How to lose weight with heavy dampness in the body

Dec 12, 2025 Source: Cainiu Health

Dr. Sun Lianqing

Introduction

For individuals with excessive dampness, weight loss should focus primarily on eliminating dampness while also regulating the spleen and stomach. Key methods include adjusting dietary patterns, maintaining moderate exercise, improving living environments, using dietary therapy as support, and ensuring regular daily routines. Weight loss for those with excessive dampness should be gradual, with an emphasis on long-term persistence in reducing dampness and调理the spleen and stomach. It is important to avoid blind dieting to ensure safety and sustainability in weight loss.

1. Adjust diet structure: Reduce intake of raw, cold, greasy, and overly sweet foods, as these can impair spleen and stomach functions and worsen dampness retention. Increase consumption of spleen-strengthening and dampness-resolving foods such as coix seed (yi yi ren), red beans, and winter melon. Dietary adjustments help enhance the digestive and metabolic functions of the spleen, reducing accumulation of dampness.

2. Maintain moderate exercise: Engage in aerobic activities such as brisk walking, jogging, or yoga. Exercise promotes blood and qi circulation throughout the body and helps expel internal dampness through sweating. It also strengthens physical constitution, improves spleen and stomach function, and prevents fat accumulation caused by dampness obstruction.

3. Improve living environment: Avoid prolonged exposure to damp environments—do not live in dark, humid rooms, minimize outdoor activities during rainy weather, and dry your body promptly after bathing. A damp environment makes it easier for external dampness to invade the body, worsening internal dampness and negatively affecting weight loss outcomes.

4. Use dietary therapy as support: Drink moderate amounts of herbal teas known for their dampness-removing properties, such as tangerine peel (chen pi) tea or lotus leaf tea. Alternatively, consume therapeutic foods like poria (fu ling) and Chinese yam (shan yao) congee, which strengthen the spleen and resolve dampness. These gentle dietary approaches help regulate the body’s balance, support dampness elimination, and enhance the effectiveness of other weight-loss methods.

5. Maintain regular作息 (daily routine): Avoid staying up late, as sleep deprivation harms spleen and liver function, leading to metabolic disorders and increased retention of dampness. Keeping a consistent sleep schedule ensures normal functioning of internal organs, promoting efficient dampness removal and fat metabolism.

Dampness-related weight loss requires a gradual, long-term approach centered on consistently resolving dampness and调理 (regulating) the spleen and stomach. Avoid extreme dieting; instead, prioritize safety and sustainability in weight management.

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Are spleen-stomach deficiency and dampness excess the same thing?

Spleen and stomach deficiency and excessive dampness are not the same condition, but they are closely related and influence each other. Spleen and stomach deficiency commonly presents with poor appetite, abdominal distension, loose stools, fatigue, and other symptoms; excessive dampness often manifests as bodily heaviness, thick greasy tongue coating, sticky stools that adhere to the toilet, and oily skin. In treatment, spleen and stomach deficiency requires a focus on strengthening and nourishing the spleen and stomach, while excessive dampness requires emphasis on eliminating dampness and promoting diuresis.

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What Are the Five Major Taboos of Drinking Water Infused with Ophiopogon japonicus (Lilyturf Root)?

In general, there are several contraindications for drinking water infused with Ophiopogon japonicus (Mai Dong). These include avoiding excessive consumption by individuals with a cold body constitution, avoiding use by those experiencing cough due to wind-cold, phlegm-dampness excess, spleen-stomach deficiency-cold with diarrhea, and those in the early stages of an external contraction (e.g., common cold). Additionally, it is important to avoid taking large amounts of cold-natured foods or ingredients along with Ophiopogon-infused water, such as crab and bitter melon.

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Is taking Lianqiao Baidu Pills appropriate for dampness syndrome?

In general, taking Lianqiao Baidu Wan (Forsythia Detoxifying Pills) is not appropriate for individuals with excessive dampness. Medications should be used according to medical advice. Furthermore, individuals with excessive dampness should first determine their specific syndrome pattern, such as cold-dampness or damp-heat, before choosing the corresponding treatment approach. In daily life, avoid prolonged exposure to damp environments, reduce consumption of raw, cold, or greasy foods, engage in appropriate physical exercise to promote blood circulation and qi flow and facilitate the elimination of dampness, and avoid taking medications blindly.

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What to Eat for Dampness Accumulation (Dampness Excess) in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Under normal circumstances, individuals with excessive dampness in the body can generally improve their condition by consuming foods such as coix seed, red beans, wax gourd (winter melon), Chinese yam (Dioscorea opposita), and water caltrop (Euryale ferox). Additionally, medications such as Shen Ling Bai Zhu San, Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Shui, Fu Zi Li Zhong Wan, Xiang Sha Liu Jun Wan, and Ping Wei San may be taken under a physician's guidance. If concerns persist, it is recommended to seek medical advice in advance. To better manage excessive dampness, one should maintain a light and清淡 diet in daily life.