Q. Why do I stop losing weight when I strictly stick to a high-protein diet, like eating only chicken breast or chicken soup?

I have seen many patients struggle with this, and I even experienced it myself when I once tried to get in shape by eating nothing but chicken breast. Initially, the weight drops, but eventually, you feel lethargic and the scale stops moving. From a Western medical perspective, the body enters survival mode when it receives a restricted range of nutrients, drastically lowering the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) to conserve energy. It is like trying to drive a car while cutting off its fuel supply; eventually, the engine just stops. In Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM), this phenomenon is diagnosed as Spleen Deficiency (Pi Xu). The Spleen is responsible for the 'transformation and transportation' of food into energy. A monotonous diet overworks and weakens this system. When Spleen Deficiency occurs, the body fails to fully 'combust' nutrients, leading to the accumulation of metabolic waste known as Phlegm-fluid (Tan Yin). This waste acts like soot in an engine, clogging your internal pathways. If this persists, it can lead to Blood Stasis (Yu Xue), where circulation becomes sluggish. This is why you might feel bloated and heavy even if you are eating very little. To break through a plateau, you must move beyond calorie counting and focus on restoring the Spleen's functional health to reignite your metabolic engine.