Overweight? How to lose weight? Have you gone on a reduced calorie diet, but your weight is still higher than the average weight for your stature. Which effective weight losing treatments or solutions are there out there?
How can acupuncture help achieve weight loss?
Many studies and practical cases have demonstrated that acupuncture can help overweight or obese patients reduce extra fat and tighten their body shapes whilst improving their general condition and health.
This is done by stimulating points on the body which are:

  1. Breaking down the fatty tissue and improving metabolic processing;
  2. Balancing gastro-acid productive levels so that appetite is under control;
  3. Regulating the endocrine system so that hormone secretion levels are in good order;
  4. Enhancing the body qi flow and improving blood circulation so that the body becomes more energetic.

Understandably, many people who are overweight would like to know the reason for their putting on so much weight, so that they can change their lifestyle such that they can reduce weight.
Here are some factors it might be worth checking:

  • Lack of physical exercise and sedentary lifestyle
  • Overeating
  • Poor nutrition
  • Genetic predisposition
  • Hormonal imbalances (e.g. hypothyroidism)
  • Metabolic disorders, which could be caused or exacerbated by repeated attempts to lose weight
  • Eating disorders (such as binge eating)
  • Alcoholism
  • Stress
  • Insufficient or poor-quality sleep
  • Psychotropic medication (e.g. olanzapine)
  • Smoking cessation and other stimulant withdrawal
  • In a cruel twist, insulin dependent diabetes can cause weight gain in some suffers, as opposed to type II diabetes, which mostly comes on as a result of being overweight.

Conditions that may accompany obesity include:

  • High cholesterol (including high triglyceride levels)
  • Diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Heart disease
  • Stroke
  • Sleep apnea (episodes when a person stops breathing while asleep)
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Gallstones

Key points of overweight that acupuncture can work on
As excessive fat accumulates in the body, people who are suffering from overweight (or pre-obesity) and obesity, usually experience symptoms of dizziness, tiredness, lack of strength, laziness during speaking, reduced movement and shortage of breath upon making rapid movements. Some obesity also has a tendency to induce water retention, joint pain, or overeating behaviour because of the disturbance of hormones and the overloading of lower limbs, and this can also lead to increased nervousness. All those symptoms can be explained in traditional Chinese medicine, along with their acupuncture solution.