The diet lasts five days and provides a daily intake of 1,200 to 1,400 calories and up to 20 grams of carbohydrates. Certain foods, like nuts and dairy, are off-limits. The soup is made with ingredients including bacon, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, red wine, squash, and green beans.
The 7-day soup diet is said to help you lose 5 to 10 pounds in a week. But before we go any further, it is important to know that this is not a healthy rate to lose weight. Health experts across the globe recommend losing 1 to 2 pounds in a week. This kind of weight loss is healthy yet sustainable.
Turning to a soup diet can indeed result in temporary weight loss, Dennett says. “Because the type of soups used for these diets are broth or water-based and include a lot of vegetables, they are low-calorie and temporarily filling,” she says.
The Vegetable Soup Diet is a popular one that involves eating only vegetable-based soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's a great way to get in all your nutrients, plus it can be really tasty and easy to prepare.
"The concept of eating soup to lose weight has spanned decades, but experts say an all-soup diet lacks nutrients and is not sustainable. They do agree it can be smart to eat vegetable-packed soups for some meals, though, as these are filling, nutrient-dense, and low in calories."
People who follow the diet strictly will likely lose some weight, potentially 10 pounds per week or more. This is because it involves eating so few calories each day. However, in most cases, people quickly regain this lost weight once they return to their regular diet.
Soups are naturally filling and can be low calorie so are a great choice when you're wanting to drop a few pounds without too much effort.
Soup Is Hydrating
Also, if you want to shed weight, experts recommend ingesting around two to three litters of water in a day. Even if you're not able to match that, soup in your dinner will help the body to stay hydrated. It will also assist your body to avoid confusion between hunger with thirst.
A soup and salad diet is the perfect way to lose weight provided it is planned well and prepared in a healthy way. “Soups and salads are rich in fibre. Depending on the ingredients you use, this diet could provide you with all the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants your body needs” says nutritionist Naini Setalvad.
Experts often recommend clear soups over cream-based ones as dairy may prove to be fat inducing according to some studies. On the other hand, clear soups are easy to digest, are not heavy on the stomach and can help keep your tummy cool. Healthy digestion is key for fast metabolism and weight loss.
As the soup diet usually only lasts for 7-14 days, it's not recommended in the long term. The NHS also highlights how very low-calorie diets like this often lead to short term weight loss, but it's likely that you'll put some or all of the weight back on once you go back to eating normally.
Though this diet is fast, cheap, and simple, it's not easy to stick with. It will likely leave you feeling hungry, weak, and bored. You might even feel sick. And if you follow the Cabbage Soup Diet for more than a week, you could run short on key nutrients.
The diet calls for having soup three to five meals a day and adding vegetables to help cleanse and detox your system. The weight loss occurs by cutting calories from fat and likely from carbohydrates.
The authors of the study also noted that eating too much soup may negatively affect your blood pressure due to its typically high sodium content. Therefore, they recommend choosing low-sodium soups.
Along with a high saturated fat content, soup can come with an overload of sodium, as well. The American Heart Association recommends the average person consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, but an ordinary can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup already has 890 milligrams of sodium per serving.
Bananas, especially under ripe, green ones, are an excellent tool to have in your toolkit for weight loss. They provide high fiber, yet low calories, keeping you fuller longer, as well as quick sources of energy for workouts. Bananas also offer fuel for better sleep and can help stabilize blood sugar.
Tinned and fresh ready-made soups might contain enough vegetables to count towards your 5-a-day, but it can be hard to know how much they really contain.
Eating eggs may support weight loss, especially if a person incorporates them into a calorie-controlled diet. Research suggests that eggs boost metabolic activity and increase feelings of fullness. Eating an egg-based breakfast may stop a person from consuming extra calories throughout the day.