Introduction to Losing Weight Using TCM – part 1 of Losing Weight using TCM

Being overweight is an epidemic problem in America. According to Center for Disease Control (CDC), currently:

• 33.9% of adults are obese (BMI >30), and
• 34.4% of adults are overweight (BMI>25) and below obese.

So total 68.3% of American adults have weight issue. There are countless products and services on the market that promise weight loss. Obviously, if they work as advertised, we would not have such a large scale weight problem. There are so many information and disinformation that people are truly confused. In this article, we will examine how to lose weight in a healthy and effective way from a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective.

The first thing to keep in mind is that we are focusing on losing weight from a medical angle. Many people are motivated to lose weight from a cosmetic angle. For people who are obese and overweight, losing weight will bring both medical benefits as well as improvements in appearance. However, there is a subset of our population who are trying to lose weight for cosmetic reason alone. Such practice are potentially hazardous to health. It is beyond the scope of our practice and we do not advise unnecessary weight loss for cosmetic purpose.