That was March this year. March this year. This is a photo from March this year. When I was overweight, I had no energy, no facial expression, no strength.

After a week, I was told, "Your face looks a bit different." "I see angular features in your face." How come you look so healthy and young?

My skin began to glow. - Your cellulite was gone? - Completely vanished.

- Really? - Gone. None on my arms or legs. Diet scientist Gyum Choi, here. Today's my third interview.

And again I have a very special guest. Recently, the reviews were really great at Instagram and YouTube, right? I have here Ms. Aelee Jang.

- Hello, Aelee. - Hello. My name is Aelee Jang. I was able to encounter a huge opportunity thanks to Mr. Gyum Choi.

- Nice to meet you. - Welcome to the show. The weather's beautiful today. A lot of people would like to know your story on dieting.

Can you tell us again your journey from your younger days? I don't know if you could call it a journey but all my life, I was obsessed with dieting.

I lived away from home since middle school because I came to Seoul.

Perhaps I felt a sense of loss at that time and I became obsessed with food. I grew a habit of eating to release my stress as a school girl.

So when I went to university and thereafter, I was always overweight. So dieting was always a priority. I tried this and that every fad diet that was out there.

One diet I remember was the enzyme diet where I had to starve for thirty days, eating only the enzyme.

After such diets, I would lose weight quickly. I tried to tame my hunger and once in a while when I just couldn't bear it any longer, and had a bite of cold buckwheat noodles, I'd gain 2 kg.

I'd gain weight for reasons I couldn't figure out. And after the dieting, I'd gain the weight back.

This went on repeatedly. I was still fat when I got married. I weighed 62 kg. And that was the result of dieting.

I was on a diet. 62 kg is a lot of weight for a person whose height is only 155 cm.

So I wore a dress I really didn't like. I didn't have much options. - When did you get married? - I was 29 years old.

Almost 29, in Korean age. So I got married, and even after that I gained weight again. I got pregnant, gave birth.

The heaviest weight was when I was pregnant with my first child, 70 kg. But I maintained 70 kg even after childbirth.

I wanted to have another child but couldn't. - I realize now that I couldn't. - Why not? My metabolism and hormones were all messed up.

Repeating the pattern of eating and starving made it impossible for me to become pregnant because my body temperature was so low, now that I think of it.

So I went on another diet, lost 15 kg and got pregnant. After I had my second child, I gained weight again. I've been repeating the pattern ever since.

I've dieted all along but was always left deprived. I could never wear the clothes I wanted because they didn't look nice on me.

I'd go on being sad, then go on another diet and fail. I just lived like this all along. But dieting was always on my mind.

There was a time when I had to stop working. - As I was retiring. - How old were you then?

That was last year in November. - Last November? - Last November x2 I went on a morning stroll and broke my leg.

I was hospitalized, had surgery and stayed home. I had no idea I had gained so much weight while I was recuperating at home.

I was always lying down, lied down when I was tired sitting up. In March, when I took off my cast - I decided to study to become a caretaker.

- A caretaker? A caretaker for the elderly. I went to a school near Beomgye Station.

The first day, during an 8-hour class day, I had lunch. I had a huge amount. In the 5th period, I couldn't sit, slouch, or stand.

I went through hell during those four hours. I had no idea what state I was in. I had a huge belly and severe back pain.

I couldn't concentrate and I felt dazed. I was agonizing in pain, and reality set in. The thing was...

On the first day, we learned about illness caused by aging, about neurological disease and stuff. I realized I'm likely to be taken care of instead of taking care of others.

The fact that I might never get a chance to work, that made me really think hard. I was so dismayed as I returned home that day.

I used to think, "No more dieting for me." "I'd had enough." "Things aren't so bad," and "I have tons of clothes, pretty elastic waistband skirts, and sweaters." "I can get by my older years like that." "I can be happy nevertheless." That's how I thought.

But at that moment, I wasn't thinking of dieting.

I just felt, "I might have to be under the care of someone if I go on like this." After returning home, I thought of a diet I once did in earnest, the most recent diet.

That was intermittent fasting. When was that? That was in 2016.

There was a TV episode on MBC titled "The Bad Rap on Fat." I read the books written by the doctors who appeared on that show.

Jason Fung's book, Dave Asprey's "The Bulletproof Diet" and other books and began to practice intermittent fasting.

During the process it seemed to work at first, but I felt I was binging. - Binging? - I was binging and eating anything I wanted during the eating time.

- You increased the fasting time - I observed the fasting hours but I had no information on what I should eat after that.

I thought I only had to keep the fasting hours. At the beginning, we were told that we could eat sausage "I eat fish cake. I eat anything I want." "You can still lose weight." Those were the info we got on TV.

- As long as you keep the fasting hours, you can eat anything? - As long as you keep the fasting hours.

People who lost weight using this method appeared in the media and they actually showed people at shops in bus terminals and eating junk food.

So I did as they did. So I basically followed the guidelines as I understood it. At first, I felt a dramatic change for the better but couldn't maintain that state.

I had no idea why, and then I began to hear the negative effects of intermittent fasting.

Side effects, and squabbling among the doctors - saying this is harmful. - That happened. I remembered that but since intermittent fasting was the most recent diet I did, I decided to give it another try and practice intermittent fasting.

So three years ago, around 2016, you tried intermittent fasting for a few months. - No, I did that for over a year. - So for more than a year.

- But you didn't feel good as time went by. - Yes. So, I stopped. I just couldn't continue with the routine.

So I thought this also had its limitations and this was another one of those diet fads. So, I gave up, but I always knew that fasting is good for your health.

I just couldn't find the algorithm to manage the habit. And one day after the first day of attending the caretaker class, I decided to plan my diet and bring my own lunch to class.

I asked, "What should I bring for lunch?" Then I looked up YouTube.

What were the search words? I typed "Intermittent fasting." I searched for intermittent fasting. I'm not good at searching for information online.

But your name popped up. I don't know how I did it, but your video on intermittent fasting came up as a result of looking up intermittent fasting.

I had no idea what your video was about. I haven't seen a lot of videos on intermittent fasting, but yours stood out because you talked about the algorithm.

Are you talking about the video on the algorithm of obesity? You talked about why we should fast and about autophagy.

That's when I started to do some research. I started by fasting for three days and detox before I go on intermittent fasting.

So for three days I drank bulletproof coffee for breakfast for three days. This time I was determined because I was desperate.

It wasn't a matter of holding down hunger pangs. At that time, I didn't have a choice. - If you didn't do it then - Right. I was already wearing skirts with elastic waistbands and I decided to spend my older years wearing pretty sweaters.

So I didn't care about how I looked anymore.

That wasn't the reason. I have to attend classes every day for at least a month and a half. But I just couldn't sit for eight hours for six weeks.

I didn't think I could. I thought I was healthy. And I found the state I was in. It wasn't hard to fast for three days.

I watched your YouTube videos and I began to eat once a day with fulfilling meals. I paid attention to the contents of the food.

I decided to bring my own lunch. From that day, I focused on preparing my lunch box. What did you put in the lunch box?

I put food that has as much fat and protein as possible. I put steamed cabbage and replaced that with carbohydrates.

I didn't know what I'll eat and how much. I put this much cabbage and a bit of rice. I put Ssamjang made of homemade soybean paste with perilla oil.

I also included salad with olive oil. The food had to look appetizing so I put in different kinds of vegetables. I also added cheese and other ingredients and made it look nice.

I blanched beef brisket, too. - You put it in the salad? - In the salad with olive sauce.

I used white wine balsamic vinegar. - White wine, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and lemon juice. - Good.

- Yes, that's right. - And salt as you instructed. I used to put a lot of different things in the salad, but I took everything else out and put lots of garlic as you told me.

I put lots of avocado and made a container full of salad.

I made Sundae soup with beef fat and butter, and carried that in a thermos. I brought steamed cabbage with Ssamjang.

I took a picture of my lunch box every day. I have the photos. The amazing thing was I felt so comfortable inside.

And when you look around during the afternoon class, 99% of the students who had lunch at the buffet cafeteria were dozing off.

- Other students?
- I was probably the first to fall asleep the day before. How could I be the only one who's not sleepy after all that food?

It wasn't an uncomfortable hunger. - Fullness, you mean.
- Fullness. I was full, but I didn't feel any discomfort.

This was real fullness. The noodles and the rice and Kimchi that made me want to collapse wasn't real fullness.

- Was it a totally different feeling?
- Yes. So for a month and a half up on the roof of the building in the cold weather in March I ate alone.

- That was March this year?
- March this year. This is a photo from March this year.

I went to school wearing that sweater the first day. And the photo I'm showing you now is when you first started out.

- That's when I started the new diet and fasting.
- Right. And I had one meal a day. - So you ate lunch only during the day.
- Yes, that one meal.

And I'd go to the market the next day to get more food. If I became bored, I tried to diversify because this was going to be the best medicine for me.

I like to cook, so I'd create a theme of sorts, once with vegetables and once with mushrooms. With cabbages, I'd make soup with soybean paste.

I'd add a lot of beef fat. I poured all my energy into coming up with lunch menus. You put your all into that one meal?

I did. And I ate a lot. Until lunch the next day, I didn't feel hungry. That's the point.

It was amazing. I didn't feel any hunger. The other students thought I was weird because I didn't carry any books.

- You didn't bring books to class?
- I couldn't. They were too heavy. My lunch box was too heavy because it grew bigger and bigger.

I had to bring soup and other food and salad. I needed a fork and knife and napkins, too.

I had to put a thermos in my bag, so the bag grew bigger. That was my joy in life. My daily meals drew a lot of attention from other people.

I brought lunch to class every day. I said I was dieting when I was eating all that food. So a lot of people became curious.

After a week, people began to notice. People with sharp eyes commented, "Your face looks a bit different," or "I see angular features in your face." - About a week after you changed your diet?

- Yes, after about a week. I got to visit an enzyme sauna where you can warm your body.

There I weighed myself after a month. I lost 5-6 kg. - In a month?
- In a month, 5-6 kg.

I didn't pay much attention to the scale. I just focused on my diet. After a month and a half, I made a resolution, or rather, I thought, "What if I brought lunch to everywhere I went for a year?

" That was how much I enjoyed my lunch. This was a lunch box only for me.

The time I took preparing that was very meaningful. Eating one meal a day gives you lots of freedom.

You don't need to prepare breakfast. However, I made it a rule to drink bulletproof coffee every morning. Bulletproof coffee as breakfast and a well-balanced lunch.

I'd take the bulletproof coffee with me as I left the house and had that. I don't have to worry what to have for dinner.

[KR/EN] 평생 다이어트와 요요를 반복하다 포기했던 갱년기 여성에게 일어난 기적

2015년 겨울, 친구 한 명이 스스로 세상을 떠났고, 앞으로 어떻게 살아야 할지 정했습니다. 이어서 많은 사람들이 잘못된 다이어트 때문에 삶이 망가지고 있다는 사실을 알게 되어 다이어트 연구를 시작했습니다. 그러다보니 올해로 8년째 다이어트를 연구하며 콘텐츠를 만들고 있습니다. 

그동안 연구한 내용을 바탕으로  '다이어트 사이언스 2022'를 집필했습니다. 저서와 유튜브를 통해서 전통적 다이어트/영양 패러다임의 문제를 지적하고 대안을 제시합니다. 비만과 다이어트로 인해서 문제를 겪고 있다면 이 채널에서 시작할 것을 권장합니다.

궁금하거나 전해주고 싶은 이야기가 있다면 gyumchoi@gmail.com로 편하게 연락주길 바랍니다. (답장이 3개월 이상 걸릴 수 있습니다.)

※ 쿠팡 파트너스 활동을 통해 일정액의 수수료를 제공받을 수 있습니다.

