The Cabbage Soup Diet: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

cabbage soup diet

Get the scoop behind this fast, one-week diet that’s been around for a few decades but still continues to go in and out of style.


1. What is the cabbage soup diet?

diet cabbage soup recipe

This is a short-term diet that has been around since the 1980s. It’s a very low-calorie, low-fat diet that you do for 7 days. It’s for quick, fast weight loss and you eat a lot of cabbage soup on this diet.


2. Will you lose weight on the cabbage soup diet?

HCG diet weight loss

Some ads claim that you will lose 10 pounds on this diet in just one week. Since this a very low-calorie diet (below medical guidelines for safe weight loss), you will most probably lose weight. Much of this weight will probably be water weight though, and not fat loss.


3. Cabbage Soup Diet Plan

diet groceries

You can eat as much fat-free cabbage soup as you want on this diet.

Here is a general overview of the 7 day schedule, although the menu varies depending on the book or website you’re reading:

Day 1: As much fruit (minus bananas) and cabbage soup you want.
Day 2: Cabbage soup plus any vegetables (minus starchy ones).
Day 3: Cabbage soup plus fruits and vegetables (minus potatoes and bananas)
Day 4: Cabbage soup, skim milk, and some bananas.
Day 5: Cabbage soup plus some meat and tomatoes.
Day 6: Cabbage soup plus as much beef and vegetables (minus potatoes) as you wish to eat.
Day 7: Cabbage soup plus brown rice, vegetables (minus potatoes), and fruit juice.


4. Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe

It’s an easy soup to make. Try this modified version that actually tastes good that I’ve developed for Heavy.com. It has less salt than the original, which nutritionists pointed out as a flaw in the original recipe. It also has a bit more spice and flavor, which dieters pointed out as a negative in the traditional soup.

Watch the cooking video above for an easy-to-make version of the cabbage soup or get the original cabbage soup diet recipe here.


5. Is the cabbage soup diet healthy? Should I try it?

diet decisions

This is a crash diet, which means you will lose weight in a short period of time. However, the downside of crash diets is that you often gain the weight back quickly and may even gain more back than you lost. Most medical professionals do not consider this diet healthy.

Side effects of the cabbage soup diet: people on this diet have reported feeling light-headed and sometimes nauseous because of the extremely low-calorie and low-protein plan. Others have reported severe flatulence from all the cabbage.

If you are looking for fast, short-term weight loss (eg. if you just want to fit into a certain dress before an event), then this diet has has some things in common with doing 3 or 4 day juice cleanse or detox. On both of these types of diets, you will lose weight fast. The trick is keeping it off and hopefully using these short-term solutions to springboard into healthy eating.


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