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Does The Cabbage Soup Diet Actually Work? | Nutritionist Reviews... | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Expert nutritionist reviews the cabbage soup diet and whether or not it should be used for weight loss.
Everyone’s favourite nutrition expert, Richie Kirwan, is back for a brand new series — “Nutritionist Reviews…”
The PhD researcher will take a closer look at popular diet trends and athlete supplement routines to separate the facts from the fiction.
In this episode, we’re taking a look at the cabbage soup diet which, believe it or not, has been around for decades, but had a particular spike in popularity during the 90s, featuring in magazines such as Cosmopolitan and GQ.
Richie discusses the pitfalls of this restrictive 7-day diet plan and all the strange rules that come with it — and yes, there are a lot of rules.
Find Richie on Instagram: @be_more_nutrition
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0:00
today we're going to take a look at the
0:01
very enticingly named cabbage soup diet
0:04
that's right if you love cabbage and you
0:05
kind of hate yourself this is the diet
0:07
for you if you remember the spice girls
0:09
bomb bags saved by the bell there's a
0:11
good chance you lived through the 90s
0:12
and just like any decade the 90s had its
0:14
fair share of diet trends one of which
0:16
we're going to look at today
0:17
[Music]
0:20
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:21
kirwan and today we're going to talk all
0:23
about a diet that became popular in the
0:25
90s and which luckily for us didn't
0:27
survive long after that decade we'll
0:29
talk about how it worked what it claimed
0:30
to do and what was wrong with it we'll
0:32
also talk about what actually works for
0:34
weight loss as always i want to point
0:36
out that i'm not recommending any
0:37
particular diet in this video in fact
0:39
i'm going to be really blunt right now
0:41
and tell you that i don't think you
0:42
should follow any specific diet at all
0:46
you can follow sensible nutrition
0:47
guidelines and eat well without putting
0:49
a name on your diet now with that said
0:52
let's get started
0:55
so believe it or not and i actually find
0:57
it really hard to believe or understand
0:59
myself this diet has been around for a
1:01
long time and seems to get a little
1:03
resurgence every now and then one of its
1:05
most recent resurgences was back in the
1:07
90s when it appeared in magazines like
1:09
cosmopolitan and gentleman's quarterly
1:11
now known as gq so it's really hard to
1:13
say who actually invented the diet
1:15
although one of the most popular
1:16
versions of it was written by margaret
1:18
danbrot the one thing i can guarantee
1:20
you is that this diet was not created by
1:23
a nutritionist amazingly the diet was
1:25
apparently formally used at some very
1:28
famous hospitals like the mayo clinic
1:30
but i can't find any actual proof for
1:31
that online so take it with a pinch of
1:33
salt
1:35
the big claim of the diet was that it
1:36
could help you to lose 10 pounds that's
1:38
nearly five kilos in just seven days
1:43
so the whole diet was based around
1:45
surprisingly enough cabbage soup which
1:47
you were supposed to make in a big batch
1:49
at the start of the week and you could
1:50
have as much as you wanted whenever you
1:53
want it now in fairness to the diet the
1:55
soup wasn't just cabbage water and salt
1:58
it had some other ingredients like
1:59
onions green peppers tomatoes celery
2:01
even carrots mushrooms vegetable stock
2:03
so might have had a little bit of flavor
2:06
you were supposed to simmer it for
2:07
anything from 45 minutes to two hours
2:09
depending on the recipe you find either
2:11
way you're getting some pretty mushy
2:13
vegetables but just before you start
2:16
thinking you can only have cabbage soup
2:17
on the diet i can tell you that you
2:19
would be wrong it actually comes with a
2:21
whole seven-day diet plan which looks a
2:23
little something like this
2:25
day one cabbage soup and raw fruit but
2:27
not bananas why does everybody hate
2:30
bananas
2:31
day two cabbage soup and raw are cooked
2:34
vegetables but not potatoes so many
2:36
potato haters out there day three
2:38
cabbage soup and raw fruit and
2:40
vegetables but not bananas or potatoes
2:42
day four cabbage soup
2:45
skim milk
2:46
and as many as eight
2:48
bananas literally cat with this style
2:51
day five cabbage soup six tomatoes and
2:54
beef
2:56
day six cabbage soup i can
2:59
unlimited beef
3:01
and unlimited vegetables excluding
3:03
potatoes and day seven cabbage soup
3:06
brown rice that's sugar-free juice
3:08
doesn't that just sound wonderful
3:11
according to an actual research review
3:13
of fad diets the cabbage soup diet
3:15
provides a lot fewer than 1 000 calories
3:17
a day for the first three days about one
3:19
thousand or more calories on days four
3:21
and seven and a little over 1200
3:23
calories on days five and six this is a
3:27
very low calorie diet and if you're
3:29
thinking that this diet is just too hard
3:30
to stick to oh don't worry it actually
3:33
discourages you from exercising which
3:35
makes everything better right
3:39
okay let's talk about everything that's
3:41
wrong with this diet first off it's a
3:43
diet that sells itself on helping you to
3:44
lose 10 pounds in a week there seems to
3:47
be a serious problem with many people
3:49
who are trying to lose weight in the
3:51
modern world in that most of them want
3:53
to lose all that weight
3:55
straight away rapid weight loss seems to
3:57
be everybody's goal but as someone who
3:59
has both lost a considerable amount of
4:00
weight myself and someone who has worked
4:02
with a lot of people to help them lose
4:04
weight let me tell you that slow and
4:06
steady weight loss approaches are
4:08
probably going to be a lot more
4:09
effective in the long term slower weight
4:11
loss gives people the opportunity to
4:13
build the habits that they need for
4:15
long-term weight maintenance slower
4:17
weight loss also doesn't restrict people
4:20
so much that they get to a point where
4:21
they can't stand their diet anymore and
4:23
go on an epic binge which only ends in
4:25
them feeling worse about themselves even
4:27
if their diet does promise to help
4:29
someone lose 10 pounds in a week i can
4:31
guarantee you that it is not 10 pounds
4:33
of fat a lot of that weight is going to
4:35
be water weight that people lose because
4:38
this is basically a very low
4:39
carbohydrate diet which will mean people
4:41
will lose glycogen or carbohydrates from
4:43
their muscles and when we lose glycogen
4:45
we also lose water there's also a really
4:48
good chance that people are losing a
4:49
little bit of muscle mass in that time
4:51
too
4:53
especially considering that exercise is
4:55
discouraged on this diet if you're new
4:57
to exercise nutrition one of the most
4:58
important things you can do to maintain
5:00
muscle mass while you're dieting is to
5:02
do some form of resistance exercise
5:04
while i'm all for increasing people's
5:06
consumption of vegetables and some of
5:07
the vegetables that i have mentioned
5:09
here are really really fantastic sources
5:11
of fiber vitamins minerals and
5:12
polyphenols this is by no means a
5:14
sustainable diet there's no protein no
5:18
fat and the calories are very very low
5:21
because most vegetables especially
5:23
cabbage are incredibly low in total
5:25
calories on top of all that
5:27
all the liquid from the soup and fiber
5:29
from the vegetables would potentially
5:30
help to ward hunger off for a few days
5:33
making the diet a little more tolerable
5:35
that said i understand that this is not
5:36
supposed to be a long-term sustainable
5:38
diet especially considering it has seven
5:40
days written in its timeline
5:42
unfortunately this is just another
5:44
example of a hyper-restrictive diet that
5:47
will inevitably end in somebody having a
5:49
really crappy relationship with food and
5:51
potentially with vegetables too i think
5:54
the massive focus on extreme diets and
5:56
quick fixes is one of the biggest flaws
5:59
of the diet industry unfortunately
6:01
people want everything now and diets
6:04
that promise quick results often sell
6:06
well and as if you needed any further
6:07
reason to not do this diet one of the
6:10
commonly noted side effects is
6:12
flatulence
6:12
[Music]
6:14
cabbage so i hope you found this
6:16
interesting and if you've ever tried the
6:17
cabbage soup diet or if there are any
6:19
other diets that you'd like me to review
6:20
let me know in the comments below and
6:22
remember like and subscribe to the my
6:24
protein youtube channel for more great
6:26
evidence-based nutrition information
6:30
[Music]
6:35
you
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