Cabbage Soup Diet

Imagine a diet that allows you to eat as much as you can possibly stomach, and still lose weight. This is what the Cabbage Soup Diet offers. What is the catch? The only thing you can eat unlimited amounts of on this diet is the specially prepared cabbage soup.

There are many variations of this diet available. However, they all basically work the same way. The only difference is the specific ingredients in the cabbage soup. The diet requires at least two bowls of the soup a day.

Basically, the Cabbage Soup Diet helps dieters lose weight by severely limiting calories. The main source of nutrition on the diet is a special fat-free cabbage soup. On the first day on the diet, dieters can eat all cabbage soup and fruit they want, with the exception of bananas. The only drinks allowed on the diet are unsweetened tea, plain coffee, cranberry juice, or water.

The second day of the diet eliminates fruit but allows low-calorie vegetables. Peas, beans, and corn are not allowed. Dinner is a baked potato with butter. The cabbage soup is, of course, present as well.

Day three allows for a mixture of fruits and vegetables, with the same exclusions as day one and two. Day four only allows soup and bananas, with a limit of eight bananas. Dieters will drink two glasses of fat-free milk on day four as well.

Meat is reintroduced on day five, with up to 20 ounces of lean meats, along with tomatoes, and only water to drink. Day six allows only beef steaks and vegetables. On day seven, grains are introduced in the form of 2 cups of brown rice. Fruit juices are also reintroduced, and dieters can eat as many vegetables as they like.

The Cabbage Soup Diet only lasts seven days and leads to about ten pounds of weight loss. It does work, because dieters are basically fasting for a week. This restrictive, low-calorie dieting always leads to weight loss.

However, much of the weight that is lost is water weight, not fat. This makes it possible to fit into that "little black dress" for a big party, but it does not lead to lasting weight loss. It is also dangerous to eat such a limited diet, as the Cabbage Soup Diet recommends eating no more than 800 to 1,050 calories a day. In a nutshell, the Cabbage Soup Diet provides a dangerous, but effective, short-term weight loss, but does not lead to lasting weight loss success at all.