Q. What is the specific difference between managing my diet with meal boxes or Subway and using herbal medicine for weight loss?

In Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM), difficulty in losing weight despite a strict diet is often attributed to 'Spleen Deficiency' (脾虛). When the Spleen's function of digestion and transport weakens, nutrients are not converted into energy but instead remain in the body as metabolic waste known as 'Phlegm-fluid' (痰飮). While standard dieting focuses on limiting external intake, TKM weight loss focuses on expelling accumulated Phlegm-fluid and 'Blood Stasis' (瘀血)—stagnant blood that hinders circulation—effectively restarting a stalled internal engine. Key differences include: 1. Approach: Standard diets suppress calorie intake, whereas TKM improves metabolic power to transform your constitution. 2. Principle: Diets block external input; TKM strengthens internal burning capacity. 3. Side Effect Management: Standard dieting often leads to lethargy or nutritional gaps; TKM supplements 'void' areas by tonifying the Spleen and Qi. 4. Sustainability: Diets rely heavily on individual willpower, while TKM focuses on recovering the body's natural circulation system. 5. Personalization: While meal plans follow general guides, TKM provides customized prescriptions based on an individual's unique constitution and the root cause of their obesity. Dietary management is useful, but if you find yourself swelling easily or failing to lose weight despite significant effort, it is a clinical signal that your body's internal combustion system requires a TKM evaluation.