Why do I lose weight initially with diet shakes or programs, only to hit a plateau and gain it all back so quickly?
When you severely restrict calories, your body enters a 'survival mode' by lowering its basal metabolic rate (BMR). In Western medicine, this is called metabolic adaptation, while Traditional Korean Medicine diagnoses it as Spleen Deficiency (Biheo), a decline in digestive and metabolic function. This drop in efficiency causes your body to store fat even with minimal food intake, which is the fundamental reason why many diets end in failure.
I have personally experienced the dizziness and exhaustion that come from relying solely on shakes; while the scale may drop, you are often losing water and muscle rather than fat. Extreme calorie restriction forces the body to break down muscle for energy and drastically lower the basal metabolic rate. In Traditional Korean Medicine, this state is known as Spleen Deficiency (Biheo). The Spleen is responsible for the 'Transformation and Transportation' of nutrients; when this function weakens, the body fails to convert food into energy effectively. This stagnation leads to the accumulation of 'Phlegm-fluid' (Dameum), a form of metabolic waste, and 'Blood Stasis' (Eohyeol) due to poor circulation. At this point, your body becomes an 'inefficient engine' that causes swelling and rapid weight gain even after a single regular meal. To break the cycle of the yo-yo effect, the priority should be restoring Spleen health and normalizing metabolic function rather than simply eating less. We must address the root cause of why your body is hoarding energy instead of utilizing it.
Clinician review