Three Diet Weight Loss Soup Recipes

Diet soup sounds like a weight loss fad, but there’s sound nutritional advice in eating low-calorie, high fiber meals to drop pounds.

A diet soup is a broth-based soup that contains fibrous vegetables. The soups are filling enough to satisfy hunger and have far fewer calories than the average meal. By eating diet soup in place of regular meals, you can achieve the key of weight loss: intake fewer calories than you burn.

One of the benefits of diet soup is that you can eat all you want. Can you eat too much? If you eat more calories than you burn, weight loss won’t occur; but because diet soup is mostly water and vegetables, it fills the stomach to capacity before too many calories are consumed. Even ten bowls of diet soup can have fewer calories than one small typical meal. Make a large pot of diet soup to have on hand.

To Maintain Weight Loss or Lose Ten Pounds or Less

• For weight maintenance, use diet soups to replace one meal a day.
• For rapid weight loss, use diet soups to replace two meals a day, one of which should be the evening meal.
• Eat sensible portions of nutritional food choices for the other meals.

Not all diet soups are healthful. In an effort to reduce calories, some diet soup recipes neglect nutrition. If these diet soups are the only food source over a period of time, malnutrition and all its serious complications can occur.

• Avoid eating diet soup for longer than one or two weeks at a stretch.
• Avoid single ingredient soups like cabbage soup, broth only and fruit juice. Drinking single ingredient soups and drinks seriously restricts nutritional intake and is considered a fast. Health fasts must be undertaken carefully. Read more about fasting for health before considering that route.
• Drink plenty of water when increasing your fiber intake.

If you want to lose more than 25 pounds, you need to use diet soups differently:

• Replace two meals a day with diet soups for one week only.
• The next week, consume proper portions of healthful meals with lots of variety in food choices, heavy on fruits, vegetables, low-fat protein and unrefined whole grain foods.
• The following week, resume the diet soup eating plan by replacing two meals with diet soups. Repeat the cycle until you achieve your weight loss goal.
• To avoid boredom and increase nutritional intake, vary the diet soups you eat.
• Take a vitamin supplement.
• Remember that the diet soups are not an excuse to eat larger quantities of high-calorie junk for your third meal.
• Exercise is an important part of every effective weight loss plan. Move more.

Konnyaku is a Japanese food product made of konjac, a plant whose corm is 40 percent glucomannan gum. Konjac is high in fiber and virtually no calories which makes it a common diet food. Today, companies are experimenting with konjac to produce new diet products like appetite suppressants, jellies and pasta substitutes. It has little flavor of its own and a toothsome gelatin-like texture. Find konnyaku blocks and noodles at Asian grocery stores or online resources.

1 clove garlic, minced

1 onion, sliced thin

3 ribs celery, sliced thin

1 pkg. konnyaku noodles or slices from blocks

7 shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced

1 can water chestnuts, sliced

1 can lotus root, sliced (optional)

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 packet sugar substitute

2 quarts dashi (Japanese fish stock)

*Dashi powder is available at Asian markets. Or you can make dashi by simmering dried bonito flakes in water and straining the broth. Fat free chicken broth can be substituted but the flavor will be very different.

In a large pot, bring all ingredients to a light boil. Cover and lower heat. Simmer until vegetables are cooked, about 30 minutes. Konnyaku comes fully cooked but needs time to absorb flavors from the broth.

Brimming with plenty of tender crisp Asian vegetables, this soup is a delicious meal whether you’re watching your weight or not. Just be sure to use fat free chicken broth.

1 tsp. sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, sliced thin

2 ribs celery, sliced thin

2 cups Chinese snow peas, fresh and strung

5 shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced thin

3 cups fresh bean sprouts

1 can water chestnuts, sliced

1 can bamboo shoots, sliced thin

3 fresh scallions, sliced

¼ cup cilantro (Chinese parsley), chopped

1 slice of fresh ginger

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 ½ quarts fat-free chicken broth

In a large pot, heat sesame oil and sauté garlic, onions and celery until translucent. Add chicken broth, ginger, soy sauce and mushrooms and bring to a light boil. Lower heat, add remaining vegetables and simmer for five minutes.

2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

1 onion, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

2 ribs of celery, sliced

1 bell pepper, chopped

¼ head of cabbage, sliced thin

2 zucchini squash, sliced

2 cups green beans, chopped

1 can tomatoes, diced

2 tsp. Italian herbs (oregano, basil, thyme)

1 Tbsp. sugar substitute

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 1/2 quarts fat free chicken or beef broth

In a large pot, bring all ingredients to a light boil. Cover and lower heat. Simmer until vegetables are tender crisp.

Enjoy these low-calorie, high fiber soups as part of a healthful diet whether or not weight loss is your goal. But if you are trying to lose weight, use diet soups as a replacement for only one or two daily meals and only one-week durations at a time. Create your own diet soups by choosing low-calorie, high-fiber ingredients and slim down easily.

Combine your new soup diet with some great weight loss tricks found in these Hubpage articles: "Use Your Brain to Lose Weight" and "How to Help Someone Lose Weight."