Speaking of weight loss, it’s a tale of sorrow. Sometimes, after dieting and exercising continuously, one loses some weight, only to rebound shortly after. What could be more disheartening than regaining lost weight? Today, I will share with you the traditional Chinese medicine weight loss secrets that both replenish and prevent rebound.
Many people adopt radical methods to lose weight, leading to a series of side effects like hormonal imbalance, hair loss, and skin spots, which is not worth it. Weight loss should be tailored to one’s body constitution. Obesity can be classified into types: damp-heat, edema, qi deficiency, blood stasis, and stress-related. Deficiencies should be replenished, while excess conditions should be purged. Different body types require different weight loss methods.
Here, I will present two weight loss recipes tailored to different body types that everyone can try!
Bitter Melon and Kelp Soup
Combine winter melon with skin, kelp, dried tangerine peel, lotus leaf, and hawthorn to make a soup, suitable for excess-type obesity. The winter melon and kelp can eliminate dampness, while hawthorn and lotus leaf can reduce stagnation. These ingredients provide more drainage than nourishment, making them suitable for damp-heat, edema, blood stasis, and stress-related obesity.
Chicken and Astragalus Soup
Boil together chicken, astragalus, cassia seed, ginger, red dates, and shiitake mushrooms for a soup suitable for deficiency-type obesity. These ingredients are warming and nourishing, appropriate for qi deficiency and edema-type obesity. In the case of edema-type obesity, lacking sufficient protein will lead to further weight gain; therefore, it is necessary to replenish the body’s required nutrients to eliminate dampness.
Though these two dietary therapies are wonderful, they should be used in moderation; nothing should be taken to excess!
