Soup Crash Diet

Eating low-calorie soup for every meal may seem like a quick way to lose a few pounds, but it may be a waste of your time. Although eating fewer calories may help you lose weight, crash diets that involve eating soup for every meal are an unsafe and unsustainable way to lose weight. Talk to your doctor before making any changes in your current diet program.

Background

Soup crash diets have been popularized on the Internet, and although they are sometimes purportedly affiliated with a specific hospital, like the Mayo Clinic or the Sacred Heart Medical Center, these hospitals do not recommend following a soup crash diet to lose weight. Soup crash diets may seem like a harmless quick fix to help you lose a few pounds, but the diet may make your weight yo-yo up and down instead of dropping the pounds for good.

Types

Common soup crash diets include the cabbage soup diet, also known as the Mayo Clinic diet or the TJ Miracle Soup diet; and the chicken soup diet, also known as the Sacred Heart Diet. Both diets involve drinking as much soup as the dieter desires throughout the day. Both soups are made at home and include low-calorie vegetables like celery, onions, carrots, green peppers, cabbage combined with soup mix and water. The chicken soup contains chicken soup mix, and the cabbage soup contains onion soup mix.

Although each diet program varies, most will allow dieters to eat from one other food group every day. For instance, while following the cabbage soup diet, dieters may eat as many vegetables as desired throughout the day on the second day of the diet. Soup crash diets generally last one week.

Results

Because soup crash diets are so low in calories, they may cause some weight loss, but it is mostly water weight because you are consuming more liquids than usual, your body will release excess water in the body. When you return to your normal diet, you will gain all of the weight back again. Additionally, soup mixes are high in sodium, so eating the salty soup three times a day may make your sodium levels high.

Healthier Dieting Options

Instead of focusing on eating soup every day for a week, choose a sustainable diet program that you can stick with in the long run. Eat a variety of nutritious foods like lean protein, like chicken or fish; whole grains like brown rice or whole-wheat pasta; and fresh fruits and vegetables, like broccoli, carrots and cabbage. Although cabbage soup and chicken soup are fine to eat in moderation, eating them for every meal does not provide enough variety to constitute a nutritious diet. In addition to a nutritious diet, get at least 1/2 hour of exercise every day to burn more calories and keep the weight off for good.