Mr. Zhao, 56, tried to lose weight by limiting himself to just one meal a day. Instead of slimming down, however, he grew increasingly weak—and didn’t lose any weight.
On a winter day in 2025, Zhao visited Serene Feng, a senior TCM physician at Northern Medical Center in New York. At first glance, he showed classic signs of “skinny fat”—excess body fat with low muscle mass. He weighed 195 pounds at 5 feet 9 inches.
