Warning: This article may be triggering for those with eating disorders.
45 kilograms (99 lbs) is regarded as an unhealthy weight goal for most people. Unless you’re short, forty-five kilograms means you are underweight, and it probably wouldn’t be your diet goal if you want to be healthy.
For a large proportion of Korean girls, however, the very opposite is true. Anything under 50 kilograms (110 lbs) is regarded by some as the ideal number, to the extent that there’s a saying in South Korea that goes “If you’re over fifty kilograms, are you even a woman?”.
This “under-50 rule” applies to everyone regardless of metabolism, genetics, muscle mass or height, which makes the rule even more preposterous. The perfect body for you isn’t defined by the weight on the scale, it’s defined by your standards and a complex mix of the four elements listed above. You could be 45 kilograms (99 lbs) with a high body-fat percentage, which would essentially be the same as a 53 kilogram (117 lb) body with lots muscle mass, or you could be 168 centimeters (5ft 5), 55kgs (1211 lbs) and be leaner than a 49 kg (108lbs), 156-centimeter (5ft 1) person.
Despite this, nine out of ten Korean celebrities are said to have a weight under fifty kilograms.
So, what influence do K-pop idols and celebrities have on Korean (and international) adolescents and adults? Well, girls and boys alike look at their favourite idols – shown in television ads, music videos, etc. – and perceive them as having the “perfect body”. And in order to achieve these perfect bodies, extreme dieting has become common in South Korea. Fast diets such as the “Ailee diet” or the “IU diet”, named after two famed singers/actors who lost a lot of weight, are followed by a lot of Korean women (and teenage girls).
These diets are usually unhealthy, don’t provide enough nutrients and sometimes lead to eating disorders due to the low calorie count involved.
The IU diet
IU (Lee Ji-Eun) is one of the most famous K-pop idols in South Korea – but it hasn’t always been that way. When she debuted, she was shamed and bullied. The audience would go so far as to throw things at her and call her a pig during her performance, and netizens would constantly leave malicious comments online.
Seeing those comments and reactions to her weight had a negative effect on IU’s mental health and self esteem. What’s more, her company was subtly pressuring her to lose some pounds. For these reasons, IU went on an extreme diet that made her lose ten kilograms.
The diet, named the IU diet after her stage name, is one of the most famous diets in South Korea and is well-known by teenagers and adults alike, either due to word of mouth or television. The meal plan is as follows :
Breakfast : One apple
Lunch : One sweet potato
Dinner : Protein shake
On top of this, she scaled stairs for hours at a time at her apartment and danced to her songs.
This all sums up to around 200-400 calories at most, (negative calories considering the exercise) and it’s not a sustainable nor efficient way to lose weight. On a talk show, IU herself mentioned that she eventually became obsessed with food to the point of being bulimic.
Some people who have tried the diet for more than three days say that they’ve fainted, blacked out, or become very dizzy at least. What’s more, most who are put on this diet binge afterwards, leading to yo-yo dieting.
The Ailee diet
Ailee (Amy lee) is another K-pop singer whose diet plan is well known in South Korea. Like IU, she was also mocked for her weight. Netizens would leave comments about her thick thighs, choosing to focus on her body rather than her voice as a singer.
And so she decided to lose weight. Ailee went on a very extreme diet, consuming around 500 calories per day, and lost eleven kilograms in a month, a sixth of her body weight at the time (60 kilograms, or 132 lbs) She eventually reached her desired number – forty nine kilograms (108 lbs).
What exactly was her diet that made her lose weight so quickly? She only consumed around 500 calories a day, just around third or a quarter of the recommended intake for adult women. She ate two meals a day, which were composed of shrimp, chicken, beef and crab meat, which she had with two cups of vegetables.
AIlee eventually became very exhausted and barely had any energy to perform because of her diet. She said: “ At that time, I got depressed. It was so hard for me. Being the best at singing is my goal, but as I focused on my weight, I developed problems with my voice. I was diagnosed with vocal nodules, and treating it was difficult…” Now, she eats three or four small meals a day and is feeling much better.
If you want to lose weight because of your health or because you genuinely want it to better yourself, make sure to do so in a healthy way. It really isn’t recommended to go under 1,200 calories whilst on a diet unless consulted with a doctor, and you should be getting nutrients from all food groups. If you exercise, you should increase your calorie intake as well.
There have been numerous trends in the standards of beauty ever since the very beginning of human history – crooked teeth, foot binding, corsets, skull binding and such. Beauty is an ever-changing concept and it isn’t possible to keep chasing it, so instead of changing yourself to fit the trends, why not love yourself and create your own beauty standards? Skinny, curvy, or thick, we are all beautiful in our own way, and there’s no need to change yourself for society. The ones who really love you will stay by your side no matter what.
Image credit: Michal Jarmoluk