Reviewed by최연승대표원장
I'm curious about how to diet effectively within one month. How does Traditional Korean Medicine approach this?
Even for a short period, the principles remain the same. Please check the following list: ✓ Meal time: Do you eat slowly for at least 20 minutes? Eating quickly can cause indigestion and abdominal bloating. ✓ Sleep: Do you sleep before midnight and get 7 hours? Lack of sleep disrupts appetite hormones. ✓ Stress: Do you have chronic tension or anxiety? Stress weakens spleen function. ✓ Coldness: Are your hands and feet cold or your lower abdomen cool? A cold body hinders fat burning. ✓ Bowel movements: Do you have frequent constipation or diarrhea? Poor gut environment makes weight loss difficult.
If you have tried dieting multiple times, the cause may differ from the method. In Traditional Korean Medicine, obesity is seen not merely as a calorie problem but as a matter of body imbalance. Common causes include spleen deficiency (biheo, 脾虛), phlegm-rheum (dameum, 痰飮), and blood stasis (eohyeol, 瘀血). Spleen deficiency means the spleen’s function is weakened, failing to properly digest and transport food, leading to blocked water metabolism and phlegm formation, which accumulates subcutaneously or in organs, resulting in a constitution prone to weight gain and difficulty losing weight. Blood stasis occurs when blood circulation is impaired, reducing fat metabolism, especially common in women. For a one-month diet, rather than simply fasting or increasing exercise, it is important to approach it through pattern identification (byeonjeung, 辨證) tailored to your constitution and cause. For example, for spleen deficiency type, herbs that support the spleen (e.g., ginseng, baekchul) are used; for phlegm type, herbs that eliminate damp-phlegm (e.g., changchul, jinpi); for blood stasis type, herbs that activate blood (e.g., danggwi, cheongung). Acupuncture or moxibustion can help regulate meridians and improve metabolism. I once overdid it trying to lose weight quickly and damaged my health, so now I tell patients that 'one month is just the beginning.' What matters is not how fast you lose weight, but how healthily you maintain it. If you visit, I can carefully assess your current condition and create a plan together that is not too taxing.