Original Cabbage Soup Diet: A Beginner’s Guide and Review

The cabbage soup diet is appealing to dieters as it claims to lose about 10 pounds within seven days. If you want to try this diet plan, it makes sense to know whether it is a fad or a fixed diet.

The proponents of this diet claim that consuming a large amount of cabbage soup is an excellent way to lose weight quickly. It’s because the cabbage soup diet limits the calorie intake.

However, it would help if you were extra careful in following this diet because you may lose fat, water, and muscle.

What is Cabbage Soup Diet?

The cabbage soup diet is low in protein, vitamins, minerals, and complex carbohydrates. It does not guarantee the complete nutrition that your body needs.

Within the seven days diet plan, you will only eat homemade cabbage soup. The good thing is that you can also eat at least one other food like fruit or vegetables or skim milk. Cabbage contains fewer calories, which enables your body to burn more calories.

You can expect to lose weight with more soup or the frequency you eat this diet. Nevertheless, following this fad diet for more than a week is not recommended. It serves as a down-slimming process before starting a long-term diet plan.

The cabbage diet plan is commonly offered to patients before undergoing heart surgery.

How much weight can you lose with a cabbage soup diet

The amount of weight loss achieved with the cabbage soup diet is highly individual. It can vary greatly depending on factors such as starting weight, caloric intake, and exercise level.

The cabbage soup diet is a low-calorie, low-fat diet that lasts seven days. During this time, you eat mostly cabbage soup and a limited number of other foods, such as fruits and vegetables. The idea behind the diet is to restrict caloric intake to promote rapid weight loss.

On average, people following the cabbage soup diet may lose between 5-10 pounds in one week.

However, it’s important to remember that much of this weight loss is likely to be water weight rather than fat. Additionally, your weight will likely return once you return to your everyday eating habits.

Does Cabbage Soup Diet Really Work?

Since the cabbage soup diet is low-calorie, it can lose weight. But, there’s no strong evidence supported by a study confirming its effectiveness.

Although this diet plan allows eating specific foods and soup, the choices are limited. That’s why it’s challenging to keep your body weight. You can regain the weight lost once you stop the diet.

The cabbage soup diet restricts calorie intake enabling your body to lose more weight. However, it compromises your metabolic rate so that you may burn fewer calories. During the first three days of your diet program, your metabolism will start to slow down (1, 2, 3).

This diet may be effective for higher-weight people, but it is important to consult a doctor before starting it. Usually, a low-calorie diet lasts from 4 to 12 weeks to achieve the best metabolic health and weight loss (4, 5).

Are There Any Limitations of the Cabbage Soup Diet?

Like any other weight loss plan, the cabbage soup diet has its limitations. You should follow and practice this diet plan for a week because it can cause calorie and carbohydrate deficiency.

As mentioned above, this diet is a low-calorie diet. This means that your calorie intake is restricted and carbohydrate as well.

This will lower your energy levels, thus giving you insufficient energy to do your everyday activities. Your system may collapse if you become weak, leading to illness or complications.

Since cabbage soup contains more water, this may make you feel bloated and incomplete. Thus, you’ll feel hungry soon, and your food intake will be limited. You may become irritable and lack focus.

Original Cabbage Soup Diet 7 Day Plan

If you’re desperate enough to lose weight quickly, you can the cabbage diet plan. But, before starting a cabbage diet for weight loss you should know the rules that you need to follow from day 1 to day 7.

Day 1:

On the first day of the program, aside from the cabbage soup you are allowed to eat any fruit except bananas. You can drink either water or cranberry juice or unsweetened teas.

Day 2:

On day two, you’re required to eat more cabbage soup and variants of vegetables like kale or spinach. You can eat the veggies cooked, raw, or combined. The vegetables will keep your hunger at bay.

During lunch or dinner, you can eat baked potato to keep you full. But, you should not eat fruit, corn, peas, and dry beans.

Day 3:

On the third day, you can eat unlimited cabbage soup. You can also consume fruits and vegetables but no potatoes on this day.

Day 4:

Day four seems to be a cheat day as you can satisfy your cravings for sugary foods. This means that you can eat a maximum of eight bananas along with skimmed milk. But, you need also to eat more cabbage soup.

Day 5:

As you reach the fifth day of the diet plan, you’re now allowed to eat real food along with cabbage soup. You can consume 10 to 20 ounces of fresh tomatoes and beef. You should expect that the uric acid in your body will escalate that’s why you should drink plenty of water.

Day 6:

You can eat some chicken or beef and veggies but don’t forget the cabbage soup. You must not eat potatoes on the sixth day.

Day 7:

On the last day of the program, you can eat a bowl of cabbage soup. The good news is that you can pair the soup with brown rice, some veggies, and unsweetened fruit juices. Make sure to drink plenty of water.

Fad diets like this one may be tempting, but keep in mind that long-term weight loss depends on making lasting healthy changes (6).

Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 large head cabbage
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup white or yellow onion, diced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 14 oz can basil, oregano,
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• few shakes of black pepper
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bulb of garlic, sliced
• 1 lbs tomatoes, crushed

Instructions

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute all veggies except for cabbage and tomatoes in it.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Add fresh or dried herbs simmer for 5 minutes and season to taste.

Serve and enjoy!

Download the original cabbage soup diet recipe pdf 

The DO’s and DON’Ts

DO’s

• Stick to water or you can find alternative beverages but make sure it does not contain high calorie.
• Consume as many bowls of soup as you want to satisfy your hunger.
• You can take multi-vitamin while following the diet.

DON’Ts

• This diet isn’t recommended for people who have special dietary needs and health complications.
• Don’t add salt substitutes to your soup, but you can add a little spice.

Final Words

A cabbage soup diet is a fad diet that is a short-term weight loss program that does not guarantee long-term and guaranteed results.

Accourding to Dr. Melinda Ratini:

You’ll likely get less than 1,000 calories a day on the limited menu. That’s far fewer than the 2,000 daily calories recommended for most adults (7).

The cabbage soup diet is extremely restrictive and should not be practiced long-term. There’s nothing wrong with getting into the diet, but make sure that it won’t compromise your health. Likewise, to ensure the best results of your weight loss efforts, the best thing to do is to make lasting healthy changes to your eating habits and be physically active.