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Quite a number of people have adopted cabbage soup diet as a weight loss programme. The question is: does it really work? For those who are unaware of it – it is a diet that you adopt for seven days and can apparently help you lose up to 10 pounds. It is quite popular as it helps people lose that extra weight fast and does not require much commitment.

Critics state that most of the weight loss is really a loss of water weight and not actual fat loss. Experts back this up saying that losing that much fat in so short a time period is impossible.

However, most people swear it is effective, but they also admit that once the programme is over, you tend to gain most of the weight lost during the cabbage soup diet period. This is due to the fact that the seven-day diet period means you ate less calories and when you switch back to normal, the weight tends to pile back on.

Connie Diekman, MEd, RD, president-elect of the American Dietetic Association says, “It is a monotonous, short-term fix, severely lacking in nutrients, which will result in a weight loss that is primarily water and not the essential fat loss that is so important to improving health.”
She also said that people who go on a cabbage soup diet were bound to get discouraged as they gain the weight they lost during the dietary period, making them feel that diet does not really work. She said that diets should be balanced, varied, and should include regular physical activity.