I track my calories every day when planning my meals; what method do you recommend from a TKM perspective?

I have personally experienced the frustration of obsessively following calorie-restricted diets, only to find myself feeling exhausted and dizzy. Through that experience, I realized that metabolic capacity varies significantly from person to person. Calorie counting has clear advantages: it provides an objective view of your intake and helps build dietary discipline. However, the drawbacks are equally clear. When you focus solely on hitting a number, you may neglect essential nutritional balance and develop stress from obsessive tracking. Most importantly, numbers cannot reflect the internal state of 'metabolic waste' in your body. In Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM), we look beyond calories to examine 'Dameum' (phlegm-fluid retention) and 'Eohyeol' (blood stasis). Dameum refers to the accumulation of metabolic waste, and Eohyeol refers to poor blood circulation. If these blockages exist, you won't see efficient results regardless of how little you eat. Furthermore, if you suffer from 'Bi-heo' (Spleen Deficiency), where digestive and absorptive functions are weakened, your body may enter a 'starvation mode,' making it even harder to lose weight. Consequently, I suggest using calorie counting only as a reference. It is far more effective to first assess whether your metabolic switches are 'on' and if your digestion is functioning properly. Once you clear the stagnated waste tailored to your specific constitution, the numbers on the scale will begin to move meaningfully. I would like to help you identify exactly which parts of your metabolic process are currently blocked.