Reviewed by최연승대표원장
Is there a sure way to lose weight within a month? I feel lost when I hear people around me say they succeeded in a one-month diet.
✓ First, you need to identify your constitution and the root cause. A simple 'eat less, move more' approach often leads to yo-yo dieting or harming the body. ✓ Check 'what and when you eat' rather than just the amount. Those with Spleen Deficiency (Pi Xu) or Phlegm-Fluid (Tan Yin) tend to store undigested food as fat. ✓ One month is the minimum cycle for the body to change. A more realistic goal is to find the lifestyle mismatches that cause weight gain during this period.
I've personally tried one-month diets many times in the past. But every time, around the second week, I'd feel dizzy and lose motivation, ending up with yo-yo weight gain and a sense of failure. In Traditional Korean Medicine, dieting is not simply about weight loss—it's a process of finding the fundamental reason why the body stores fat and changing that pattern. For example, those with Spleen Deficiency (Pi Xu) have poor digestion, so food is not properly converted into energy and instead accumulates. People with excessive Phlegm-Fluid (Tan Yin) have sticky waste products in the body, making weight loss nearly impossible even with starvation. One month is the minimum time to diagnose these causes and correct lifestyle habits. If you try to lose weight too quickly, the body perceives a crisis and lowers its metabolism. That's why I tell new patients to consider this first month an 'experiment period.' Together, we create a checklist examining diet patterns, sleep, stress, and constipation. Then, we prescribe herbal medicine to tonify the Spleen or resolve Phlegm-Fluid, combined with acupuncture. After a month, you'll notice changes not in weight but in bodily signals—reduced bloating, improved digestion, and better energy. At first, both I and my patients wonder, 'Is this really a diet?' But without this process, you're likely to repeat the same mistakes. If you want a 'guaranteed quick weight loss in a month,' I cannot offer that. However, a month that clearly reveals why you haven't lost weight can definitely be helpful.