The one downside to many healthy weight loss plans — those that encourage slow, gradual weight loss over a number of weeks, months, or even years — is that it’s easy to lose momentum when results are slow.
Many people lose motivation because results do not come as quickly as they would prefer. Some people are looking for a quick fix — something that allows them to drop pounds fast, knowing this rapid weight loss won’t last.
Do you want to lose weight quickly? The cabbage soup diet plan might be for you.
The diet’s name implies you’ll be eating nothing but cabbage soup for every meal, but there’s more to the menu than soup. Not much more — but enough of a variety from day to day for you to not get bored eating the exact same thing seven days in a row.
Read on to learn why the cabbage soup diet for weight loss is what everyone’s talking about, read some cabbage soup diet reviews, and see a few cabbage soup diet results. Get your slow cookers ready and let’s dig in.
Cabbage Soup Diet Review
The cabbage soup diet plan is not designed for long-term weight loss. Instead, it is a week long diet plan that is meant to help you lose weight quickly. Cabbage soup diet results will not yield long term weight loss or health status changes. Because of the nature of the eating patterns, you will most likely gain back the weight you lost fairly quickly once the diet is over.
However, used on very rare occasions, cabbage soup for weight loss can help you zip up your party dress, short term, for an event. It is an extremely low calorie, low fat, low protein, low carbohydrate, high fiber diet. Especially since the main component is soup, and the ingredients that go into that soup will lose many of their nutrients due to boiling, it is not a diet rich in nutritional value. You will likely lose mostly water weight, but the weight will come off quickly.
Cabbage Soup Diet Plan Basics and Rules
The main component of this diet, as the name implies, is cabbage soup. There are a number of different recipe combinations that your own personal homemade soup can entail, but each one is made up strictly of cabbage and a variety of other low calorie vegetables, liquids and other ingredients.
A typical cabbage soup recipe looks like this:
1 cabbage
6 onions
2 green bell peppers
1 bunch celery
1 bunch green onion
Chicken bouillon
Onion soup
Vegetable juice
Tomatoes
Lemon juice
Garlic
Note: This diet is not suitable for long-term cabbage soup weight loss. It is designed to last a total of 7 consecutive days and nothing more. If you start to feel extremely dizzy, nauseous or lightheaded on this diet, it may not be suitable for you. While you can try adding more protein to your diet, you might be better off stopping the 7-day diet and getting back onto a healthier eating schedule.
Menu and Meal Planning
If you are not a fan of diets with very strict eating rules and schedules, you will want to read this section carefully before you decide whether or not this quick, temporary weight loss solution is for you. To achieve maximum cabbage soup results, you are only allowed to eat specific foods on specific days. However, there is no calorie or amount requirement of any kind. As long as you are eating the foods permitted on the correct days, you can’t do this diet “wrong.”
The cabbage soup diet plan is broken up into 7 consecutive days. Each day has a very specific set of rules you must follow, and there are no “cheat” meals or cheat days. Once you start the first day of the diet, you’re expected to commit through until the end. Cabbage soup is to be eaten daily, if not several times throughout the day, on this diet. We have outlined the foods you will eat each day and suggestions for when you can eat the foods described.
Day 1: Fruit
In addition to your daily cabbage soup, on this first day you should eat only fruit — as much as you want. The only fruit you are not permitted to eat is bananas. You are also allowed to drink unsweetened tea, cranberry juice, or water.
Day 2: Vegetables
Today is vegetable day. You are to eat raw or cooked vegetables in addition to your cabbage soup. Try to eat as many leafy green vegetables as possible. The author of the diet suggests eating a baked potato with butter as part of your last meal on this day.
Day 3: Fruits and Vegetables
The instructions for the third day of the cabbage soup diet are simple: eat all the fruits and vegetables you want along with as much soup as you can eat/drink.
Day 4: Skim Milk and Bananas
On the fourth day of the cabbage soup diet plan, eat approximately 8 bananas in addition to eating as much soup as you want. You should also drink as much skim milk as you want to in order to curb your cravings for sweets.
Day 5: Tomatoes and Beef
Eat six tomatoes and drink anywhere between 6 and 8 glasses of water in addition to your cabbage soup on the fifth day of the diet. You are also supposed to eat anywhere from 10 to 20 ounces of beef, or broiled or baked chicken without the skin.
Day 6: Beef and Vegetables
You should eat cabbage soup at least once on the sixth day of the diet, in addition to eating as much beef (or broiled fish or chicken) as you want. You should try eating as many leafy green vegetables as you possibly can.
Day 7: Rice, Veggies, and Juice
On the final day of the cabbage soup diet, you should expect to eat brown rice and vegetables in addition to your daily (or multiple times daily) dose of cabbage soup. You should drink as much unsweetened fruit juice on this day as well.
You will likely not consume more than 1,000 calories per day at the very most while following the cabbage soup diet plan. This can be dangerous for some people, especially those with specific health conditions, so speak with a doctor before restricting calories to the extent expected throughout the 7-day duration of this diet.
The foods that you will eat on this diet, and the ways in which you are instructed to eat them, are designed to fill you up and make you feel full. Fruits and vegetables especially are high in fiber, which is considered a slow digesting type of carbohydrate. This means that the carbohydrates in these foods stay in your stomach longer. You’re less likely to feel hungry or crave unhealthy foods if your stomach stays fuller longer.
However, this high fiber diet is also why you need to make sure to drink as much as, or more, water as is recommended. Too much fiber without enough hydration can lead to constipation, which will make you miserable (and make it much harder to stick to your diet plan).
Before you begin the cabbage soup diet, at least several days before your chosen start date, you will want to head to the grocery store to get all the fresh ingredients you will need to make your cabbage soup and start preparing food for the week ahead.
Thankfully, you’ll get to stick close to the produce section for most of your shopping trip. Let’s look at what you’ll need.
Grocery Shopping List
- Lean ground beef
- Steak
- Chicken breasts
- Spinach
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Squash
- Potatoes
- Unsweetened fruit juice
- Unsweetened tea
- Bananas
- Apples
- Oranges
- Strawberries
- Pears
- Peaches (fresh or canned)
- Watermelon
For the cabbage soup:
- Cabbage
- Onions
- Green bell peppers
- Celery
- Green onions
- Chicken bouillon
- Onion soup
- Vegetable juice
- Tomatoes
- Lemon juice
- Garlic
Does the Cabbage Soup Diet Plan Work?
Is subsiding on only cabbage soup for several days worth it? If you’re looking for a quick and temporary fix, it may be just what you need. Check out our honest cabbage soup diet reviews about the diet below.
Results and Success Stories
Whether or not the diet is right for you, many people have achieved cabbage soup results, including a few women we’ve tracked down to share their cabbage soup before and after results with us.
Brandi (@glitter_fit_life)
“I was on the diet for 5 days and lost a total of 2 pounds. Since trying the diet, I do not crave sweets as I did prior and prefer fruits and vegetables. The easiest part of the diet is day 1- cabbage soup is tasty and I love fruit!! The hardest part is Day 2-by now everyone else’s food seemed more delicious than what I had to eat. I felt hungrier than I ever had been even though I was okay.”
Maggie (@maggemay27)
“First, I must start of my stating I love the Cabbage Soup Diet. I have done the complete diet many, many times…enough to know how to alter it to specifically affect my body. I, myself, have health issues (diverticulosis) that cause blockage and food build up in my body so I find the cabbage soup diet, and other remedies I do with it, to be the best way to cleanse my body and get it back to normal. I am no nutritionist or professional trainer at all so please don’t take my words as professional advice. My first piece of advice is check out the website and read the full, original diet then compare it to mine. My version is more of a cleanse to get me and my tummy back on track. I try to do my version every other week because it is a cleanse to flush out everything and I know I need to add regular nutrients back in. Be warned now that this diet may need to be started on a day when you know you will be home or at least close to a restroom if you catch my drift 😉
I still make the soup according to the recipe found on their website except I do not add any seasoning. I tend to retain water so the less salt I eat the better. The original diet is for 7 days and the recipe given, I find, you will have to make twice in the 7 days. When you read about the diet they tell you the more you eat or drink of the soup and juice the better the results you see. With that, I do double the intake each day thus making it 4 days instead of 7. And I also find that this helps with keeping you full since I do not do the added tomatoes, bananas and other items they have you add on certain days of the diet. I simply separate the soup into 3 containers per day, for 4 days that way when I am hungry I can grab the container and I am ready to eat, or take it on the go! Day 1 and 2 can be difficult because you feel like you are starving so to bulk up the soup for more food I add 1 can of green beans to my breakfast serving. You can add any veggies you want so as along as it isn’t a starch.
The original diet tells you at least 30 minutes of exercise a day is best! And that is the truth! The diet works without exercise but if you want real results try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise in! It is a cleanse so the diet will help your tummy but the cardio and the metabolism boost help to sweat and flush even more of the toxins out! To help get out the toxins, I checked out these fit tea reviews and it helped my weight loss.
Before I give you my break down of my method I will add that I do drink a detox tea twice a day with this. As I stated before, my version is more of a cleanse then a diet so be warned…the combination of soup, detox tea, water and cardio can cause a rapid “flush of toxins” on days 1 and 2 if your body is not used to such clean eating.
The reason I love this diet is because it really does make me feel more energized and ready for the world. I sweat more and lose a lot of my water weight. I am not one for weighing myself so I have never kept track of numbers I have lost but my pants always feel better after my cleanse. I also feel more and more of my muscles toning, as if my fat really is burning off and my muscles are coming out!
Now, before I leave, let me put you at ease so you don’t think I am some crazy, starving person. Ha-ha! When I am feeling hungry, especially right in the middle of breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner I will snack. Water and the juice to the soup are key so I will first have a big glass of water! But almonds are good, or a can of tuna with chopped pickle (I try for no sauces so I chop a dill pickle), carrots sticks, celery (basically any veggie that is in the soup already). Sometimes I’ll scramble an egg or have a banana just to get some nutrients in there.” Along with doing this diet, you should compliment it with doing this plank challenge for maximal results.
