Cabbage Soup Diet? What Is It And Can It Help You Lose Weight?

“Lose 10 pounds in seven days!” Yeah, dramatic weight loss is possible on the cabbage soup diet. But registered dietitians still urge you to steer clear.

“Oh my gosh, this diet frightens me,” says Elana Natker, R.D., a registered dietitian based in Washington, D.C. “It’s incredibly restrictive, with such few food groups.”

As you may have guessed, one of the main food groups on this diet is cabbage soup. A lot of it. In fact, according to Cabbage-Soup-Diet.com, the key to good results is to consume homemade cabbage soup several times per day. And while there are other foods available—such as fruit, vegetables, skim or almond milk, brown rice, potatoes, and chicken, fish or beef—you’re only allowed to eat these foods on certain days and often only in specific quantities.

Day one, for example, you eat nothing but cabbage soup and all the fruit you want (except bananas). Day two, it's veggies, soup and a baked potato at dinner. Day three, it's all the fruit, soup, and vegetables you can eat. Day four? You get the idea.

But in spite of the high vegetable content (the soup itself is chock-full of veggies like onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, celery and, of course, cabbage), the cabbage soup diet supports negative approaches to eating, Natker says. You’re encouraged to “stuff” yourself with brown rice, fruit juice and veggies, and to eat up to eight bananas in a single day, for example.

“Trying to eat only soup and fruits and vegetables is just not balanced,” says Georgie Fear, R.D., board-certified sports dietitian and author of Lean Habits for Lifelong Weight Loss.

Thanks to the fruits and veggies, this diet is high in fiber, but most of the meals offer little to no stomach-satisfying fat or muscle-sustaining fat. In other words, you could chug cabbage soup until you’re bloated and still feel ravenous a mere two or three hours later.

“You end up in this cycle where your meals aren’t keeping you full for very long and you just get tired of eating,” Fear says.

If you do manage to survive seven days of eating little but cabbage soup, you’ll likely see a smaller number on the scale. But chances are good most of those pounds lost would be from water, Fear says. This means you'll likely put all that weight back on once you return to normal eating.

 Related: Bananas? Should You Avoid Them If You Want To Lose Weight

In addition, low-calorie diets like the cabbage soup diet can make your metabolism more sluggish than usual. Since there isn't a lot of guidance with regards to serving sizes, it's tricky to guess how many calories you'll get on a daily basis. However, Natker estimates your soup-and-veggie days will provide a meager 1,000 calories. On days when you add bananas, milk, beef or rice, you'll likely get another 1,000 cals, but chances are you'll be eating less soup, Natker says. 

According to Fear, the cabbage soup diet results in plummeting levels of leptin, the satiety hormone. which plays a critical role in setting your metabolic rate. As a result, most people will burn 300 to 700 fewer calories per day than they did before starting their diet, she says. So, if you return to normal eating, you’ll pack those pounds right back on.

If you want to lose weight and keep it off for the long-haul, you have to practice sustainable skills like only eating when you’re hungry, choosing balanced meals, and ordering healthier options at restaurants, Fear says. And you don’t learn any of those skills by stuffing yourself with nothing but cabbage soup and bananas for seven days.

A Smarter Soup Strategy

Now, if you’re smart about it, adding broth-based soup to your diet—as opposed to making soup most of your diet—can be a great way to help you shed a few pounds, especially when eaten before a meal.  

This is because broth-based soup will fill you up with fewer calories than, say, a bread basket, which can keep you from devouring your entire entree (plus dessert) later on. In fact, one Appetite study found that eating a bowl of low-calorie vegetable soup 15 minutes before a meal led people to eat 20 percent fewer calories total than their non-soup-eating counterparts.

 Related: New Nordic Diet? What Is It.

To incorporate soup into your diet in a way that’s healthy and sustainable, sip some broth-based, veggie-rich soups like minestrone or vegetable (read: not "cream of" anything). If you're really into soup, make it a once-per-day thing. The soup recipe can be a meal in and of itself. Or, you could use it as an appetizer, pairing it with a salad, sandwich, or other protein- and fiber-rich snack like Greek yogurt, Fear says.

That way, you won’t be bothered by hunger pangs an hour later. Yes, we're looking at you, cabbage soup.

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