Does the Cabbage Soup Diet Work?

You're starving. You're more than starving -- your stomach is so hungry, you can't even tell if you're hungry anymore, or if you have a mild case of appendicitis. Luckily, it's lunchtime and the refrigerator is just around the corner. You open the fridge, and pull out a delicious helping of... cabbage soup. In fact, it's been the major part of your diet for the past week. If you don't like the sounds of this scenario, you probably shouldn't try the Cabbage Soup Diet. But if you think trying to eat almost nothing but cabbage soup might be worth a shot, follow the diet below, which has been used by both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jaime Pressly to lose weight.

To start the Cabbage Soup Diet, go to the grocery store to purchase everything you need for the following week. You won't be needing many ingredients. For the soup, purchase 6 green onions, a head of cabbage, 2 green peppers, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 3 carrots, 10 ounces of fresh mushrooms, 1 package of celery, 1 package of Lipton chicken soup mix, 1 cube of bouillon, 48 ounces of V-8, salt and pepper. Other supplements to your diet include black coffee, fat-free milk, cranberry juice, unsweetened tea, baked potatoes, fresh vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, bananas, fresh fruit like grapes and cantaloupe, small fillets of fish like salmon or tuna, small lean chicken breasts and brown rice. These ingredients are all you will eat for the next week.

First, make the cabbage soup. Use the biggest pot you have, because this soup is meant last you the entire week. Place all the ingredients for the soup you purchased at the store in a big pot along with 8 cups of water. Boil for about two hours, and eat hot, or put it back in the fridge for storage. You can have as much cabbage soup as you like for the next week, so don't worry if you need to go back to the store to make another batch. Every time you're hungry, go into the fridge for more cabbage soup. Although this step is meant to let you have options, it will more likely make you never want to have cabbage soup again.

Day 1: Eat as much cabbage soup as you want for every meal, and as much fruit as you want for every meal, except for bananas. Some fruit suggestions include grapes, cantaloupe, watermelon, oranges and tangerines. You may drink unsweetened hot or iced tea, black coffee, water, or cranberry juice.

Day 2: Eat as much cabbage soup as you want, plus steamed vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower. Eat a baked potato for dinner, and add a small pat of butter if desired. You may drink only water.

Day 3: Eat as much cabbage soup as you want, plus steamed vegetables and fruit, except bananas.

Day 4: Eat as much cabbage soup as you want, plus up to eight bananas and as much fat-free milk as you want. Otherwise, drink only water.

Day 5: Eat as much cabbage soup as you want, and eat up to six tomatoes and a small salmon or tuna fillet with nothing on it.

Day 6: Eat as much cabbage soup as you want, plus a small breast of lean chicken and steamed vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower.

Day 7: Eat as much cabbage soup as you want, plus a cup of brown rice, cranberry juice, and steamed vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower.

During the diet, don't be surprised to lose 10, maybe 15 pounds at the most. Unfortunately, you are most likely losing water weight, and unless you plan on staying on the Cabbage Soup Diet for the rest of your life, which is not recommended, you will most likely gain the weight back as soon as you start eating regularly again. Most crash diets work this way, and unless you permanently change your eating habits, you will most likely balloon back to your previous weight.