Q. I always experience the yo-yo effect whenever I diet. Is there a way to prevent the weight from coming back?
The key is not simply eating less, but recovering your metabolic capacity. You must improve your body's energy efficiency to create a constitution that is resistant to the yo-yo effect.
📝 Detailed Answer
Regaining weight after a diet is not a matter of willpower. It happens because the body adapts to a starvation state due to extreme dietary restrictions. When you starve yourself, the body drastically lowers its metabolic rate to conserve energy.
In Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM), this state is viewed as Spleen Deficiency (脾虛), where digestive functions and energy metabolism capacity are weakened. When your vital energy is low, your body becomes prone to gaining weight even with minimal food intake.
💡 Goals of Yo-Yo Prevention Treatment
Instead of forced fasting, we focus on restoring the collapsed metabolic balance and creating a body that naturally burns energy.
- Metabolic Stimulation: We promote the circulation of Qi and Blood and remove Dam-jeok (痰積)—accumulated metabolic waste—to awaken the metabolism.
- Maintaining Basal Metabolic Rate: We prevent the drop in basal metabolism by minimizing muscle loss and strengthening the functions of the internal organs.
- Dietary Correction: Using herbal medicine to regulate hunger, we normalize the brain's reward system to prevent binge eating.
- Constitutional Optimization: We identify a diet tailored to your specific Sasang constitution to establish sustainable lifestyle habits.
Ultimately, if you only focus on reducing the number on the scale without addressing the fundamental physiological problems, the yo-yo effect will inevitably repeat. You need a process to restart your body's internal engine.
Expert Verified
Dr. Yeonseung Choe
Chief Director
Last reviewed 2026.04.24