Cabbage Soup Diet Can Make You Go Crazy!

by Alexis
(Philadelphia, PA, US)

I started the cabbage soup diet a few months ago. The plan is simple: make a huge batch of cabbage soup and eat this recipe for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

You can eat as much as you want. Sounds great, right? Wrong!

After the second day, I was already tired of this bland soup. I couldn't imagine eating this for days or even a week. You could change up the recipe but I was ready to give up.

My mother even attempted the diet with me, and she had the same results. We were staring at a bowl of this green soup, but picturing ourselves chowing down on a cheese steak!

Maybe it has worked for others in the past, but I couldn't even get through the first day without cheating. I would only recommend this to those with strong willpower and a love of cabbage.

I was extremely disappointed with this diet. It was eye-catching and appealing because I saw the words "Eat all you want!".

Don't be fooled. After a couple of days, you would rather not eat than try to stomach this soup.

Maybe I'm not the best candidate for this diet because I don't even like cabbage that much. Every time I went to have a meal, I wanted to throw some cheese in the soup and sit down with a large piece of Italian bread.

Diets are torture. I definitely think that the best kind of diet has variety. Eating the same thing day after day is aggravating.

If you want to try the Cabbage Soup Diet, be wary. It can make you go crazy!

Cabbage Soup Diet Is Tough

by Brittany Aronson
(Florida)

I did the week-long cabbage soup diet a month ago, and obeyed the rules rigorously, with the exception of the beef on days 4 and 5 as I am a vegetarian.

The soup itself isn't horrible, though in my opinion it's not exactly the tastiest of dishes out there -- however a diet isn't exactly about taste and I suppose that isn't a major selling point of the diet in the first place.

This diet is tough. After awhile it is hard to even look at another dish of the soup, but you will feel much more energized (if still a bit hungry) than beforehand.

I dropped about 5lbs that week, however it came right back after I stopped the diet. I'm not entirely sure if it was water weight or if my normal diet is truly that fattening, but unless you continue on an extremely healthy eating plan after the initial week, this diet may not be the best out there.

It is a wonderful way to shock your system into a healthy eating plan however, and a good way to kick start a weight loss regimen. Just don't expect that it will be all you have to do, as I had.

Though it's not written into the actual soup recipe, adding things like bay leaves and oregano makes the soup easier to stomach, and will make the week of soup consumption easier. Don't salt it however, as the salt it would take to spice it up would be much more than recommended for any sort of diet plan.

All in all, it did the trick and some weight was lost, but it won't stay off if you don't continue working at it directly afterward. One slip up and the week's work will be undone.

Brittany

Note from Dr. Dan

Brittany,

Your interesting story is a very good example of why I never recommend fad diets. You might lose some weight initially, but it never stays off.

Why put yourself through the torture? It's better to find out what is effective for long-term weight loss and do that.

Dr. Dan

Cabbage Soup Diet -- AGHHH!

by Dianne
(Idaho)

I tried the Cabbage Soup Diet a few years ago in my 20s. I was on it for 2 weeks. AGHHH!!

The first couples of days I thought it was o.k. because the soup is actually quite good. And then I realized just how unsatisfying the soup was.

It just goes right through you...literally. The gastro-intestinal issues were not pretty.

I was hungry ALL the time. Basically, you eat as much of the soup as you want all day long, everyday.

Then each day you get to have a different type of food in addition to the soup. A good example is the day you get to have bananas in addition to the soup.

I ended up getting headaches and feeling incredibly deprived.

I couldn't eat out with friends, in fact, I couldn't even eat with my family, because no one can in good faith subject others to this kind of diet regimen.

Because I felt so deprived, I felt like I was being tempted by all the foods around me, that were not part of the diet. I even felt tempted by healthy foods, too.

And with that realization, I don't think that this could be considered a good "diet". I did lose some weight, but as soon as I started eating like a "normal" person again, it all came right back.

I would not recommend this diet to anyone. I would however recommend adding this soup to a balanced diet since it has little calories and it full of good vegetables and nutrients.

Honestly, BAD diet - GOOD soup.

Note from Dr. Dan

Dianne,

I agree with you about the soup. Soup can be an excellent part of healthy weight loss.

Soup is just what you want in your diet when you are losing weight -- it is nutrient dense but not calorie dense.

Dr. Dan

I never want to smell cabbage soup again!

by Nikki
(Perth, WA, Australia)

A couple of years ago my mum and I decided to try the cabbage soup diet for a week. We had heard that it was the diet recommended by doctors to help patients lose weight quickly before surgery.

The diet involved eating as much cabbage soup as humanly possible, the theory being that the more soup you ate, the more calories you burned.

Additional food groups were allowed depending on which day it was. For example, on day one we could eat as much fruit as we wanted (apart from bananas) and then day five was bananas and skim milk.

It has to be said my favourite days were the ones where you were allowed a big baked potato with butter or a juicy steak!

My mum found this diet to be absolute torture not being allowed to eat what she felt like and it was a guarantee that on the days you were allowed fruit all your body was craving was a big steak.

It was not possible for us to eat out during the diet but that might have had just as much to do with our lack of energy as a lack of restaurants which served bananas and skimmed milk as a main course.

Overall this diet was a success, we both lost between four and five kilos in the week but I probably wouldn't recommend it.

It's not a diet that will fit in with any sort of social outing and even though we didn't have to starve ourselves, the smell of cabbage soup makes us want to throw up.

If you do try this diet, make sure you drink lots of water and don't have a busy week planned.

But trust me, if you eat as much cabbage soup as they recommend, you will only ever try it once!
Good luck :)

Hunted by the cabbage

by Claire
(Florida)

I tried the Cabbage Soup Diet about three years ago when I wanted to get rid of the baby weight I gained after my daughter was born.

I was already doing exercise and cutting back on snacks and soft drinks but that was not working very well.

I read so many good things about the cabbage soup diet that I decided to try it. It seem quite fast and simple. After all I only had to eat this miraculous soup which will save me time in the kitchen and it seemed quite cheap as well.

It was only 7 days so I thought I should be able to stick to it.

The soup has cabbage (obviously!), onions, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, celery and V8 juice. Some people also add herbs like parsley or coriander and spices such as curry and garlic powder.

To be honest, it was a complete disaster. Since that horrible week if see cabbage I puke. It was a week of hell and I did not loose any weight at all.

The soup is barely fit for human consumption for the first two days, it's a punishment the next two, and it's impossible to eat after that. I tried different combinations of herbs and spices but nothing made the taste better.

I would not recommend this at all.

Atkins Diet and Cabbage Soup Diet BLAH!

by Melissa
(new york)

Atkins Diet: Being a meat and cheese lover, I really thought this diet would be for me. The first week or two were sublime!

I found the diet to be a dream come true. I was able to eat my favorite things in substantial portions.

During the first two weeks I had dropped about 14 pounds! I was thrilled.

However after that initial love phase, I started to find that the cravings for more carbohydrates was overwhelming! I NEEDED MORE BREAD!

All I could think about was a big heaping plate of pasta.

I realized that I certainly could not live my life following this way of eating. I also started to feel lethargic, which is not like me at all.

This diet showed me very clearly that the human body needs variety.

CABBAGE SOUP DIET: I was asked to be a bridesmaid in a wedding and I wanted to drop some weight very quickly before the wedding and a friend gave me the recipe for the cabbage soup diet.

The first day I actually enjoyed the soup very much. It smelled good and tasted great.

But by the third night, I could barely even swallow it. I was actually gagging on it.

I think I dropped maybe a pound or two of water weight but that was about it. I do not recommend this diet to anyone!

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Constantly hungry on the Cabbage Soup Diet

by Bluebear
(Los Angeles, CA)

I tried the 7 Day Cabbage Soup Diet. Some people, although it's rare, also call it the GM diet.

You basically are restricted to certain foods each day -- like melons only one day, or vegetables only another day, then fruits and vegetables together on another day and a little bit of meat on the 5th day, etc.

The cabbage soup you can eat everyday, and in unlimited portions.

Sounds easy, right? Especially the "unlimited" soup part. Well, the fruits and vegetables that you're restricted to was obviously not enough to keep me content.

I made a HUGE batch of cabbage soup, and even put some Tabasco in it to give it a little kick. The soup tasted good, but I had to have nearly 5-7 servings a day of the soup because I was so hungry all day!

The crazy part was that I would be even MORE hungry after eating the cabbage soup!!

I DID lose weight, though. I lost about 7 pounds in 7 days. But as soon as I started eating normal foods again, I gained it all right back.

I didn't even eat junk food and ate less than what I used to, but I still just gained it all right back.

It was all a complete waste of my time!

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Cabbage Soup Diet Just Make Me Hungry

by Emily Robertan
(Richmond, VA, USA)

I tried the Cabbage Soup diet right before a big banquet I was speaking at. Just one week, and I thought it would be easy.

The soup was easy enough to make, but boy, it smelled. The more I ate, the more I began to smell like cabbage soup, and the hungrier I got.

The nice thing about the Cabbage Soup Diet was that it was easy to stick to, as long as I could fight the all-the-time urge to EAT!

There's no calorie-counting or complicated points systems, but I've been told that it isn't very safe.

When the banquet came, I was so hungry that I ate mine and my husband's plates before my speech. I felt awful the whole time, and I only lost 2 lbs!

Emily

Note from Dr. Dan

Emily,

The Cabbage Soup Diet one of the best examples of a really bad diet.

Superficially it has a lot of appeal. Nothing complicated to prepare. No calories to count. Fast weight loss.

And absolutely no slightest chance whatsoever of any permanent weight loss.

Dr. Dan

Cabbage soup diet is not recommended

by Cam
(London)

I heard about the cabbage soup diet online. Some people were claiming that they lost a few pounds in as many days. I wanted to lose weight quickly as there was a party coming up and I wanted to look great.

The version of the Cabbage soup diet that I tried is the one where you only diet for 7 days but you have to have cabbage soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It sounded easy but it turned out to be extremely hard.

The first day of the diet was OK. I wasn't too hungry.

The second day was much harder. I was starving and towards the evening I started to feel a bit lightheaded. I knew my body was lacking nutrients but I decided to force myself to continue.

Day three was torture, I began to hate Cabbage and I was extremely hungry and I had no energy. I couldn't take it any more so I stopped.

Altogether I lost around 6 pounds in a few days, but I was hungry all the time, I had no energy and the food was bland. I certainly won't be trying it again, its not worth it.

The weight I lost came back very quickly as soon as I started eating a normal diet, so all that effort was wasted.

When you're finally ready to lose weight...

CABBAGE SOUP DIET WAS YUKKY

by Ginny
(Florida, USA)

Having been a model in my much younger days, I developed an eating disorder that I believe stemmed from constantly trying to keep my weight down to an unrealistic level for my body type.

In order to keep my job as a runway model in a department store, I had to stay under a size ten. Remember that this was many years ago, before Twiggy really made the profession even more waif-like.

My efforts to stay "thin" worked for a few years until I gave up the profession and could begin to eat like a normal person, which caused my weight to fluctuate, usually upwards!

My Aunt, my Mom's sister, who had also done modeling as a girl, was very familiar with the battle I was always fighting with my weight.

One day I received in the mail from her the cabbage soup diet with a note telling me I should give it a try. I immediately went to the supermarket and purchased the ingredients. The only satisfying thing of which was the Lipton soup mix!

I made the soup, using the suggestion of adding curry for more flavoring. I began eating the soup the following morning, adhering faithfully to the instructions, and aware that the instructions said the diet was to be followed only for one week, no more than that.

At first, the soup tasted really good and it was filling and satisfying to the appetite. I had decided not to weigh myself until after the week was over so I would not be disappointed if it did not work.

After the first few meals of the soup, and adding the fruit the diet allows, I was pretty much hoping for a change of taste already. After a few days of the soup, I became so revulsed by the thought of another bowl of it that I was practically starving myself by not wanting to eat at all!

Honestly, by the fifth day, I gorged myself on the beef it allowed and forgot all about the soup, as I simply could not bring myself to put another spoonful of it into my mouth. So much for the cabbage soup diet.

I will stick to the only way to really lose weight and to keep it off. That diet is to take in less calories than you expend in energy.