Reviewed by최연승대표원장
Is there a surefire way to lose weight in one month?
✓ Do you have irregular meal patterns or a history of binge eating?
✓ Do you frequently experience poor digestion and bloating?
✓ Do you get insufficient sleep or feel high stress?
✓ Have you experienced yo-yo effects after past diets?
✓ Do you tend to accumulate fat specifically in the abdomen or thighs?
If two or more items apply, simple calorie restriction may have limitations. In Traditional Korean Medicine, we approach the root causes from a constitutional perspective—such as metabolic decline due to Spleen Qi deficiency (脾虛), accumulation of phlegm-fluid (痰飮), and blood stasis (瘀血) circulatory disorders.
One-month dieting is a very common concern. I myself used to try fasting or extreme diets thinking 'this will work,' only to end up dizzy and hit by yo-yo effects. After some trial and error, I realized the key is to first understand why the body finds it hard to lose weight.
In Traditional Korean Medicine, obesity is viewed from three main causal axes. First is Spleen Qi deficiency (脾虛): the spleen transforms food into energy and regulates water metabolism. When this function is weak, even small amounts of food are not properly utilized and remain as waste (phlegm-fluid, 痰飮) that turns into fat. Second is phlegm-fluid accumulation itself—unmetabolized water and waste build up in the body, causing edema and abdominal obesity. Third is blood stasis (瘀血): poor blood circulation prevents fat-degrading enzymes from being delivered effectively, making it hard to reduce subcutaneous fat.
Thus, the checklist I provide focuses on reading the body's signals rather than just 'how much you ate.' For example, 'poor digestion and bloating' strongly suggests Spleen Qi deficiency, while 'sleep deprivation plus high stress' raises cortisol via sympathetic overactivity, promoting abdominal fat storage. If you have repeated yo-yo effects from past diets, your metabolism may already be impaired, requiring herbal medicine or acupuncture to restore basal metabolic function.
Personally, I believe that rather than obsessing over the 'one-month' timeframe, it is more beneficial for long-term success to use that period to diagnose the underlying cause and set a treatment direction. At Baekrokdam Korean Medicine Clinic, we assess the proportions of Spleen Qi deficiency, phlegm-fluid, and blood stasis through body composition analysis, pulse diagnosis, and tongue diagnosis, then prescribe tailored herbal medicine and lifestyle modifications. Feel free to come for a consultation without any pressure.