cabbage soup diet?

I just joined so there may be already a thread about this. Lol. But I just started and seeing if anyone else use this to jumpstart diet?? I boil cabbage.onions and a vegatable bouillion cube. And only reason I'm not goin insane with hunger is cause I'm taking phentermine appetite suppresant helping. Gona keep on this all weekend! And a boiled egg for protein. And gummy vitamin supplement.

Forget about 'diets' it means Dare I Eat This. And definitely forget appetite suppressants (unless it's a glass of water). Think about changing your way of eating. An eating plan is for life - not just a weekend. You may very well lose a couple of pounds this weekend on cabbage soup but it's not sustainable.

The cabbage soup diet is a crash diet - it is just an unhealthy approach to calorie deficit. In order to lose weight you must put less energy into your body than your body uses. That means putting your body in a calorie deficit! There are much healthier ways of achieving this calorie deficit like restricting calories to a healthy amount, eating the right kinds of calories and balancing your macros, and getting some exercise.

I agree that this soup diet is not the way to go, but I don't understand why people have to be so hateful in voicing their opinions about it.

From my own experience and believe me I have plenty... these types of diets only lead to relapses and more weight gain and depression and feeling like a failure etc.

I agree ...people can be very harsh almost as if they never were that desperate dieter that most of us have become at times when struggling with weight loss....sometimes by the responses It makes me feel as if most of the posters are not truly overweight and troll just to give there opinions..true weight loss is hard. And I mean people who truly are overweight...I see some of the poster s that can be especially harsh and unsympathic look like trainers or extremely fit....op questions like about the soup diet I would say is looking for a dieter whom is struggling to get things going and is desperate to try something and reaching out to those of the like which seems to be impossible with all the negative trolling....op good luck...I understand your question and wondered the same myself about the soup as well as many other things but I must say I was always disappointed..cutting cals is working and alot decipline ...everyday it gets easier tho..so keep trucking you,ll find your nitch with weightless soon...

Wait, so just because there are people who are successful and are no longer overweight, their opinions are then null and void? Or even those whove never been overweight...Makes perfect sense. I didn't realize there were set standards on what fitness level we are currently and started from made a bearing on our input...

I am indifferent to these fads. WHERE they can maybe give a person confidence/a good jump start to a healthier lifestyle, most people relapse or just don't make healthy options after completing it. It is just better to use MFP and eat within your calories and workout.

I agree that this soup diet is not the way to go, but I don't understand why people have to be so hateful in voicing their opinions about it.

From my own experience and believe me I have plenty... these types of diets only lead to relapses and more weight gain and depression and feeling like a failure etc.

I agree ...people can be very harsh almost as if they never were that desperate dieter that most of us have become at times when struggling with weight loss....sometimes by the responses It makes me feel as if most of the posters are not truly overweight and troll just to give there opinions..true weight loss is hard. And I mean people who truly are overweight...I see some of the poster s that can be especially harsh and unsympathic look like trainers or extremely fit....op questions like about the soup diet I would say is looking for a dieter whom is struggling to get things going and is desperate to try something and reaching out to those of the like which seems to be impossible with all the negative trolling....op good luck...I understand your question and wondered the same myself about the soup as well as many other things but I must say I was always disappointed..cutting cals is working and alot decipline ...everyday it gets easier tho..so keep trucking you,ll find your nitch with weightless soon...

Wait, so just because there are people who are successful and are no longer overweight, their opinions are then null and void? Or even those whove never been overweight...Makes perfect sense. I didn't realize there were set standards on what fitness level we are currently and started from made a bearing on our input...

Why r u taking this personal? Did I address you or did your ego completely identify with the type of poster I was referring too.....Btw I said extremly fit or trainers I don't get that impression of your profile that your quit there yet...and i said nothing about null and void so calm down..lol.

Oh after a few days of cabbage. I'm goin to do high protein low carbs and stick with that. I know cabbage isn't forever. Just a start that's all.

Why not just go low carb now? You can lose weight better that way. However, the first 5-10 lbs WILL be water weight. Forget the cabbage soup fad. Seriously. If I were you, I would go the keto approach. Research it and give it a try! That's what I'm doing.

I agree that cabbage soup should not be uses as a diet. But if you enjoy the taste of it,as I do,it is a nice low cal fill in when you feel like you need something to eat. Also a great warm up if you live in a climate, which i also do.

Don't give up & leave. The reason folks reply with the "no don't do it," is because they've been there themselves, or they've been on MFP long enough to see this same type of question a million times over. The first 5-10-25 times they try to help, but the OP not only refuses to listen, they argue back that they are correct, no matter how crazy the diet or poor nutrition. Those of us who have been around a while, have seen it all over & over & over. It can get really frustrating trying to educate & help new dieters, especially when they post the same question over & over, but still don't listen. If you stick around awhile, you'll see what I'm talking about. So give heed & listen, especially to those MFP'ers with good results, they know what they're talking about!

Losing weight is about calorie in < calories out. You have to control what goes in and increase the amount that goes out. If you do that you'll lose weight, period! Now that that point has been made, it isn't the only important part of dieting. The 2nd part is "what" you eat, and in the end, that is just as important. I don't believe in crazy diets, very low calorie diets, clean diets, deprivation diets, etc. You need to feed your body the necessary nutrients to maintain muscle (lean body mass, LBM) and burn fat, otherwise when you're done, the scale will be at goal, but the mirror will NOT be kind. There was a post yesterday from a longterm MFP member, who consumed low calories, but didn't pay attention to the essential nutrients & macros. She was "smaller," but still had plenty of bulges & fat. Since you're just getting started, you have the chance to prevent that outcome, so start on the right track & follow through! You need to consume adequate calories, fats, carbs & protein, then pair all that with resistance training to spare your LBM. Muscle burns calories, fat not so much!!!

I've posted the following to many threads started by newbies, hope it helps:

MFP tends to set your calories & macros (especially protein) low, if you over inflate your desired weight goals. If you plan to let MFP set your goals, then choose the right activity level (i.e. very few folks are "sedentary") and set your weight loss goal to a realistic 1 pound/week. 2 pounds/week sounds great & may even be attainable for a "short" time, but is rarely sustainable over the long term. It is a good goal if you are morbidly obese AND under a doctors care. I see from your profile, you want to lose 40 pounds, so that definitely does not apply to you! In fact, with only 40 pounds to lose, I'm not sure why anyone put you on meds for weight loss???! It's not recommend with that little weight to lose. And by the way, I'm a physician, so I can safely say that! Once you start, make sure to eat back your exercise calories. MFP already sets your calorie goal with a deficit built in, failure to eat back your exercise calories, will derail you final goal of weight loss with good body composition.

If you don't like a daily changing goal due to exercise changes, then you can chose the TDEE-deficit method. With the TDEE method, your exercise & daily activity is all built into your calorie & macro goals. I like that it makes my daily food intake easier to manage. I switched from MFP doing my calculations a good 8+ months ago & have lost a lot of weight. It's important to hit your calorie & macro goals. Adequate protein intake is especially important! You should take in at least 1 gm/pound of lean body mass (LBM). For most women that is 100-125 grams/day. The increased protein intake is to spare muscle (i.e. LBM) loss, while at a calorie deficit. You want to burn fat NOT muscle. Your muscle is what burns the most calories, as LBM drops, so does your BMR. I've lost 61 pounds, but only 2-3 pounds of LBM--the rest as all been fat!

I've found the easiest way to use the TDEE method is using Haybales' Excel spreadsheet. If you go the link to his website, you'll find a link to download the spreadsheet just below the "About Me" heading. The spreadsheet is great & easy to use! The instruction for use are a few sentence below the link in his profile. You just take your measurements & change the values in "yellow," the rest is calculated for you. It will give you your calories goal in the 1st tab, the 2nd tab allows you to track measurements over time, and the "macro" tab (4th tab?) calculates your fat, protein & carb goals. You can choose to set your macros based on current LBM or goal weight. I use my goal weight to set mine. You need 1 gram/pound LBM for protein, fats are 0.4 grams/pound LBM and carbs are what is left. Then go to MFP & chose the "custom" option to set your goals. Your calorie goal will remain constant from day to day, since exercise is included in the calculations. Do NOT eat back exercise calories. I love that my calorie goal doesn't change! It makes planning my day so much easier! Once set-up, you need to redo your calculations monthly or whenever you lose 5 pounds. The measurements are very important, because as you lose fat, the weight may drop off slower, but the inches will drop off much quicker.

If after 3-4 weeks, you're not losing then adjust your daily calorie goal by 100 calories & watch for another 3-4 weeks. You may need more calories or less calories, it can be a little trial & error from the TDEE-deficit calculation. If you need to lose >20 pounds, your deficit should be set for TDEE-20%. If your need to lose 10-20 pounds, then TDEE-10 to 15%, and once you're down to <10 pounds to lose, set your goal to TDEE-5-10%. The Excel spreadsheet makes theses changes in deficit automatically as you recalculate with weight loss, if you use Haybales' spreadsheet, so super easy!

Heavy lifting & resistance training are also key to maintaining LBM. While cardio is important for the heart & general health, lifting really helps with changes in body composition, maintaining/building muscle and losing fat.

Haybales' link: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/heybales


Here's the link to a research article about protein intake & weight loss in women. Note the women in the study were >40 years of age, so it works well for weight loss in older women, as well as young! The high protein group in this study took in 125 gram of protein/day! They actually included hormone levels as part of the study and were able to demonstrate an increase in lipolysis (fat burn) with the higher protein diet (from the article discussion..."...we found that substituting dietary protein for carbohydrate in an energy-restricted diet maintained levels of thyroid hormones T3 and T4 (Fig. 2) and reduced the insulin response to a test meal (Table 5). These endocrine differences are consistent with higher rates of lipolysis.")

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/133/2/411.full

Abstract:
"Claims about the merits or risks of carbohydrate (CHO) vs. protein for weight loss diets are extensive, yet the ideal ratio of dietary carbohydrate to protein for adult health and weight management remains unknown. This study examined the efficacy of two weight loss diets with modified CHO/protein ratios to change body composition and blood lipids in adult women. Women (n = 24; 45 to 56 y old) with body mass indices >26 kg/m2 were assigned to either a CHO Group consuming a diet with a CHO/protein ratio of 3.5 (68 g protein/d) or a Protein Group with a ratio of 1.4 (125 g protein/d). Diets were isoenergetic, providing 7100 kJ/d, and similar amounts of fat (∼50 g/d). After consuming the diets for 10 wk, the CHO Group lost 6.96 ± 1.36 kg body weight and the Protein Group lost 7.53 ± 1.44 kg. Weight loss in the Protein Group was partitioned to a significantly higher loss of fat/lean (6.3 ± 1.2 g/g) compared with the CHO Group (3.8 ± 0.9). Both groups had significant reductions in serum cholesterol (∼10%), whereas the Protein Group also had significant reductions in triacylglycerols (TAG) (21%) and the ratio of TAG/HDL cholesterol (23%). Women in the CHO Group had higher insulin responses to meals and postprandial hypoglycemia, whereas women in the Protein Group reported greater satiety. This study demonstrates that increasing the proportion of protein to carbohydrate in the diet of adult women has positive effects on body composition, blood lipids, glucose homeostasis and satiety during weight loss."

Having mentioned the increased protein intake, I'll also advise that carbs are also important! Your body NEEDS carb to function & achieve daily activities. It is especially important for exercise & resistance training. You will fail in your exercise goals, if you don't adequately "feed" your body & muscles!

Hope this helps! If you have questions, send me a message & I'll do my best to answer. One more thing, I love to cook and have developed several new soups for fall, which have 300-400 calories/serving with 20-40 grams of protein. They will taste much better than the cabbage soup and help with your protein goal, if you're interested let me know.

I have been on the cabbage soup diet before; you can add as many vegetables as you like. Go online to look up the variations of this diet, because you don't have enough food in your soup!! Also, you can eat this soup as many times as you want throughout the day; this should keep you full!!

When I used the cabbage soup diet many years ago, I went on it for a month or two. I lost 30 pounds. However, it can be mind blowing to only eat this soup (smile)!!! Why not exercise more and eat more variety (smile)!!