Former Trainee Exposes The Dangerous Methods K-Pop Companies Use To Manage Weight

When it comes to appearances for K-Pop idols, weight is one of the features that everyone notices—for better or worse. Some onlookers took it too far when body-shaming talented artists such as Ailee and CL, who have both shown how glamorous their fuller figures are.

While other idols have come forward about their dangerous diets and warned others against them, a former trainee revealed how unhealthy and dangerous the methods are and how their companies encourage them anyway.

UK native Euodias, who is of Chinese and Korean descent, revealed that every trainee at her company had to weigh below a specific weight. “Everyone was required to be no heavier than 47kg regardless of their age or height.”

To put that into perspective, most people above five feet tall would be considered underweight if they maintained that weight of 104 pounds.

On top of having their weight announced to everyone in the entire room during a weekly weight check, those who weighed more than the cut off had their meals taken from them and only given water.

If you were over the designated weight, then they would ration your food. Sometimes they would even take away entire meals and those ‘overweight’ trainees would just be given water.

— Euodias

As a result, many of them experienced a downturn in their health. “Starving yourself was really normalized.”

Quite a few developed eating disorders and even stopped receiving their menstrual cycles. “Some trainees were anorexic or bulimic, and many of the girls didn’t have periods.”

The most shocking of all was that the trainees became used to passing out from the lack of nourishment in their bodies. “It was common to pass out from exhaustion. Often we had to help carry unconscious trainees back to the dorms.”

Sadly, trainees even congratulated each other for reaching that point. “The attitude among the trainees after that was like, “Good for her! She wants it so much!” Euodias can look back on those times with maturity and realize how horrifying it truly was.

Although she left the company rather than debut in their girl group, the members who are now idols and the trainees hoping for their chance may still be experiencing these dangerous side effects.

From the drastic weight loss that idols experience and the many times they’ve been captured fainting on stage, this is a serious problem in K-Pop that’s more dangerous than everyone knows.