A Female K-Pop Idol Was Kicked Out Of Her Group For Not Losing Weight

Because visuals are an important part of K-Pop, entertainment companies have an unhealthy focus on monitoring their artists’ weight. It’s such a significant issue that trainees have spoken up about being weighed daily and being starved for not reaching the “ideal” weight.

Even TWICE‘s Momo has admitted to not eating for an entire week to lose 15 lbs to debut. However, trainees aren’t the only ones affected by strict weight standards. An idol revealed they were kicked out of their group for failing to lose weight.

During her guest appearance on Knowing Bros, Girl’s Day‘s Yura remembered weighing 53 kg (117 lbs) and being 170 cm tall early in her career. Although the show’s cast pointed out how “thin” she was, Girl’s Day’s CEO thought otherwise.

He documented Yura’s weight and instructed her to lose nearly five pounds. She said, “But the CEO told me to lose weight until 51 kg (112 lbs).”

Because that was a sizeable amount of weight to lose, Yura attempted to negotiate with their CEO. It backfired horribly. He kicked her out and sent her back to her hometown.

But I was timid and asked, ‘Can’t I just lose until I’m 52 kg?’ He doesn’t usually get angry, but he was furious.

He told me not to come back from Ulsan until I’m 51 kg. I went back to Ulsan crying. I got kicked out.

— Yura

Surprising the cast even more, Yura revealed that she got kicked out after she debuted, during Girl’s Day’s “Twinkle Twinkle” era. Yura wasn’t ready to cut her idol dream short, though.

For five days in Ulsan, Yura “only ate greens” and managed to lose enough weight to return to Seoul and Girl’s Day.

Despite how serious the situation was, Yura’s mom saw the bright side of things. She encouraged the idol to gain weight whenever she wanted to return home and see her family.