Singer Choi Yoo-jung, a former member of the project girl group I.O.I, has revealed that she secretly relied on diet pills during her days as a trainee to meet strict corporate weight standards.
Choi recently appeared as a guest on comedian Park Se-mi’s YouTube channel, where the conversation turned to the extreme psychological and physical pressures of weight management in the entertainment industry.
When Park shared her own past experience, noting, "I took diet pills in my early 20s and even suffered from delusions due to the side effects," Choi opened up about her trainee years. "I took them a long time ago, too," Choi admitted. "When I was a trainee, the agency constantly told me I needed to lose weight. I was actually at a perfectly normal, healthy weight, but because I was still in my growth period, I ended up shedding pounds anyway. I was so desperate that I didn't tell the company—I kept it a secret and took diet pills for the first time." She vividly recalled the immediate adverse reactions she faced: "I experienced dry mouth, heart palpitations, nausea, and dizziness. Looking back, it seems incredibly dangerous."
When Park asked about her lowest weight, Choi stated, "At my thinnest, I weighed just 40 kilograms. But I was basically still a child back then. When I appeared on Produce 101, I fluctuated between 40 and 41 kilograms. The most I have ever weighed since then is 50 kilograms, mostly because I am the type who eats late-night snacks every night and always has dessert. I just like sugar way too much."
The Systemic Hazards of Weight-Loss Medications and Appetite Suppressants
Diet pills generally fall into three major categories: Western prescription drugs, traditional herbal medicines, and over-the-counter dietary supplements. Among clinical prescriptions, powerful central nervous system stimulants such as phentermine and phendimetrazine are frequently utilized as short-term appetite suppressants to block hunger signaling in the brain. However, because these medications actively stimulate the central nervous system, they carry a high risk of adverse reactions, including severe dry mouth, chronic insomnia, dizziness, acute heart palpitations, elevated blood pressure, and profound anxiety.
A case documented in a South Korean medical journal detailed a 25-year-old female who suffered vivid hallucinations—perceiving bugs crawling all over her—after taking phendimetrazine for weight loss, while other clinical reports indicate that phentermine can trigger a severe recurrence of pre-existing psychosis.
Traditional herbal medicine and commercial supplements are not inherently safe alternatives either. For example, ephedra (ma huang), a common botanical component in certain herbal weight-loss formulations, effectively suppresses appetite due to its active chemical compound, ephedrine. However, its use requires extreme vigilance, as it has been directly linked to life-threatening cardiovascular and neurological events, including severe hypertension, myocardial infarction, seizures, stroke, and drug-induced psychosis. Secretly taking these potent pharmacological agents to achieve extreme thinness while already maintaining a normal body weight exponentially increases the likelihood of suffering severe systemic toxicities.
Sustainable Principles for Healthy Weight Management
The fundamental rule of healthy weight loss is to prioritize a gradual, steady approach over rapid and drastic depletion. Clinically, anti-obesity medications are strictly indicated for individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, or a BMI of 27 or higher when accompanied by weight-related comorbidities such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or hyperlipidemia. They are explicitly not designed as aesthetic tools for individuals at a normal weight who simply wish to become excessively thin.
For those who genuinely require medical intervention, a realistic and sound goal is to lose roughly 5% to 10% of their baseline body weight. For an individual weighing 60 kilograms, a modest reduction of just 3 to 6 kilograms can dramatically improve clinical indicators like blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and cholesterol profiles.
A safe, sustainable pace for weight loss is approximately 0.5 to 1 kilogram per week. Rather than resorting to extreme fasting or starvation from the outset, individuals should implement foundational lifestyle modifications: eliminating sugary beverages, curtailing late-night snacking, ensuring every meal contains high-quality protein and fiber-rich vegetables, walking for 20 to 30 minutes daily, and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule. Crucially, growing adolescents and young women must avoid severe dietary restrictions and pharmacological aids, which can disrupt reproductive health, cause irregular menstruation, and provoke severe psychological distress, including binge eating disorders and chronic anxiety.
