Weight loss with acupuncture: Does the Ticino doctor’s miraculous method work?

This is exactly what should not happen with the new weight loss method that Ticino doctor Massimo Fumagalli has been researching for more than two decades. Method: Reach your dream weight with needles! He recently published the results of his study on the subject in a famous scientific journal.

Dreaming of gaining weight with a needle stick?

The doctor combines Western medicine with traditional Chinese medicine. He led a medical study in which he and 35 doctors specializing in acupuncture from Sinomedica clinics treated a total of around 11,000 patients with acupuncture needles. In his interview with Blick, the doctor explains that in combination with a strict, low-carb diet, test subjects achieved very good results: “About 11,000 people achieved an impressive average weight loss of 17.5 pounds in seven months. An average of 15 over a period of one and a half years.” They managed to maintain a weight loss of 5 kg.What is remarkable is that people with severe obesity achieved an average weight loss of 28 kg in just six months.

So how exactly will this miraculous weight loss method work? Fumagalli believes obesity can have many causes, not just overeating. He sees the root of the problem in the interaction between the hormonal, nervous and immune systems, or in mild inflammation or disturbances of the gut microbiome.

hormone imbalance

At the center of the Ticino doctor’s work are the hormones ghrelin and leptin, which are imbalanced in such cases. Ghrelin makes you feel hungrier, while leptin makes you feel full. If you are overweight, leptins block each other; you’ll burn fewer calories and be hungrier at the same time. “It’s a vicious circle,” the doctor said.

Diet and additional exercise cannot always lead to sustainable weight loss unless the balance between the body’s functions is guaranteed; According to the Ticino resident, medications or surgical procedures are often used, which can have side effects. This is where acupuncture comes into play: Fumagalli wants to bring two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, back into balance with precisely placed needles. Therapy relieves the feeling of excessive hunger and makes the diet bearable.

Only 450 calories per day

Because that’s the bottom line: Fumagalli promotes her promising weight-loss treatment, but focuses her communications solely on weekly acupuncture sessions. However, only at second glance does it become clear that the test subjects were allowed to consume fewer calories than the body actually needs: patients are allowed to consume only 450 calories per day, without exception! For comparison: A baby weighing about four pounds needs about 400 to 480 calories per day.

To lose weight healthily over the long term, nutritionists generally recommend a moderate calorie deficit; this can be calculated individually based on your own height and weight using the Harris-Benedict formula. There are online calculators that calculate the daily calorie budget for a medium- and long-term diet: For women, the daily quota is generally assumed to be around 1,600 to 1,800 calories, while for men it is usually slightly more.

Too much sacrifice for too much success?

Fumagalli explains his patients’ menu as follows: “The diet consists of three meals a day. An apple or kiwi for breakfast, protein – meat or fish – with vegetables or salad for lunch, and some vegetables or salad for dinner. Carbohydrate-rich foods such as rice or pasta are completely avoided. The diet is continued until the person reaches the ideal weight: “This is followed by a 2-month period, and the foods that are prohibited during the weight loss phase are gradually integrated. First dairy, then vegetables, and finally carbohydrates. Acupuncture sessions are scheduled every two weeks during this time.

Once all food is reintroduced, the maintenance phase begins: For the next two years, the Ticino resident recommends monthly acupuncture sessions combined with a low-carb diet. Carbohydrates should make up less than 20 percent of your total daily food intake.

“No yo-yo effect”

This is too little. The Federal Bureau of Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine (BLV) recommends that carbohydrates make up approximately 45-55 percent of daily energy intake in a balanced diet. “Carbohydrates are our most important source of energy and, along with fats and proteins, are among the essential nutrients,” the authority explains on its website.

When faced with the accusation of an unhealthy strict diet, Fumagalli counters: “Our hypothesis is that acupuncture stimulates the metabolism and therefore induces the side effects of accelerated dieting known in the literature – that is, the decrease in the metabolic rate after the diet and the subsequent side effects. yo-yo effect – suppressed. “Therefore, we recommend a long-term follow-up and maintenance diet combined with regular acupuncture sessions to continue stimulating the metabolism and achieve permanent weight loss.”