🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Winter is a time of frequent social engagements and feasting, making overeating unavoidable and leading to gradual weight gain. Weight loss thus becomes an urgent issue during winter. Among various weight-loss methods, acupuncture has gained significant attention from many women due to its reasonable cost, raising numerous questions. To address these concerns, we invited Dr. Zhang Zhongcheng, Deputy Chief Physician of the Acupuncture Department at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a medical doctor, to provide some tips.
Q: Is it suitable to use acupuncture for weight loss in winter?
A: Acupuncture weight loss involves stimulating specific points on the body to regulate overall fat imbalance. By improving abnormal conditions such as excessive appetite, poor bowel movements, and low metabolism in obese individuals, acupuncture helps restore balance to organ functions and achieve weight reduction. Due to its effectiveness and minimal side effects, it is considered a green weight-loss method.
In winter, cold weather leads people to wear more clothes. On one hand, this makes dressing and undressing inconvenient; on the other, bulky clothing hides body shape, causing many to abandon weight-loss treatments during winter. However, cold weather actually increases appetite due to enhanced bodily defense mechanisms, often resulting in late-night hotpot meals and snacks, leading to increased food intake. Additionally, reduced physical activity in cold weather lowers metabolic rate. Consequently, with more intake and less output, weight inevitably increases—by several pounds or even tens of pounds over just one winter, making winter the most dangerous season for weight gain.
Regular acupuncture treatment in winter can help regulate excessive appetite and boost metabolism.
Naturally, during winter acupuncture sessions, room temperature should be kept comfortable, and patients must stay warm to avoid catching a cold. Alongside acupuncture, proper diet and moderate exercise are also essential.
Q: Why does weight loss slow down in winter?
A: Due to climatic changes in winter, people tend to eat more and metabolize less, leading to a general tendency toward weight gain. For most individuals, weight loss in winter is slower than in summer. In fact, simply preventing further weight gain constitutes a form of effective weight loss.
Q: Are there any adverse reactions to acupoint embedding for weight loss?
A: Acupoint embedding uses absorbable animal intestinal threads implanted into acupoints to produce prolonged stimulation and therapeutic effects. Originally used for treating peptic ulcers, asthma, and trauma injuries, it has recently been applied to obesity, melasma, acne, and other conditions. Under sustained gentle physical and chemical stimulation from the embedded threads, the method promotes meridian unblocking, blood and qi regulation, yin-yang balance, and organ harmony, thereby achieving disease prevention, health improvement, slimming, and beauty enhancement.
This therapy acts quickly, saves time, causes little pain, provides lasting results, and is safe and reliable with no obvious side effects, making it widely adopted. Treatments are typically repeated every 15–20 days—especially suitable for busy urban women seeking weight loss.
During treatment, patients may experience sensations such as soreness, local redness, warmth, or even mild fever (around 38°C), all of which are normal reactions requiring no intervention. Patients experiencing such reactions usually show better outcomes, while those without them may have poorer results. However, rare cases of allergic reactions—such as itching, pain, or localized swelling—may occur. Importantly, acupoint embedding is a medical procedure and should only be performed at reputable medical institutions to prevent complications like infection, bleeding, nerve damage, or vascular injury.