Cabbage Soup Diet The Cabbage soup diet is a radical weight loss diet designed around heavy consumption of low-calorie cabbage soup over the space of seven days. It is generally considered a fad diet, in that it is designed for short-term weight-loss and requires no long-term commitment.

The typical claimed intent of the diet is to lose 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of weight in a week, though nutritional experts point out that it is impossible to lose that much fat within a week.

As a general rule, most if not all forms of the diet emphasize that the dieter can consume as much cabbage soup as he/she wants. On some original documents mentioning the diet, it was claimed the diet is designed for obese heart-surgery patients, so they could lose weight quickly and therefore be at lower risk of complications during surgery.

Most of the weight lost is water, and therefore not permanent. In addition, the recipe for the soup as often given has an extremely high salt content and the diet provides practically zero protein for several days at a time.

Many people report feeling weak and light-headed during the course of the diet.