Q. I keep gaining the weight back right after I diet. How can I prevent the yo-yo effect?

The reason the yo-yo effect keeps repeating is that your diet only reduced calories without changing your body's metabolic foundation. In TKM, the spleen (脾) plays the 'middle burner (中焦)' role of transforming food into energy and blood. When you starve yourself or eat imbalanced meals, spleen function weakens—this is called spleen deficiency (脾虛). Once spleen deficiency develops, your body tries to store energy, and water retention and waste products accumulate, creating phlegm-dampness (痰飮) and blood stasis (瘀血). This is why fat becomes difficult to lose and returns easily. Here are the steps to prevent the yo-yo effect: 1. **Constitution diagnosis** – A TKM practitioner uses pulse diagnosis, abdominal diagnosis, and inquiry to determine if you are Taeumin, Soyangin, Soyin, or another constitution. Each constitution has different metabolic speed, digestive capacity, and stress response, so the same diet method won't work for everyone. 2. **Strengthen spleen function** – If spleen deficiency is suspected, herbal medicines like ginseng, white atractylodes, and poria are used to tonify the spleen and stomach (脾胃). When digestion works well and nutrient absorption becomes smooth, your metabolism naturally increases. 3. **Clear phlegm-dampness and blood stasis** – Waste products already accumulated are addressed with herbs like pinellia, dried tangerine peel, and persica seed, while medicines that aid blood circulation are used together. Skipping this step and losing weight aggressively will cause the yo-yo effect. 4. **Regulate daily rhythm** – Irregular meals, late sleeping, and chronic stress further weaken the spleen. Eating at the same time every day and getting more than 6 hours of sleep help significantly. 5. **Sustainable exercise** – Rather than intense exercise, maintaining qi-blood circulation with walking or light strength training is better. Adjust the ratio of aerobic to anaerobic exercise based on your constitution. These steps vary by individual, so the key is to proceed slowly while consulting with a TKM practitioner. I also personally struggled with extreme dieting in the past, so I've felt firsthand that consistency is the answer.