Kpop diet: weigh your options
before your weight
By Jaylee Soh
Find out why the K-pop diet trend may not be as effective as it seems as JAYLEE SOH discovers the hidden struggles of the plan.
Hazel May (not her real name), 18, who attempted the Korean Pop (K-Pop) diet trend just less than two months ago, remembers eating an apple for breakfast, a sweet potato for lunch and a protein shake for dinner every day for five days. She did this all in the hope of losing weight quickly and achieving results like her idol.
However, just like many others, she could not follow through the diet as she started to feel weaker. She describes the diet trend as unsustainable, not worth risking her health for, and a short-lived fantasy.
Hazel recounts her experience: “It was definitely really physically tiring by the fifth day. I was feeling lightheaded when I got up so that's when I decided to stop. Emotionally, I was feeling great because I saw the numbers go down on the scale and it made me mentally stronger to continue to lose weight. But, I knew I was going too far on the fifth day, and I also had good friends who stopped me from going too far.”
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The diet which Hazel tried was the IU diet, essentially one of the many K-Pop diets, with some others being the Suzy, Seolhyun and Jimin diet. These specific diets are named after the Korean celebrities who have practised and brought them to fame with their extreme weight loss transformations in an extremely short amount of time.
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Due to its K-Pop branding, these supposedly quick weight loss solutions have become a craze more so than ever amongst youths all over the world right now. On YouTube, K-Pop diet videos easily hit 1 million views, with videos from ‘BABYLLOW VLOG’ and ‘S W’ having 1.6 and 5.7 million views to date respectively and in Singapore, KITSCH found that out of 122 respondents aged 13 to 22, 84 per cent and 13 per cent of respondents have heard of or tried kpop diets respectively.
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Dillon Lim, 17, a student pursuing a Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering from Singapore Polytechnic, recently attempted a one-day K-Pop diet challenge for fun. He attributes the trend to the large fanbase for K-Pop, mostly comprising of youths.
An example of the IU Diet. Photo courtesy of Channel-Korea.
He says: “They idolise their K-Pop stars and they want to be like them, and look like them so they also want to find out what they do to look so beautiful. Hence, when the K-Pop stars reveal what they eat, people tend to copy their idols because they want to be like them.”
He adds that although this trend started years ago, it is getting more popular recently and its popularity will only increase as K-Pop is now considered a ‘power player’ in the global music scene and have produced leading trend-setters for fashion and beauty who have immense power to influence people.
However, people are quick to try this trend, unaware that behind all the glamour and glitz lies a hefty price of a very extreme and dangerous diet trend.
“Although the food consumed for each meal in the different K-Pop celebrity diets are generally different, a similarity they share is that they are very strict and they consume very little food… very little calories,” says Dillon.
Ms Tay Suit Teng, 30, a dietician says: “A K-Pop diet is not a healthy way for weight management. It is basically lacking in calories and nutrients that are needed by our body, especially in teenagers for growth.”
Ms Tay explains that most celebrities have their personal dietician to monitor their health condition whenever they try out a certain diet plan, but for the average person with no professional guidance, the K-Pop diet can bring about conditions such as fatigue, stress, eating disorders, and low self-esteem. In the long run, it can cause problems like gallstone, electrolyte imbalance, malnutrition and a weak immune system.
Regretting that he did his challenge on a school day, Dillon adds: “Because the meal was very plain and little, I felt sluggish and tired throughout the day. I got very ill-tempered and easy to anger. The hunger made me feel very restless and distracted that I cannot focus properly during lessons.”
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Although Ms Tay strongly discourages anyone from carrying out the K-Pop diet trend, if one still insists, she suggests that they do not continue it for more than a week.
She also urges them to always consult a professional such as a dietitian before practising the diet and also inform their family and friends before going ahead so that there will be people who can help monitor their condition. Lastly, she instructs them to stop immediately once they do not feel well.
A balanced diet is by far the easiest, most sustainable and effective weight management method as recommended by Ms Tay. Refraining from skipping breakfast and exercising at a moderate level also plays a huge part. Infographic by Jaylee Soh.
“At the time I was too focused on losing weight to really think about the negative effects. Eating like 900 calories a day isn't going to help you much in the long run and it's better to just not do it,” says Hazel.