Ok, ok. So while you’ve probably heard everything that’s been said in this thread before, I’ve got a concrete example for you, so I hope it helps make things a little less abstract.
I tried this specific diet a couple years ago, the first time I gained more than 10 pounds from my college 110 and I was totally frantic (I was about 130 :rolleyes: ). I lost 7 pounds. I managed to keep it off for a good while, but I did eventually gain it back and then a few more. So I tried it again about 6 months later, lost about 2 pounds and quit around day 5 (I’d chopped up the veggies with a processor this time and somehow it make the soup really nasty). I gained the weight back and then some more, and I was ready to go jump in the ocean.
I’d heard all the stuff about how diets don’t work permanently a million times, but I told myself that first I’d do the diet, and then when I’d lost a big motivating chunk of weight I’d start on a healthy “keep it off” plan. But I didn’t know much about cooking then and the suggested foods tasted horrible to me when I tried to cook them “healthily,” especially the brown rice (the soup was good at first, but I got sick of it pretty quickly). So by the time it was over, I was desperate for good food. Plus, even though I didn’t go back to my normal lots o’ food eating habits right away, and tried to stay healthy, I still gained weight, which depressed me into going back to the norms, whereupon I gained even more weight. It was pretty much stereotypical failure.
Eating hardly anything each day for a month, the next thing I tried (classic, huh), worked in a sense for me too - I actually lost all the weight I wanted to - but I didn’t really feel thin, was always exhausted (so didn’t really exercise much after the first week), and of course I couldn’t keep that up forever and slowly but steadily gained it all back after I stopped, even though I was trying to eat healthy, yet again. I wouldn’t suggest it. It’s like a wasted month. After that I weighed even more, and was starting to have body pains.
I agree that exercise must be a big factor in real weight loss. After spending over a year being depressed about my weight, I finally started exercising regularly in addition to eating less and well (regularly meaning really, even if I’m wiped out from work, as opposed to little stints of 2 times a week followed by 3 weeks of laziness) and I fit into clothes that were too tight even when I weighed less. I kind of just started (week 3), but I’m feeling pretty good so far. I’m hoping to be back in my dusty old size 1 jeans (I’m very short) in four months or so, if I keep it up.
I don’t see why it was called the cabbage soup diet, though, since there was no cabbage in the soup.