The cabbage soup is known as a fat burner, a lightning diet for quick weight loss. Is it really that good to lose weight with the cabbage soup? Read the good and not so good of the cabbage soup diet.

The Cabbage Soup Diet: Lose A Lot of Weight in a Short Time

You should be able to lose up to 8 kilograms per week with the cabbage soup diet. You don’t even have to go hungry because you can eat a lot of the cabbage soup, they say. Since the cabbage provides so many nutrients and vital substances, the whole thing is also very healthy.

How does the cabbage soup diet work?

The explanation why you can lose so much weight so quickly with the cabbage soup diet and without going hungry is extremely interesting: The cabbage is so difficult to digest that the body consumes more calories (energy) for its digestion than calories are in the cabbage. In this case, one speaks of so-called negative calories and describes the cabbage soup as a real fat burner. Yes, the more weight you want to lose, the more cabbage soup you eat.

In reality, however, neither one is true. There are no negative calories, nor is cabbage a downright fat burner. On the other hand, it is assumed that the digestion of a food requires an average of 10 percent* of the energy supplied with this food, but certainly, not 100 percent or more, because then you would – if you e.g. would only eat cabbage – sooner or later starve to death, which will certainly not happen.

* (For the digestion of protein-rich foods you should need 20 to 30 percent of their energy content, for carbohydrates it is only 5 to 10 percent and for fats only 0 to 3 percent).

Why do you lose weight with the cabbage soup diet?

With the cabbage soup diet, you can still lose weight quickly. However, this is not due to the special fat-burner properties of cabbage, but simply to the fact that you consume very few calories per day. After all, the soup is almost always made without adding any fat and also without carbohydrates in the form of e.g. potatoes, pasta, legumes, etc. prepared.

So the more cabbage soup you eat, the fewer other – higher calorie – foods you eat. So people don’t lose weight because of the soup, but because you hardly eat anything besides the soup, including no sweets, no bread, no cake, no yoghurt, no alcohol, no thoughtless snacks, no soft drinks, etc.

This means that instead of cabbage soup you could also eat fennel soup, spinach soup, celery soup, broccoli soup, etc., which would have the same weight loss success and significantly more variety on the menu.

Cabbage soup diet: only suitable for short-term weight loss

Even on pages that advertise the cabbage soup diet, it is said that the crash diet will not show any long-term effects if you do not switch to a healthy and conscious diet afterwards.

The cabbage soup diet is more advisable if you want to lose a lot of weight within a very short time, for example, to fit into your wedding clothes or to be visually better equipped for another event. Because if you return to the previous diet after the cabbage soup diet, the yo-yo effect does not take long and you might be heavier than before in no time.

The cabbage soup diet from a health point of view

If you google the cabbage soup diet, it seems there are many different instructions. Sometimes you can eat potatoes, sometimes not, sometimes you can eat bananas, sometimes they are strictly forbidden, sometimes fruit, sometimes not, and finally you should “drink as much fruit juice as you like”. There also does not seem to be any meaningful explanation for the individual requirements.

On some pages, it is pointed out that it is essential to adhere to the instructions in the manual, otherwise deficiency symptoms may occur. After a single week, however, there are no deficiency symptoms. That would not even be the case after one-week water fast.

At one point the explanation for why bananas should be eaten in one day is: “The bananas provide carbohydrates, proteins and calcium”. But that is not very plausible, since the white cabbage alone provides more protein than bananas and almost five times the amount of calcium.

If you haven’t lost 7 to 8 kilograms, then – it is said – it is because you cheated! However, you still get a chance because you can repeat the diet after a break of 7 to 14 days. Of course, only if you are healthy or your doctor does not mind.

Cabbage soup – the recipe

There are different cabbage soup recipes around. You can find a particularly delicious cabbage soup recipe in our recipe section:  Cabbage soup for cabbage soup diet.

The Cabbage Soup Diet: The Guide

It would make sense to eat mainly cabbage soup with all three main meals, i.e. in the morning, at noon and in the evening – until you are full.

In addition, on some days you can still eat some fruit, one or the other potato, sometimes rice, sometimes a dairy product and sometimes a little lean meat.

Since it is unusual in Australia – in contrast to Asian countries – to only have soup for breakfast, some pages suggest that breakfast be served with z. B. expand yoghurt with fresh fruit or with toast and a spoon of jam or with scrambled eggs with blanched pieces of vegetables. But then you can obviously not count on such good weight loss successes.

The exact instructions for the cabbage soup diet are as follows:

Day 1

Eat cabbage soup in the morning, at noon and in the evening. Except for bananas, water melons and honeydew melons, you can also eat as much fruit as you want.

Day 2

In the morning, at noon and in the evening there is again cabbage soup. In addition, you can eat as many raw or steamed vegetables as you want – just no legumes (lentils, peas, beans, etc.).

You are not allowed to eat any fruit on this day!

Day 3

In the morning, at noon and in the evening, cabbage soup is on the program again.

In addition, you can eat fruit (no bananas) and vegetables (no legumes) as you wish. Of course, you prepare the vegetables without oil, dips or other ingredients.

Day 4

In the morning, at noon and in the evening there is cabbage soup again.

A banana is allowed as a snack.

You could also drink a large glass of almond or coconut milk.

Day 5

Cabbage soup again in the morning, at noon and in the evening.

With cabbage soup today – you should eat 250 to 500 g of lean meat (beef, skinless chicken or turkey) or fish (spread over the day) or tofu. You can also add six tomatoes to the soup (either fresh or canned).

Day 6

In the morning, at noon and in the evening there is cabbage soup again.

Otherwise, there is a lot of green leafy vegetables on the plan, for example in the form of a green smoothie or as a green leaf salad.

No meat today.

Day 7

Also on the last day there is cabbage soup in the morning, at noon and in the evening.

You can also add some brown rice and lots of green vegetables to the soup.

Fruit juice is also allowed – as much as you want. Of course, it can only be pure fruit juice (not from concentrate) with no added sugar, preferably freshly squeezed fruit juice.

How many calories does the cabbage soup have?

A fat-free prepared cabbage soup has approx. 50 kcal per plate (250 ml).

Additional tips on the cabbage soup diet

Of course, there are also the usual additional tips for the cabbage soup diet:

1. Don’t forget to drink several glasses of still water a day. Herbal tea and green tea are also possible. Coffee and black tea should only be drunk if absolutely necessary.
2. Alcohol, lemonades, energy drinks etc. are taboo!
3. Get as much exercise as possible!
4. If you have chronic or acute illnesses, only carry out the cabbage soup diet after consulting your doctor.

We rather recommend a healthy and sustainable weight loss. Not only do you lose weight this way, but you keep it off permanently.

On a side note, remember that without a healthy intestinal flora, successful weight loss is almost impossible. So look after you colon.