Short-term high-intensity diets favored by celebrities are currently trending. As a practitioner of Korean Medicine, what weight loss method do you recommend?
While short-term diets are great for initial motivation, they often lead to muscle loss and the 'yo-yo effect.' Instead of extreme starvation, I recommend enhancing metabolic function through herbal medicine and acupuncture to selectively target body fat. By supplementing Vital Qi (Gi-ryeok) and adjusting the pace healthily, you can maintain your target weight long-term without rebound weight gain.
Seeing celebrities on extreme diets makes me admire their dedication, but I also worry they might collapse. I’ve personally experienced the downsides of starvation diets—feeling dizzy and trembling while trying to work. While high-intensity diets offer quick visible results, the side effects are significant. From a Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) perspective, such diets often lead to 'Spleen Deficiency' (脾虛), which weakens digestive function and depletes energy, eventually turning the body into a constitution that gains weight even with minimal food intake. Furthermore, when energy intake drops sharply, the body enters an emergency state, slowing metabolism and causing waste products known as 'Phlegm-fluid' (痰飮) to accumulate. This can also lead to 'Blood Stasis' (瘀血), resulting in poor circulation, swelling, and a heavy feeling. Therefore, I recommend an approach of 'emptying while filling.' We use herbal medicine to suppress false hunger and replenish depleted Vital Qi, combined with acupuncture to improve stagnant circulation. Since every individual's innate constitution and health status differ, finding your own pace is more important than blindly following others. Let’s work together to lose weight efficiently without compromising your health.
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