Q. I’ve been following a stir-fried tofu diet I saw on YouTube, but I’m not losing weight as quickly as I hoped. What is the Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) approach to effective weight loss?

Hello, I am Director Choi Yeon-seung of Baekrokdam Clinic. It can be very frustrating when you are putting in the effort to eat healthy meals like stir-fried tofu but the scale doesn't move. This often occurs not because the food is wrong, but because your body isn't yet primed to process those nutrients. Here is our clinic's specialized 4-step approach to weight loss: 1. Clearing Dameum (痰飮) and Eohyeol (瘀血): If your body is filled with 'internal trash,' even high-quality fuel like tofu won't make the engine run better. Dameum refers to waste products from poor fluid metabolism, and Eohyeol refers to stagnant or 'dead' blood. Clearing these toxins first makes the body lighter and significantly increases weight loss efficiency. 2. Addressing Biheo (脾虛) and Boosting Metabolism: In TKM, the Spleen is responsible for digestion and transformation. If you have 'Biheo' (Spleen Deficiency), your body fails to convert food into energy and instead stores it as fat. Restoring this function creates a 'high-efficiency' body that burns energy naturally. 3. High-Protein Diet with Gi (氣) and Hyeol (血) Supplementation: Once the body is cleansed, we focus on high-quality protein. We use herbal medicine to supplement Gi (vital energy) and Hyeol (blood/nutritive substances) to ensure you don't feel fatigued, allowing the body to protect muscle mass while specifically targeting body fat. 4. Personalized Constitutional (Chejil) Management: Everyone’s internal temperature and constitution differ. Tofu has a 'cool' nature, so individuals with a 'cold' constitution may need to stir-fry it with 'warm' vegetables. Understanding your specific body type is the final step to preventing a rebound. Before sticking to a single food, it is vital to unblock your body’s metabolic pathways. We invite you to visit the clinic so we can identify which stage of the process is currently hindering your progress.