When to Try 'Souping' to Lose Weight

When Souping is Super-Healthy

Yet proponents of souping, such as Elina Fuhrman, founder and chef of the soup cleanse delivery service Soupelina in Los Angeles, say there are distinct differences. “With juicing, you're getting just the liquid part of the vegetable,” she says. “With soups, you're getting all the fiber."

When veggies are pureed into a soup, you're also able to eat more of them than if they were whole on your plate. Blatner and Ronette Lategan-Potgieter, a registered dietitian and visiting professor of health sciences at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, agree. “Many Americans consume way too little vegetables and plant-based proteins in their diets,” says Lategan-Potgieter. “Eating soup can be an easy and tasty way to incorporate more vegetables and legumes in the diet, which have well-reported health benefits."

It's because of this veggie boost that Blatner says she wouldn't warn the average healthy person against doing something like a soup fast. She does, however, note that those facing health challenges like heart disease, diabetes or a kidney condition should steer clear. (For one thing, restricting calories this way can cause shifts in blood sugar and electrolytes that are difficult for people with these conditions to manage.)

How to Lose One Pound a Week

But for most, Blatner says that souping could be a way to kick-start healthy eating, as long as you're getting at least 1,200 calories a day for women or 1,500 for men.

"Psychologically it gives you a clean-slate vibe,” she says. “You realize you were able to get full eating soup, so maybe you don't need that ice cream after all."

What, exactly, does a soup fast look like? On a typical fast through Soupelina, you'd eat five different soups a day, one every two-and-a-half to three hours. You'd also start your day with a hot water and lemon, and drink a turmeric-based broth in the afternoon. You're allowed to munch on a few carrots, Persian cucumbers, radishes or celery if you need something to chew. Doing the entire fast, the company says, could lead to losing as much as one pound a day.

Blatner says there are limits to how long someone should go on a soup cleanse. The average healthy person, she notes, should spend no more than five days on a soup cleanse, and she recommends checking with your doctor before embarking on such a program. Adding soup as an appetizer to one or two meals a day, on the other hand, is something that could be done long-term.

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Two Bowls: The Magic Number for Weight Loss?

And research shows that working soup into your diet in smaller ways really can help you lose weight. In fact, two bowls would likely do the trick, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University. They found that people who ate two servings of soup a day as a snack lost 50 percent more weight than people who snacked on the same amount of calories in pretzels and chips. Soup eaters lost as much as 15 pounds over a year while the most weight a pretzel eater lost was 11.

This phenomenon could be explained by another study conducted by some of the same researchers. It found that people who ate soup before a meal ended up consuming 20 percent fewer calories during that lunch or dinner than people who weren't served soup first. In the study, women were served one-and-a-half cups of soup before meals and men were served two cups.

You might be wondering: Could just drinking the same amount of water have the same effect?

Apparently the researchers wondered the same thing. So they conducted a study in which they served participants one of three options: Chicken rice casserole appetizer with a glass of water, chicken rice casserole appetizer without a glass of water or chicken rice soup. Those eating the soup version consumed nearly 450 fewer calories during a lunch that followed than the people who had casserole with a glass of water.

Ready for a bowl of soup? Try this recipe from Soupelina.