Hardly a week goes by in Japan without some new weight loss method being touted on TV variety programs and in magazines. We’ve heard about such fads as “curvy dance,” “wrapping one’s body with a cloth,” “Momuchan" (Korean word for beautiful healthy body) exercises, eating a banana for breakfast and a tomato for dinner, and so on.
Although there are many kinds of weight control methods, some people, especially young women, or "gyaru," are trying some innovative methods with dubious results, according to a recent article in SPA! magazine. Here are a few.
1. Eating only ice cream, 7 times a day maximum
“I not only ice cream but also ‘dorayaki’ (a bean-jam pancake) too. I just eat one thing but it’s my favorite, so I don’t get tired of it. However, I do get a little dizzy being on such a diet.” (Tsubapoyo-chan, 21)
2. Just sleeping
“If I get hungry, I just sleep to forget my hunger.” (Rina-chan, 18)
3. A stomach ache will beat an empty stomach
“I’ve found that when I catch a cold or have a stomach ache, I’m not hungry.” (Kanae-chan, 21)
4. Hangovers ward off hunger
“Whenever I have a hangover, I cannot eat anything. Once, I lost 7 kgs in two months.” (Yoshimi-chan, 21)
According to SPA!, girls who tried the above-mentioned dieting measures said they lost weight but felt unhealthy and mentally unwell.
So we can conclude that it is NOT a good idea to use extreme weight control methods, says SPA!
© Japan Today
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sillygirl
doesn`t she look like she would break if you touched her? OF COURSE they feel unwell - they are malnourished.
Utrack
weight loss should be for health issues like if your obese.
sakurala
It is so sad what people feel they have to go through to be beautiful. I am not a heavy girl, but by Japanese standards, I am a bit chunky. However, I just try to keep thinking about what a healthy body should be and ignore evenyone who says I should lose about 10 kgs (brining me down to 49 kgs).
gaijinfo
I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that the mentally unwell part came before these brilliant diets...
TakahiroDomingo
these diet ideas seem at the same time naive and a bit weird. but it's very likely those gyarus have eating disorders. and that's a really serious bad illness, no laughing matter.
smithinjapan
gaijinfo: "I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that the mentally unwell part came before these brilliant diets..."
EXACTLY what I was going to say, albeit with slightly different wording. :) These girls are Darwin awards waiting to happen. Here's a few more dieting ideas along their lines:
1) The Food-Poisoning Diet: Make yourself a nice, hearty meal of your favourite food, but leave it out in the sun for a couple of days. It's a two point diet: the first you fast for two days, then when you eat the spoiled (and make sure it's spoiled!) food you get sick and lose several more kilos through the subsequent vomiting and diarrhea.
2) The Body-Wipe Diet: Rather than INGESTING the food orally, wipe it on your body and leave it for an hour or so (save when at work, in which case for a quick twenty minutes. This way your body allows the food in through the pores, but you don't gain any of the unwanted weight! (has the duel benefit of paying homage to the 'Dirty Girls' girl band!)
3) The Copophragy Diet: I'll let you guys look that one up.
4) The Justin Bieber Diet: Listen to this garbage and lose all appetites completely save the desire to pummel the young 'artist'.
5) The NHK Diet: Rather than having money to buy food, pay the mandatory 'donation' fees to NHK... then watch their shows and lose all appetites completely save the desire... (see above).
6) The South Park Diet: Remember the episode where Cartman bets Kyle that if you shove food up your butt instead of 'eating' it orally that the what should normally come out your butt will come out your mouth? I believe that in one segment of the episode Martha Stewart talks about the benefits of said diet. This diet is useful if your partner agrees to go on diet number 3 concurrently.
7) The DEAD diet: eliminates all diet and weight gain woes!
*warning! These are not real diets and were meant in jest, tasteless as some may be. Do not try these at home!
Maria
bass4funk
There is so much pressure in japan to be thin and to look skinny, commercials of stupid diets, liquid drinks, pills and all these other nonsense quick fixes to get money and time and time again, they show limited and not real lasting results. If you turn on your TV, you will see more than 10 commercials a day. Amazing for a country that in actuality that doesn't even have a weight problem. This is about marketing, pure and simple. While weight gain is on the rise in Japan, they have a long way to go before they reach some of the western countries. Also, many Japanese don't exercise enough, drink enough water or don't eat enough fiber. Because, no matter how much you diet, if you don't work out and eat well, drinking a shake will be a temporary solution, you will never see true and lasting results. You need a combination of the two.
naruhodo1
I for one love skinny girls. Most of j women dont need any sort of diet. Just the unlucky few or the beer loving, sleep all day work all night kabakura/snack/club girls.
Scrote
The girl in the picture looks ill. If you're hungry you need to eat, not starve yourself until you look like a skeleton. If you eat healthy things and exercise you won't get fat.
rizaric
@smithinjapan HAHA you should write for JT
T_rexmaxytime
Fat people should learn from this iron will ladies! LOL
smithinjapan
bass4funk: "There is so much pressure in japan to be thin and to look skinny, commercials of stupid diets, liquid drinks, pills and all these other nonsense quick fixes to get money and time and time again, they show limited and not real lasting results."
This is not limited to Japan at all, although granted I'd say on average the ladies are a lot thinner. The problem here, touched upon in the opening of the article, is that diet fads are almost daily, and the misinformation of the benefits and exclusion of any health detriments is disturbing. The aforementioned diets these young women so whimsically engaged in were just downright moronic, and the idea that these girls would engage in alcoholism or what have you as a substitute for eating and then think, "hmmmm... maybe that's why I feel unhealthy" is baffling beyond imagination.
Just last year alone I remember a few big diet fads: the banana diet, the natto diet, the cucumber diet, and a tomato and carrot diet, if I recall correctly, to name but a few. While these are of course far healthier than the dubios 'diets' above, as I said they were ridiculously uninformative, and usually sponsored by farmers of such products or the companies that produced them. In fact, the natto and cucumber diet broadcasts on TV resulted in scandals for those stations because of blatent lies about the benefits in order that the companies profit. The blowback? MINIMAL compared to the people who literally 'ate up' the idea and bought out all the natto and cucumbers.
Which is my next point: people here will jump on the bandwagon FAR too quickly on such things. Seriously! I remember there LITERALLY being NO natto at the local supermarkets the day after the broadcast and until the trend died out two weeks later. Research and/or common sense are often completely absent when it comes to diet fads here in particular.
TrevorPeace1
And I always thought the Japanese were smarter than that. What's with this anorexic obsession? Eat well, drink well, sleep well, live well. That saying doesn't mean get fat, it means think about it!
sillygirl
@trevorpeace1 - really? i mean about the smarter than that.
tmarie
They are skinny but skinny fat. Not a lot of muscle tone, not healthy. I prefer the healthy look of many girls "home" than the malnourished look here. Many look so frail and weak. Was chatting to my class about what "gaijin" men like and when I mentioned boobs and butts they looked rather shocked. When I said many would prefer a bit of fat than bones they were shocked. They suggested Angelina Jolie (now, not her Tomb Raiders look). When I said many men would find her too skinny they were shocked. Shock, shock, shock. Thing is, I don't think what the men prefer here is different either. It is the women putting pressure on themselves to look a certain way they think men like - but of course, haven't asked the men!
So fellows, name me your sexist hollywood star - have to get back to them on Monday as I said I would ask around. I gave Jessica Alba, Jessica Beil as chicks with slamming bodies. Salma Hayek got a mention too!
The Munya Times
I have an outrageous and absolutely not scientific, boring dieting method to keep your body healthy.
Don' eat more than your body needs according to your daily physical activity. All it requires is - self control. It saves a lot of money and saves your health. Also if it saves money then than you can afford better quality food.
Also, the best way to avoid over eating yourself is to chew slowly patiently not just swallowing like a duck. Give your body and brain a little time to sense the fullness of your stomach. Properly chewed food mixed with lot of saliva sends half digested food to your stomach thus lowering bad cholesterol level and helping digestion to avoid the accumulation of fat.
I guess I will never be popular with such a primitive standpoint.
hellmaster
this is more like a mental issue than a physical issue
BlueWitch
@sakurala
Don't worry honey, you are NOT the only one.. By "Japanese Standards" everyone is FAT, apparently. I'm from a countryside village yet I'm a little taller than your average Japanese woman. I'm 164 cm with a normal weight of 55~57 kgs and some people call me "overweight"!!! Husband is 185cm and probably 80 something kgs and they still call him FAT!! so yeah. WTF?!?! So, do I have to lose weight in order to please the people that give me absolutely nothing in return? I mean they don't pay my bills or buy my groceries, right? FUDGE THEM!!
I'm currently dealing with 14 kgs overweight of baby fat since I gave birth (I'm weighting 69 kgs right now) and I think that's enough to worry already. I can't just go into some diet because I breastfeed. I need to let time deal with it. It usually takes around a year to go back to my previous shape so why the hurry?! It's not like I'm a celebrity or something. People need to love themselves for what they are not for what they look like. Besides, husband told me I look better now since there's more curves for him to grab and enjoy...LOL
BlueWitch
@smithinjapan
Your post made my day!!
ROFLMAO~
BlueWitch
@The Munya Times
OMG!! I thought I was weird for doing that. I take like an hour to finish one meal. I've always been like that since I was a child. I chew and chew and chew till I can't chew anymore. and because I waste people's time, I have been harshly criticized too!!! (-_-)
The Munya Times
@BlueWitch
I think one hour for a meal like lunch is quite all right, for me it takes normally 45 min or more. Eating is not only stuffing our stomach but a mental, spiritual and emotional nourishment. Eating should be beatific. I've also been doing so since I was a child, and not just me as a child but even adults today must put up with much impatient pressing from their pals at the table if they dare eat slowly by paying attention to the food they consume.
Seeing people eating in these days I can say, even the cannibals (no personal experiences though, just from history books -:D) payed more attention and honor to what they ate and were more ritual and respectful toward nourishment than most people in our speed up age.
I think letting kids developing bad eating habits is one more serious problem in our nutrition today, beyond the issue of the quality and quantity of the food we eat.
YongYang
Eat well. Be active. Simple.
gaijinfo
Me, I'm on a seafood diet. If I see food, I eat food. And it keeps me in shape. Round shape.
Serrano
"a banana for breakfast and a tomato for dinner"
And 7 ice creams for lunch!
tranel
Whatever happened to "be happy with who you are"? If you have a health problem because of your weight, fix it by eating better and exercising more.
If you feel healthy and energetic but you have a higher BMI than magazines and marketers tell you you should have... well screw them. Be happy with who you are, end of story.
Oh, and another thing aimed squarely at teenage girls everywhere. Beauty does not come from your clothes or your accessories, nor does it come only from your body shape. It is about 5% looks, 30% posture and facial expression (as in, do you stand straight and look intelligent, or do you subscribe to the oh-so-common neanderthal hanging-arms/slouching back look with the vacant half-open-mouth expression), and the rest is your attitude to life and other people.
Sasoriza
BlueWitch, same here. But I think you're going to lose everything since you breastfeed.My idea for losing weght is to speed up my metabolism by moving more and cutting all junk from my diet-sweets, fried stuff, oily stuff.
Dewaashita
**If rediculous is pretty, then this is pretty rediculous.
SuperLib
This is excellent journalism.
Serrano
Here's a dieting method you might not have thought of yet:
Eat smaller portions.
Dewaashita, the only thing that's ridiculous is your spelling, nyuck nyuck!
FightingViking
I guess I'll stick with the old French adage : "Il vaut mieux faire envie que pitié" ("It's better to be envied than pitied...")
jonobugs
@ SmithinJapan. Nice summary of the diets :-) The best (and also saddest) part is your disclaimer at the end.
Even the government is giving out really strict guidelines on what is considered overweight. It's not so long ago that I read that the government requires men's waistlines to be less than 85cm (I think?) to NOT be considered overweight. WTF? Are they kidding? I think it converts to something around a 32 inch waist or less. No other mention of size either. So a big 6 foot tall guy has the same guidelines as a 5 foot guy. Ridiculous, not to mention a bit unrealistic.
Karen Yap
This issue always brings the beast out of those who's got the will power to diet. But no sooner have they got into shape, they would one way or the other gain them back for most. Just be happy with what you've got, enjoy life and food ! Its a long term solution with healthy food and get your butts out there for some exercise. Easier said then done ? That's where those fad diet comes in for a short and difficult time only.
johninnaha
For those who may remember him, there was the Harry Secombe diet (the Goons).
Eat as much of whatever you like, as many times as you like at any time of the day or night.
Just don't swallow.
nath
I never diet. I eat everything too, but in small amounts. Keeps me sexy :-)
randomenigma
@YongYang Being active is only optional, not required to lose weight. A good diet alone is plenty. Currently at 9kg lost in 8 weeks myself, and I haven't done any exercise beyond the walking I already have to do to get to work and shops. Losing more than 1kg per week isn't particularly healthy anyway.