Umji is a member of GFRIEND and also the maknae of the group. She debuted when she was only 17 and started to gain popularity. Their entertainment company had many managers keeping an eye on the group because they wanted the girls to stick to the diet.
As you might know, already following a diet is very hard, especially when you’re just debuting. The idols will get extremely tired when performing and almost always need someone beside them. Not only is it physically hard but also emotionally.
Most of them are probably thinking about what they’re going to eat after the promotions are over. This can be very tiring, especially when you also have to dance and sing.
The Start of Dieting and Umji’s Debut
During the start of GFRIEND, Umji was pretty thin, and people noticed this. She wasn’t able to keep up with the extreme dieting, and you could clearly see how much she was struggling.
In an interview, GFRIEND said that during their early debut days, they only ate salads throughout the day and a little bit of rice. You’re probably seeing what’s wrong with this diet plan and how GFRIEND didn’t like this at all.
Kpop diets are known to be pretty extreme but eating only a salad, and some rice is even worse. I’ve recently started my own weight loss journey and must say that it’s not easy getting started. So, you should never judge idols on their appearance and only give positive comments.
Later in 2015, Umji started gaining some weight again, and many people started commenting horrible things under her name. If you searched up her name, it would be auto-filled with “Umji Ugly” which is very mean.
In 2016 GFRIEND returned with “Rough,” and Umji seemed to have gained a bit more weight. The fans also started noticing this. During this time, you could see that she was getting shyer on the stage.
Umji’s Glow Up
In late 2017 GFRIEND came back with another huge hit, “Fingertip” and Umji had successfully lost a lot of weight. She started her exercise routine and lost around 11 lbs (5.5 kg). As you can see, Umji has finally gained some more confidence on stage, and that’s what we strive for.
She should ignore the mean comments and focus on herself. That’s what is best for her. However, there’s always a small group of people attacking her for no reason. A year later, she gained her weight back, which wasn’t a problem because most of the fans still loved her talent.
Keep in mind that during this time, almost all of the members also followed a diet and lost weight. This might have put more pressure on Umji to lose weight. A couple of months later, she lost even more weight, and people started speculating that she did plastic surgery.
This wasn’t the case at all, and her face slimmed down from the extreme dieting. The people that started hate commenting again are always hating on her for no reason.
Maintaining The Weight
Fast forward to 2021, Umji has maintained her weight pretty steadily and is now looking better than ever. We hope that she will continue to keep releasing great music and that she will be happy. Diets should never be extremely hard so that people will hate on her.
Like we said before, there’s only a small amount of people hating on her, and that will always be like that. If idols start becoming more and more successful, more haters will start to appear. If we look at the last couple of years, she has maintained her weight steadily and looks healthy.
For most idols maintaining their weight is one of the hardest parts because they often don’t know what to eat and when to eat. Especially during their off days, it’s hard to not snack since their managers aren’t there. It’s very tempting.
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Final Thoughts
Now that you’ve come to the end of this article, I hope you’ve found the information you were looking for. As you might know now, Umji’s diet was and is extremely hard during her debut. We’re happy that she has finally found a middle ground and maintained a healthy weight.
If you look at many other idols that have gone through diets, there’s a pattern that you can notice. Most of their diets are very extreme and don’t suit the US beauty standard. Their diets are made for the Korean beauty standards and if you’re not living in South Korea.
There’s no reason for you to try any of these diets. It’s great to read and know more about the diets like Umji’s but keep in mind to only use it as educational information and don’t actually do it in real life. The calorie intake of some diets is too extreme and won’t be recommended by any professional.
Even people that have tried this diet don’t recommend it. There are many videos on YouTube that try Kpop diets, and you can see how hard it is to stay energized or active during the day. Let’s hope GFRIEND keeps releasing great music, and we’ll keep streaming it.
