February 2023 - #111 - The Simple Soup Diet

Hi Everybody and Welcome Back

“The Simple Soup Diet” has been one way that my family and I have used for generations for weight loss, which always produces positive results.

As you know from our website, we are big on soup. We love the fact that it is warm, comforting, tasty, healthy, low in calories, easy to make and yes, best of all, so friendly on the pocket book.

You and your family members can only reap the many benefits when adding homemade soup to your diet and lifestyle.

How Soup Helps with Weight Loss:

Whenever you make a bowl of soup as your meal, many good things take place.

Homemade soups are packed with much needed water, vitamins, minerals, nutrients and fiber.

Adding other ingredients such as meat and beans can add protein and more fiber to your diet.

We know that soups are very healthy, but we are grateful that soups are so low in calories, which is why they are so amazing when it comes to weight loss.

For instance, below we have suggested some of our favorite recipes also sharing the calorie content of each serving, just to give you an idea of how low the calorie count can be.

  Examples of Soups Low in Calories, yet Nutritious:

Veggie Soups:

Diet Mushroom Soup: Average serving contains 112 calories

Diet Cabbage Soup: Average serving contains 98 calories

Fresh green pea soup: Average serving contains 147 calories

Diet Cauliflower Soup: Average serving contains 157 calories

Diet Tomato Soup: Average serving contains 128 calories

Diet Minestrone Soup: Average serving contains 154 calories (very hearty soup)

Soups with Meat:

Craving some protein? Try some soups that also have a meat ingredient along side the veggies.

Chicken Mini Meatball Soup: Average serving contains 213 calories

Beef Barley: Average serving contains 390 calories

Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup: Average serving contains 301 calories

Soups With Lots of Fiber:

Looking for loads of healthy fiber, then bean soup is the way to go. Any beans will do.

Red Kidney Bean and Ham Soup: Average serving contains 331 calories

Black bean soup: Average serving contains 248 calories

The Simple Soup Diet - 7 Day Planner:

Day 1:

Breakfast: Enjoy some fresh fruit as a starter plus you can choose the breakfast of your choice from the suggestions below

Lunch: Your choice of homemade soup, any kind. Don’t be stingy with yourself, have a nice big bowl. This should hold you off till dinner

Supper: Grilled chicken (as much as you like) with a green salad. Use low calorie salad dressing. Some low calorie dressings are only 5 calories per tablespoon

Day 2:

Breakfast: Enjoy some fresh fruit as a starter plus you can choose the breakfast of your choice from the suggestions below.

Lunch: Your choice of homemade soup, any kind.

Dinner: 1 good sized boiled potato with Caesar salad or coleslaw

Day 3:

Breakfast: Enjoy some fresh fruit as a starter plus you can choose the breakfast of your choice from the suggestions below.

Lunch: Your choice of homemade soup, any kind.

Dinner: Bowl of brown rice with steamed broccoli

Day 4:

Breakfast: Enjoy some fresh fruit as a starter plus you can choose the breakfast of your choice from the suggestions below.

Lunch: Your choice of homemade soup, any kind.

Dinner: A bowl of pasta with spaghetti sauce (avoid cream sauces)

Day 5:

Breakfast: Enjoy some fresh fruit as a starter plus you can choose the breakfast of your choice from the suggestions below.

Lunch: Your choice of homemade soup, any kind.

Dinner: Grilled or steamed fish (or any meat of your choice) with any type of salad you like or steamed/boiled veggies of any kind

Day 6:

Breakfast: Enjoy some fresh fruit as a starter plus you can choose the breakfast of your choice from the suggestions below

Lunch: Your choice of homemade soup, any kind

Dinner: 2 – 3 scrambled eggs with any kind of bean salad

Day 7:

Breakfast: Enjoy some fresh fruit as a starter plus you can choose the breakfast of your choice from the suggestions below

Lunch: Your choice of homemade soup, any kind

Dinner: Choose any of the dinner choices from above

Breakfast Suggestions to Choose From:

(Also , the fresh fruit is only a suggestion for those who love fruit - If fresh fruit is not your thing then pass on it)

Yogurt (with granola)

Apple with a few chunks of cheese

Banana with peanut butter
Breakfast Smoothies

Eggs (any choice) with dry or lightly buttered toast

Bowl of porridge (optional – a little maple syrup and almonds)

Bowl of steel cut oats (optional – a little maple syrup, almonds, fresh dates)

Any kind of oatmeal if you don’t have the time to make steel cut oats

Cereal that is low in sugar and high in fiber

****Make sure you have a good breakfast, just try to avoid a heavy breakfast that is loaded with calories.****

Reasons the Soup Diet Works:

Soup alone packs a healthy punch as a meal, yet keeping calorie counts very low.

So this makes homemade soups a winning meal when it comes to weight loss, at any time.

To also accelerate the weight loss on this diet we have created all supper time meals with two things in mind. They need to be low in calories and the second factor is to avoid mixing large amounts of proteins and starches together.

This is called food combining and becomes very important when it comes to weight loss. To keep the theory simple, the faster the digestion, the less weight gain occurs. I don’t like to over complicate it, so my basic rule is “do not eat large amounts of protein with large amounts of starch together”.

A good example would be to avoid a big steak with a large portion of potatoes or rice. This type of meal will double your digestion time.

You can create your own meals (especially the dinner meals) for this diet just by keeping those two rules when menu planning. Want to know about food combining? Click Here - Food Combining

Breakfast was also created with food combining in mind. We like to enjoy fresh fruit every morning when on the soup diet.

Fruits offer us so many wonderful things. One big plus is that they need no preparation, making them one of the easiest foods to eat.

They are a perfect addition to any diet because they take the least amount of time and energy to digest, yet they offer tons of nutrition and fiber in return. Fruits can be digested in as little as 20 minutes.

It’s also nice to wait about 15 minutes after eating your fresh fruit before eating anything else. This gives the fruit a chance to digest.

What kind of yogurt?

Any kind you like. I avoid the zero calorie ones because I get hungry too fast, so I feel better eating those fruity ones that have about 100 calories in them.

What to drink while on this diet:

Water

Sparkling Water

Black coffee or tea

Herbal teas

If you must sweeten your coffee or tea stick with those sweeteners such as Splenda or equal that contain almost no calories.

What to expect:

Even one short week on this diet will help you achieve a flatter (or less bloated) stomach.

The other great thing that happens after a few days is that you get fuller faster. You desire smaller portion sizes.

This is probably because there is no snacking between meals and supper is truly your last meal of the day. This means you actually give your digestive system approximately 12 hours to rest.

What happens when your body doesn’t have to digest food?

Then the body uses its energy and goes into detox mode every evening until morning. You will have so much more energy. It feels amazing.

One week isn’t very much, but if you follow this soup diet you will lose weight. How much weight? Everyone is different, so the only way to find out is to try it.

Cautionary Tips:

It is always important to seek medical advice before starting any diet or exercise program. Especially for those individuals who have any medical conditions such as diabetes and hypoglycemia just as examples.

If you have an opinion or would like to share a story with us we would love to hear from you.

Use our Contact Us page - or our Weight Loss News page (Your Story Counts).