Hey guys, it's Tyen. So all of you know that I have this morbid curiosity for diet fads and I'm down to try almost anything. And for today's episode, I'm gonna be trying something a bit more extreme than usual and that is the k-pop idol diet. So I went online to see what the k-pop diet
entails and I realise there's just so many different types of diets according
to the different celebrities.
But something I realise about all of them is
that they seem pretty extreme! So out of all the different k-pop idol diets I
found out there, there was one that really caught my attention and that was IU's diet. Her diet is pretty much 1 apple for breakfast, 1 sweet potato for lunch and 1 protein shake for dinner. And I'm looking at the diet and thinking
how does one sustain on this diet especially her because she's a k-pop idol,
she probably has dance rehearsals, singing rehearsals and has to go for all these
concerts, how does she sustain with this kind of diet? And for myself I'm
thinking you know I'll lead a pretty active lifestyle, can I possibly sustain
with the same amount of calories and eat so little? That's why I decided to try it
for myself so I'm gonna vlog and bring you guys along my crash diet.
It is day 1 of the k-pop diet and I am on my way to work. I have not eaten anything but I
want to make sure that when I have that apple, that sweet potato and that protein
shake, it's gonna be a damn good one! After work I'm gonna pick up my apple and I'm gonna make it a really nice and juicy one. I try not to eat fruit in the morning, I don't know if you guys have experienced this before but when I eat a lot
of sugar in the morning and a lot of fruit in the morning, I actually get a
bit hungrier but this is a really yummy apple and I'm glad it's part of my
diet, I'm gonna finish eating this and then head out for my meeting.
I'm on my way back home. I swear towards like the last 10 minutes of that meeting, I thought I was going to black out because I felt so hungry already so I'm on my way back to eat my second meal which is a sweet potato. I don't know how much that's going to satiate me, I'm looking forward to it because I love sweet potatoes but I really don't know how much that's gonna keep me full. I have made myself my lunch, this is my purple sweet potato. So I actually went online and went to go and see how other people do the IU diet and their sweet potatoes look significantly larger so I decided to make myself another sweet
potato even though it's just like a little tiny one. I'm gonna enjoy my sweet potato, get back to doing some work and then check in on a bit later in the
afternoon.
I just felt this massive energy slum I was so tired and sleepy, I just decided to crash in bed and I only woke up another 2 hours later, so no, it's an unproductive day. And I'm glad that I'm not working out today, today is like a rest day for me so I'm just a bit worried to see how I would function given that I don't have a lot of energy from foods, hopefully I have enough energy reserved to push me through a workout when I have to tomorrow but as of now all I can say
is that I just feel very sleepy.
The final meal of the day is going to be
a protein shake. I feel that you know with dieting, sometimes it's not so much of the food itself it's just like the social element of it. For example when I have date night, this person is going to bring me somewhere very nice, the last thing I want to do is to go, "Oh sorry I'm only eating a sweet potatoes and apples for my diet." but you know what, I am determined to see this diet through, I do crazy things for the love of my channel and my show. It is day 2 on the k-pop diet and I have not eaten anything today. Usually on my Saturday mornings, I pack my clients back-to-back so I was just training non-stop. I think because I also knew I was on this diet, I tried not to eat too
early in the day because I feel once you start eating your metabolism starts
going so I try not to eat so early today so I can spread out my calories when I'm
the most exhausting which is probably gonna be later today.
I didn't feel super
hungry this morning. Honestly I was running on coffee the
entire time. This is my third cup this morning so I guess I'm just running on caffeine but I feel like the hunger pang might kick in a bit later on but I have
my apple with me, I'm gonna have this is my first meal of the day. So far how I feel in terms of how I look, I do feel thinner. I think just because I feel more hollow, I didn't eat much yesterday so I guess the initial feeling was just to feel thinner.
Just in general, this diet doesn't even seem it fills anybody up. I mean I don't know how an apple and sweet potatoes and a protein shake is suppose to fill… I mean that's under 500 calories which is pretty much a starvation calorie diet if you ask me. I know that earlier today I was saying that I am unfettered by this diet but to be honest after you have eaten 1 apple, you've gotten your sugar in and your body starts to crave for more food and that's what I'm doing right now. This is what I have for lunch today, a sweet potato. I am done filming a little story time for my personal YouTube channel and I am feeling famished. I would say though that on day 2 of my
diet I have been getting very good bowel movements which is pretty strange because I'm thinking you know I'm not eating that much food, I'm only eating like an
apple and a sweet potato and a protein shake and I'm eliminating a lot of meat
in my diet.
Meat perhaps could be the result of a lot of
constipation and bloating issues that I experience on a day-to-day. But overall
it's been okay I just have to deal with very serious hunger pangs. So it is the end of day 2 on the k-pop diet and I can say that I already feel skinnier so
I think there's a huge psychological effect of this diet whereby because
you're eating so little, you do feel a lot lighter, yeah you don't get the same
kind of bloating you would after you eat a huge meal and it's just been 2
days of eating less and you feel skinnier. And I can totally see why people
will be addicted to wanting to do it on a daily basis. So it is now day 3 on my k-pop diet. I just finished training my Sunday
morning clients and I'm now at my grandma's house, going to have my Sunday afternoon lunch, which I do every single Sunday when I visit them.
Unfortunately I forgot to tell her that I'm on this crazy k-pop
diet. I am not feeling very tired or very lethargic but I would say that I could
use with a lot more calories because I just know that my body functions much
better when I have eaten enough food and I have the right amount calories in
order for me to expand my energy. Personal training is a very emotionally
and energetically expensive service so I want to be able to have the amount of
calories and energy so that I can give that to my clients and I feel it without
that energy, I'm unable to do so and I'm just running on a lot of caffeine. So I
would like to be able to eat more so that I can you know train them with even
more intensity and to also work out with even more and see for myself.
I just completed a workout on my app and overall i feel very sweaty, very gas out and I am a bit dizzy and sleepy and tired because I hadn't had enough food just makes me understand how hard it must be to get up and actually do a
workout if you don't eat enough calories and I know I could have pushed a lot
harder had I eaten more calories. For dinner I have a protein shake.
To be honest I'm getting really sick and tired of IU's diet, it's so boring and there's no variety and it's so minimal. I really don't like
feeling hungry, I don't like feeling weak and that was completely how I felt just now when I tried to work out at my grandmother's place. I honestly don't know how long more of this diet I can take. It is day 4 of the k-pop diet. Needless to say I feel like crap. I don't feel motivated to go to the gym
now, I know I do have to workout and I should work out so I'm gonna eat a
pre-workout snack, my apple and then go and train. So I'm done with my leg and abs workout and I definitely think that my diet has not served me well because I
feel very tired. I think also because psychologically I know that I haven't
eaten enough over the past few days and I just want to conserve my energy so
that is making me not want to push as hard but I'm still trying to like psych myself
into pushing and finishing out this workout so that's what I'm gonna do.
So I'm halfway through day four on the k-pop diet and I've gotta say that this is definitely not working out for me because I've only had an apple today and
I've just been sitting here, trying to get some work done but been feeling very
distracted because my stomach is growling. So I went online to do a bit of
research about the k-pop diet and there are just a couple of guidelines that a
lot of Korean superstars follow when it comes to this k-pop diet. So one of them
is that it's lower fat.
A lot of the Korean cuisine actually avoid fried and
heavy fat meals and they mainly steam their foods on this diet. There's also minimally processed foods in the kpop diet. No sugar. K-pop stars
stay away from high sugary beverages, sugary snacks and again it's very heavy
in vegetables. Things like bibimbap that has a lot of variety of vegetables. There's also an emphasis on more chicken and fish and less red meat. Soy-rich food
again like tofu, edamame. So in a nutshell the k-pop diet is pretty similar to how I
would normally eat already which is to have minimally processed foods, a lot of
lean meat, high amount of protein, vegetables and you know I think that if
you also just compare Korean diets to the let's say the Western diets, the
portion sizing is just a lot smaller for Korean diet so perhaps that could be a
reason why you can stay healthy and also portion control and lose
weight on a Korean diet.
I think that all diets when taken to an extreme level is
unhealthy for you. Especially when these are diets promoted by your idols, you
want to look like that so you know you have this misconception that this diet
works long-term when as a matter of fact, it probably is only used for instances where they really need to lose a lot of weight for a role in a show or an
appearance or for a photo shoot so yeah, definitely, not a sustainable diet to be
eating so little.
Today for lunch I actually got myself a healthy Korean
bowl. I'm just going to fill myself up because if not, I am going to faint and I
have driving after this. I'm not gonna take any risk. I am back from my driving class and that was a pretty intense driving session. I feel as though I
should have eaten a lot more before because I couldn't concentrate and
towards the end I remember feeling very agitated with my driving instructor, okay
granted he is a bit of an irritant.
I just wanted to get out of the car so badly
that I left in a rush and I left my wallet in the car so I'm annoyed and a bit emotional and a bit frustrated at myself because I
shouldn't be leaving my stuff around and I was just a bit muddle-headed. Yeah
I'm actually slightly emotional right now, I don't know why. I want to scream, I'm so mad at myself
right now. I'm gonna go and get some food and eat proper food because I'm not just
gonna survive on a protein shake. I'm gonna eat proper food and I think I'm
gonna feel a lot better.
So it is day 5 on my k-pop diet. I don't
particularly as energised as usual. I did have an apple for my breakfast because I just wanted to continue the diet so I can give even more feedback, maybe there's
something about eating an apple every morning that is good for overall health
and well-being but I would like to eat something more substantial for breakfast
than just an apple. So I have a driving test right after this. I know for a fact
that I'm not going to starve myself and go there without the clarity of mind so I'm
gonna be eating my egg, oats, all healthy and I think that this is the
correct fuel that I should be eating in order to power me through a very intense
driving test because I want to be sharp.
Okay so I've come to the end of day 5 of the Korean diet. I essentially broke my diet today and I don't think that I can last another day
on IU's diet because I was feeling physically weak, really irritable and
kind of brain foggy so overall I think this just goes to show that what you eat
doesn't just affect your appearance and your energy levels, but it also affects
your mood and your mental clarity and I don't think I want to last another day
on this diet, I won't recommend it to anybody and I'm just really glad that is
over. So after trying out this diet, I can completely understand when people start going on these crash diets and they lose this significant amount of weight within
the first week or first few days even, I can imagine how addictive that must be
for them because you know when you start eating less calories, just generally your
body is gonna be purging itself of its water weight, you're gonna feel lighter
obviously, you feel skinnier on your face, you feel skinnier on your body, it's a very
like psychological thing.
But at the same time I think that there's a lot of
danger in just following these diets, especially for younger people who are
looking up to these k-pop idols and thinking that you know this is a normal
diet and totally like normalises eating such low calories for all these celebrities
and that can lead to a slippery slope, it can result in many eating disorders and
health issues which I do not want for you. And I want to tell everybody who
looks up to their celebrities and their idols, to you know still practice wisdom
when it comes to dieting. Realise that we don't lead the same lifestyle and for
that reason, it's just not sustainable for you. And in general I'm just a huge
advocate for eating a healthy and balanced diet.
We've
done a lot of videos on healthy diet tips and also healthy meals that you can
prepare for yourself so you can go and check those out. And of course you know
that with a healthy diet you also need to supplement it with exercise and
if you're looking to kickstart your fitness journey go and download the "No
Sweat" fitness app. You'll get personalised workouts that are tailored
to your specific fitness goals. You also get other perks like 1 on 1 fitness assessments from me, yes I do personally respond to everyone who
writes to me on the app.
You'll get access to live stream chats and workouts and
even exclusive invites to meet-and-greet sessions. And when you sign up, you get
your first week for free. After that you have the option of signing up for a
one-year, three-month or one month plan. And if you joined the one year plan, you
also get a free set of No Sweat resistance bands. These bands are also available for purchase on the No Sweat much store so if you're looking for some
way to add some resistance to your home workouts then go and check these out. Lastly with all of our other videos, if you like this one, please remember to give it
a thumbs up, click the subscribe button and hit the little bell so you never
miss a notification every time we post a new video.
Or you can download the Clicknetwork app to get early access to our videos before they hit YouTube. We just revamped the app and gave it a new look so let us know what you think and I'll see
you guys in the next video, take care, bye!.
