Who Else Wants to Burn Fat Faster? Another Middle Management Gig

It seems like every year there is a new diet that promises to bring the best results. One of the diets that stands out is a fat burning soup diet. You may have heard it called the cabbage soup diet, the GM Diet, Mayo Clinic Diet or the Sacred Heart Hospital Diet. It isn’t affiliated with GM, the Mayo Clinic or Sacred Heart Hospital. These are just names that people scammers have attached to it over the years to try to lend it some form of legitimacy and sell it to the unsuspecting.

With that said, it still pops up quite a bit and there are many questions out there about it’s ability to actually burn fat.

Plenty of people are still wondering whether or not this diet is legit.

Here are some questions I’ve seen on the fat burning soup diet, and my answers. I’d also love to hear what you think in the comments section.

What Does the Fat Burning Soup Diet Promise?

The diet actually promises that you will be able to lose up to 15 pounds in just 7 days. That claim alone is enough to give me pause right there. But that’s just the stated promise. There are some implied promises that are really fun (not really) down below.

How Does this “Diet” Work (and Does it Really)?

There are plenty of different versions of the diet but this one focuses on allowing you to eat mainly cabbage soup. The rules to the diet are very specific and you must be very strict when it comes to following the diet.

Though you may lose weight, most of it is from water and not fat. You can’t lose 15 pounds of pure fat unless you are in an operating room. Also, it is simply not sustainable as a lifestyle.  In fact, the diet itself recommends that you only use it for 7 days, and then switch to a “more moderate” diet.

Let me say that for you another way… Go on this crash diet. But no for too long, because it’s that insane. And when you go off of it, best of luck to you, because we have no really “plan.”

Listen. Here’s the honest truth. If you follow this diet, you will be losing a lot of weight in a short period of time. But once you stop eating cabbage soup, the weight will come piling back on. And probably mostly in the form of fat. And at the end of all of that? You’ll probably be heavier and look worse than when you started the “plan.”

It is, by no means, a long term fat loss solution. It doesn’t even pretend to be.

What Do I Actually Eat on a “Fat Burning” Soup Diet?

I will use the term eat loosely here.

There are seven days to the fat burning soup diet and the foods that you can eat are very specific. Some days you will have to just eat fruits and vegetables and other days you will be limited to just fruits. One of the days will have you eating steaks and meats and the other will have you eating rice and vegetables. The days are very detailed and I’ve laid them out in a nice, neat little table below for those that like to see what a train wreck looks like.

Fat Burning Soup Diet General Daily Plan

Day 1	Eat all the cabbage soup you want (at least 1 bowl) along with all the fruit you’d like. Except bananas. You can have unsweetened tea, black coffee, cranberry juice, or water.
Day 2	Eat all the cabbage soup you want (at least 1 bowl) along with all the low-calorie veggies you’d like. Except peas, corn or beans. You can also have a single baked potato with butter.
Day 3	Eat all the cabbage soup you want (at least 1 bowl). You also can have a mixture of the fruits and veggies that were okay to eat in Days 1 and 2.
Day 4	Eat all the cabbage soup you want (at least 1 bowl). Eat up to eight bananas. Drink all the skim milk you want.
Day 5	Eat all the cabbage soup you want (at least 1 bowl). Eat up to 20 ounces of beef, chicken or fish. Eat up to six tomatoes. Drink at least 6 glasses of water.
Day 6	Eat all the cabbage soup you want (at least 1 bowl). Eat as much beef and vegetables as you want, but no baked potato.
Day 7	Eat all the cabbage soup you want (at least 1 bowl). Eat up to 2 cups of brown rice. Drink unsweetened fruit juices and all the veggies you want.
Day 8	Regain your sanity and wait for the weight to pile back on. You won’t have to wait long.

 

Like I said, it’s very specific.

Surely, there must be some drawbacks to following such a restrictive diet…

What are the Drawbacks?

This isn’t a magic bullet for fat loss. If it were, everyone would be on it.

They’re not.

And the reasons are the draw backs. We’ll start with the obvious ones, and then we’ll get to the “good stuff” you can expect while eating your weight in cabbage soup.

Okay, so clearly one of the main drawbacks to following this so called fat burning soup diet is that is has to be hard to stay on. I would be starving by the end of the second day… wait, that might just be the point. It takes the calorie balance equation to an extreme, in an unhealthy way… And you simply won’t learn any healthy eating habits to sustain you in the long run.

Another drawback is the amount of gas that you will be producing. Yep. You are going to fart. A lot. And they are going to be rancid. So make sure whoever it is you are trying to look good for is not around during this week. Unless they have a stinky fart fetish. Then it’s probably okay.

Also, people have reported some other cool side effects such as migranes, dizziness and feeling light headed, discoloration around the eyes, and feeling lethargic. Of course, none of these is surprising given that, according to WebMD, you’re eating less than 1,050 calories per day on this diet. And, it could be significantly less… especially when you consider that people who eat the same things day in and day out tend to start eating less out of diet boredom.

Factor in the monotony of eating virtually the same foods every day for a week, and dieters may tend to eat even fewer than the already dangerously low (approximately 800-1,050) calories per day.

Experts agree that any diet under 1,200 calories per day is unsafe unless you’re under a doctor’s care. It’s almost impossible to get all the nutrients you need and satisfy hunger in so few calories.  A bottomless bowl of cabbage soup, along with a restricted list of allowed foods, provides a mere skeleton of the nourishment your body needs each day.

-WebMD.com, The Cabbage Soup Diet

Also, any good fat loss plan includes both diet and exercise. Not only does this one not include exercise, it’s going to likely leave you way too tired to workout even if you wanted to. Plus, no one wants to smell your stinky farts on the treadmill.

The final nail in the coffin, especially on a site like this one where we want to use good data and facts to specifically lose weight from *fat*, is that this diet just doesn’t burn fat. You might just lose 10 pounds, but it will be mostly from water (And before someone goes completely off the rails and says it’s impossible to lose that much water weight, I have personally done just that – in one day – at football practice in the middle of August. I’ve also seen several amateur wrestlers do it in a day or two to make weight. I’m not saying it’s healthy, I’m saying it’s possible.)

Is This Diet for Me?

Seriously? No.

The diet certainly has it’s (perceived) benefits such as a massive amount of weight loss. But it is a really tough diet to follow. And, in my honest opinion, the risks are not worth the rewards. The fat burning soup diet is certainly very famous. But so is Charles Manson. That doesn’t mean I should hang out with him.

Recommended Resources

Listen, if you really want to burn fat fast, you need a program that is actually designed to do that. And there are few (if any) that are better than this:

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto

or, if you want something a little more extreme (and effective):

Xtreme Fat Loss by Joel Marion