Even though the Mayo Clinic says they do not endorse or have anything to do with it, the cabbage soup diet is often attributed to them. If you have a major hospital in your area, you may have heard of it by that name. For instance, Loma Linda University is a major teaching hospital in one area and people in the vicinity call it the Loma Linda Diet.

In this Cabbage Soup Diet Review, I’m going to tell you what I like about this diet and what I think it is missing. It is a good diet in some limited circumstances, but if you are looking for long term weight loss management, it’s probably not the right diet for you.

There are a couple factors that make this diet program so attractive. The first is that if you stick to the plan, you will lose weight – up to 10 pounds in just one week. The other plus is that you won’t have to be hungry at all. That is because you get to eat as much of the soup as you want. You probably get sick of eating this soup, but you are not going to starve.

The downsides of the program are also two-fold. The first is that the diet is boring and many people find the food bland. You are only allowed certain foods on certain days. For example, on one day, all you can have besides the soup is bananas and skim milk. On the other hand, on another day you get up to 16 ounces of steak and all the vegetables you want.

The other problem with the diet is that it is extremely low in calories. That means that it is not sustainable over time. In fact, even people who endorse the cabbage soup diet recommend that you stay on the diet for one week and then wait at least one week before starting the cycle again.

You will average about 900 calories on the diet. This cabbage soup diet review notes that that’s not enough to keep your body going. Therefore, you will be forced to burn fat. That’s a good thing. But, if you stay on it for more than a week, your metabolism will start to shut down, reducing the fat-burining effects.

Also, the main weight loss from the cabbage soup diet comes from water loss.

To wrap it all up, my cabbage soup diet review points out that if you need to lose weight for an upcoming event, like a wedding, reunion, or just a big date, this may work out great for you. But if you are looking for a long term solution, this is not the program for you.

And that’s my cabbage soup diet review. See this post for a serious, long term weight loss system.

The truth is that when you start out on a diet, losing a lot of weight in a short time is possible, especially if you have a lot to lose. You will hear that much of it is water and this is true, but it does not mean that you are dehydrating. It is an effect of detoxification.

On most healthy diets you will see quick results in the beginning even if you do not restrict calories, as your body celebrates the fact that it is no longer having to protect itself against the unhealthy foods that were being inflicted on it before.

So to make the most of this and avoid the yo-yo effect (where the weight goes right back on after you stop the diet), here are our top 5 tips on the fastest way to lose weight.

1. Do not think about what you are NOT eating, but about what you ARE eating.
   If you think all the time about the foods you must not have, you will only crave them more. So instead of focusing on what you must avoid, take time to plan your meals. Choose good quality fresh vegetables and fruit. Touch them, smell them, appreciate them fully, both while you are shopping and while you are preparing and eating them.
2. If possible, start your weight loss plan at a time when you have no food-related events coming up.
   It is better to avoid holidays, parties and restaurant meals at the beginning of your diet. This is the time when you can kick start the new you with fast weight loss, but it can easily be overturned if you are not strict in the first 2-4 weeks. Healthy eating needs to become a habit. Later, when healthy eating is your everyday way of life, you can afford to be more flexible.
3. Do not allow yourself to become too hungry …
   When we are very hungry, our instinctive response is to go for as many calories as possible as quickly as possible and so at that time your carefully prepared meal plan is likely to be completely forgotten in the rush to the refrigerator. Do not allow this to happen. Even if you are not hungry first thing in the morning, have breakfast within 2-3 hours of getting up. Don’t wait until lunchtime to eat.
4. … but do not snack when you are not hungry.
   Snacking when we are not hungry is one of the worst things that we can do if we want to lose weight. If you are not hungry, your body is not telling you it is time to eat so it will not tell you when it is time to stop, either.
5. Eat plenty of the right foods at each meal.
   Fill your stomach with plenty of ‘negative calorie’ foods like raw vegetables or vegetable soups every time that you sit down to eat. Don’t restrict your vegetable and fresh fruit intake at all, but have as much as you can eat while cutting down on everything else. Then wait until you are hungry before eating again. This will stop you from constant snacking.

You should always consult with a doctor before starting any diet. Then put all of these tips on the fastest way to lose weight together and you should see the pounds falling off in very little time.

Click Here for the Best Diet Plan to Lose Weight Fast

For example, if you consider water to be a food, then cold water is certainly a negative calorie food. It contains no calories at all and the body has to expend energy to bring it up to blood temperature. So every time we drink a glass of cold water we burn up a couple of calories and lose a little weight. But there are very few foods like this. Most foods that are on the list do not really use more calories than they add, or if they do the effect is negligible … until you remember that at the same time the body expends energy just to keep alive and breathing. Celery for example does not give us enough calories to cover both the energy that it takes to digest it, plus the energy that we expend even when we are doing nothing. So that is why people call it a negative calorie food.

Negative calorie foods are most attractive to anorexics. A negative calorie diet would obviously result in starvation in the long term and nutritional deficiencies can occur surprisingly quickly. The calories burnt usually come from muscle mass, and the result is debility and wasting.

A more healthy way to use a negative calorie diet is as a form of fasting or detox. It is something you can do for one to three days right after the Christmas season or another time when you have been eating a over-rich diet. Provided you are otherwise healthy it can be a great way to clean out the system. However it is still best to take medical advice before attempting this.

If you decide to use a negative calorie detox, keep the following points in mind:

1. It is never a good idea to eat huge quantities of one type of food, especially fruits. A lot of foods contain substances that can be damaging if consumed to excess. For example, the acid in grapefruit and pineapple can damage your stomach lining. Other foods put an excessive burden on the liver or may cause diarrhea. So try to use all the different foods in small quantities.

2. Do not spend all day eating. You will just become bloated and feel sick. If you are only doing this for a couple days, you should not feel too hungry. Plan four or five salad meals each day, and let your digestion rest at other times.

3. You will feel more satisfied if you eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly. You will also use more calories that way. So if the foods can be eaten raw, that will be more effective than cooking them. Foods like carrots and beets will also be more satisfying if you eat them grated.

4. Schedule time when you do not have any important commitments. As with fasting or any kind of detox, you may suffer some uncomfortable symptoms including headaches, tiredness, depression and irritability. If these become severe, stop the diet and see a doctor.

5. When you end the detox, plan a gradual return to normal eating.

If all the above points are checked and passed, let’s move on to the list of foods.

* Apples
* Asparagus
* Beets
* Blueberries
* Broccoli
* Cantaloupes
* Carrot
* Cauliflower
* Celery stalk
* Celery root
* Cranberries
* Cucumbers
* Eggplant
* Endives
* Garden cress
* Garlic
* Grapefruit
* Green beans
* Green cabbage
* Lamb’s lettuce
* Lemons
* Lettuce
* Onions
* Papayas
* Pineapples
* Prunes
* Radishes
* Raspberries
* Spinach
* Strawberries
* Tangerines
* Tomatoes
* Turnips
* Zucchini

Please use this free list of negative calorie foods wisely.