The Cabbage Soup Diet is a seven-day eating plan, reputed to cause people to lose ten to fifteen pounds in only a week. The low-fat, high-fiber diet is built around a cabbage soup recipe specially formulated to help you burn fat. Its creators do not recommend it as a long-term solution, but as a good way to lose a significant amount of weight quickly. Some people have reported feeling lightheaded and low on energy while on this diet, and others have complained about the rather bland soup.

Generally, the diet is considered effective. However, some dieticians are critical of it, saying that people on the Cabbage Soup Diet mainly lose water weight, not fat.

Of course, the main staple you will be eating if you choose to follow the Cabbage Soup diet is the soup. The recipe calls for cabbage, tomatoes, green onions, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, soup mix and seasonings. The recipe and instructions for cooking the soup are readily available online.

The diet is laid out across seven days, with a specific menu for each day.

On day one you can eat all the fruit you want, except bananas, and the cabbage soup. You may drink only water, unsweetened tea, black coffee and cranberry juice.

The second day is focused on vegetables. You may eat as many as you want, both cooked and raw. Make sure you avoid dry beans, corn and peas. Fresh, leafy greens are an excellent choice. You must avoid all fruit for this day, but you can have a baked potato with butter at dinner.

On the third day, you should combine the menus of the first and second day. You should eat soup, fruit and vegetables, as many as you desire. But on this day you need to skip the baked potato with butter.

The fourth day is designed to satisfy your desire for sweet foods. On this day, you should eat only bananas, skim milk and soup. You can eat as many as eight bananas, and drink as much skim milk as you want.

On the fifth day you can reincorporate beef into your diet. You may eat ten to twenty ounces of beef and as many as six fresh tomatoes. It is very important to drink six to eight glasses of water on this day. The water will was the uric acid from your body. If you don't like beef, you can substitute it with skinless broiled or baked chicken. You absolutely cannot have chicken with the skin on. On one of the beef days, you can substitute it with broiled fish. You may not eat fish on both days.

On day six you may eat as much beef and vegetables as you would like. You may eat as many as three steaks. Choose lots of leafy green vegetables on this day, and have some cabbage soup. You may not have a buttered baked potato today.

On the last day of the diet, you must eat brown rice, vegetables, unsweetened fruit juices and cabbage soup. It's very important that you stuff yourself on this day.