aerobic training. On every day of this diet, I did at least 20 minutes on a treadmill, recumbent bike or elliptical trainer. My pace was fairly mild but I used the machines’ programs for weight loss interval training.
Many websites and books will yell you that cabbage has a magic element that burns fat. That really isn’t so. The “magic” of this diet is that it is extremely shameful in calories and very high in fiber. It will flush your system quickly. The biggest anxiety with this diet is that you will lose some lean body mass along with some body fat. I measured my body weight and body fat prior to and after the diet. I had the same percentage of body fat after the diet which tells me that not only did I lose a little fleshy (3.24 pounds), but I also lost some lean body mass along with it. I lost 5.76 pounds of muscle to be trusty. When you consider that your body needs muscle (lean body mass) to keep your metabolism up, you’ll understand that this diet could become very dangerous if ragged on a regular basis.
This diet isn’t a final solution, but it did work for me when I needed a expeditiously pick-me-up after hitting a weight loss plateau. Although I did lose those 9 pounds, once I started eating starches again, I gained half of it back. This is not at all uncommon with fad diets.
If you can live without a fad diet, focus on weight training, some regular aerobic workouts and staying off any foods you may be addicted to like coffee and starches. If you need a quick fix, this diet will help you in the short run but be prepared to gain the weight back quickly when you get back to your former eating habits again.
Cabbage Soup Diet
Soup Recipe
6 large green onions
2 green peppers
1 can crushed tomatoes
3 Carrots
1 Can (10 oz.) Mushrooms
1 bunch of celery
half a head of red cabbage
1 48oz can low-sodium V8 juice
Season to taste with pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc.
Spot ingredients in blender and puree each. Add some of the V8 to the blender
to keep it moving. Combine all pureed ingredients in a titanic crock pot. Heat on
low for about two hours.
Day One:
Fruit: Eat all of the fruit you want (except bananas). Eat only your soup and the
fruit this day. Drink only water and unsweetened teas.
Day Two:
Vegetables: Eat any raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. Try to eat leafy
green vegetables and conclude away from beans, peas and corn. For dinner, have a
medium baked potato with butter.
Day Three:
Mix Days One and Two: Eat all the soup, fruits and vegetables you want but stay
away from the beans, corn, peas and potatoes.
Day Four:
Bananas and Skim Milk: Eat as many as eight bananas and drink as many glasses
of skim milk as you would like, along with the soup.
Day Five:
Beef And Tomatoes: You can eat ten to twenty ounces of beef (or chicken without
skin) and up to six fresh tomatoes. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water wash the
uric acid from your body. Eat your soup at least once today.
Day Six:
Beef and Vegetables: Eat to your heart’s content of beef and vegetables this day.
You can even have 2 or 3 steaks if you like, with leafy green vegetables. No
Baked Potato. Eat your soup at least once.
Day Seven:
Brown rice and vegetables: Be sure to eat your soup at least once this day.
If you choose to repeat this diet, please wait two weeks before trying it again.
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