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The Cabbage Soup Diet : The Ultimate in Fad Diets |
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Tuesday, 06 May 2008 |
With an every growing nation, our population is becoming more and more overweight all the time. In a frenzy to lose the weight, many people choose a fad diet that promises to take off large amounts of weight in a very short period of time. These fad diets are most often unhealthy and work only as long as the dieter stays on the plan. Once a normal diet is begun, the weight that is lost is regained with often more weight being added to the waist line.
The Cabbage Soup Diet is the ultimate in fad diets . A fad diet is one that promised a quick weight loss but is based on the most unhealthy of practices and often little or no scientific data to back up the claims. Losing 20 pounds in 30 days, is not only unhealthy, but a practice that will push the dieter right back into weight gain when those 20 days are done. That is assuming the fad diet can be followed for that long of a period of time without falling off the plan due to sheer starvation. See also Weight Loss Reviews and Tips .
Cabbage Soup Diet RecipeAt the heart of the Cabbage Soup Diet is cabbage. Here is the recipe:
6 large green onions
2 green peppers
1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
3 Carrots
1 Container (10 oz. or so) Mushrooms
1 bunch of celery
half a head of cabbage
1 package Lipton soup mix
1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional)
1 48oz can V8 juice (optional)
Season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc.
All ingredients can be prepared and placed in a pot to cook for two hours or until the ingredients are soft to the touch!
The Cabbage Soup Diet is simple in its design, in that only cabbage and tomato juice are used in a variety of forms and recipes in the dieting plan. The cabbage itself is very low in calories and the weight lost in the diet tends to be more water weight than anything else. The lack of protein in the diet can lead the body to consume its own protein through the burning of the muscle during the plan.
The Cabbage Soup Diet is only one of the wealth of fad diets that trick the consumer into believing that weight loss can be quick and easy. As the old saying goes, the weight was not gained overnight and the weight can not be lost overnight. As a matter of fact, in order to lose a true pound, and not a water weight pound, the dieter has to create a negative calorie situation. This situation occurs when more calories are burned by the body than consumed.
One true pound can be lost on any diet when the body burns 3500 calories more than they consume. This calorie deficit need makes it literally impossible to lose the large amounts of weight promised by the Cabbage Soup Diet, among other fad diets, without very large amounts of calories being burned every day due to excessive exercise.
This fact brings us back to the lack of protein in the diet. When no protein is consumed and the dieter exercises the muscles, the protein needed to repair the muscles simply is not there. The muscles will then begin to eat away at their own fibers to get the energy they need to rebuild. Muscles have no idea how much protein they need so the muscle consumed is often greater than the muscle built and thus weight is lost. This is not a healthy or beautiful form of weight loss.
Weight loss that is created out of fad diets like the Cabbage Soup Diet leaves the body looking slack and unhealthy. And, there is truly little sense in losing a ton of weight in order to be thin only to look worse after the diet than before. The best way to lose weight and keep the weight off is not with a fad diet like the Cabbage Soup diet but with a diet of exercise and reduced calories. Protein needs to be consumed daily and needs to be lean in quality.
The more activity a person does on a daily basis, the more protein that is needed in the diet. Levels of healthy protein can often be gaged by the overall weight of the dieter figuring 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight.
After learning all of these facts about the fad Cabbage Soup Diet, some may still have the question, Does the Cabbage Soup Diet Work? The answer is two fold.
The Cabbage Soup Diet will reduce body weight. The weight that is lost will be muscle weight and water weight, but the scale will go down just about every day on the plan. On the other hand, as soon as the diet is stopped, the water weight will return and the pounds will climb right back up to the starting weight and even beyond the starting weight.
The Cabbage Soup Diet is a yo-yo diet, in that, people often stick with the plan for a 5 or 10 pound loss, fall off the plan due to sheer hunger and then regain the weight. In an effort to feel less like a failure, the same people pick the diet back up again and the yo-yo has begun. Yo-yo dieting is the worst decision a dieter can make. There is no room in the daily body functions for huge swings in weight and soon the dieter may become weak, sick or both.
Sticking with a healthy diet full of natural vitamins, minerals and healthy calories and protein from many sources is the best way to lose weight. A dieter can do nothing but harm to the body by wreaking havoc on the metabolism with the Cabbage Soup fad diet that is as near to starvation as humanly possible. The very low calorie intakes will actually slow the metabolism down to a crawling pace and thus cause even more weight gain after the Cabbage Soup cycle is through.
The best choice is to stay away from the Cabbage Soup Diet and stick with a plan that is good for the body. A fad diet does nothing for the dieter and an overweight person who eats healthy meals and moves on a daily basis will actually be more healthy than any person who loses those 20 pounds in 30 days on the Cabbage Soup Diet.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 May 2008 )
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