The claim is that a few pokes of an acupuncture needle can help you lose weight quickly. A lot of weight.

But what the advertisements for acupuncture slimming centres do not say is that you would need to go hungry at the same time.

Customers are advised to go on a low-carbohydrate diet, or even to eat no carbs at all. So they will need to give up bread, rice, noodles and potatoes – all of which belong to a food group which provides energy and helps one feel full.

The little ‘catch’ has not stopped Singaporeans from signing up for treatment, many paying more than $1,800 for a package of 30 sessions.

Desperate to slim down his grossly overweight 111kg frame after having tried other methods such as slimming pills and exercise, stockbroker Ivan Kwa signed up for acupuncture treatment two years ago.

He was initially sceptical that it was a drug-using weight-loss method, but decided to ‘try it out’ anyway. After he saw his weight drop by up to 1.5kg after each acupuncture session, he got hooked.

‘I was surprised that they used only needles and I could see immediate results,’ he says.To keep up his steady drop in weight, his Chinese physician put him on a brutal diet plan.Besides going for twice-weekly acupuncture sessions that were supposed to suppress his appetite and burn fat, he was advised not to eat more than 1,000 calories daily – 60 per cent less than the recommended daily intake of 2,500 calories for men.
From frequently polishing off his family’s dinner leftovers, he went to mostly eating fruit and boiled vegetables that tasted ‘so terrible’ he had to add chilli sauce to spice things up.

The 33-year-old, who is 1.64m tall, now weighs 76.5 kg. He is still going for acupuncture sessions but is slowly reintroducing carbohydrates into his diet ‘to satisfy his cravings’.

Despite the intense diet he put himself through, he credits acupuncture as the main reason he lost 34kg.

‘I started making progress from the first session and my weight didn’t bounce back because of the needles,’ he insists.

According to Mr Khoo Eng Lim, director of the School of Humanities and Alternative Medicine, the effect of acupuncture on weight loss is limited to only helping one curb hunger pangs and increasing one’s metabolism by ‘regulating the stomach and spleen functions’.

He adds that up to 70 per cent of the weight loss could be due to the diet itself and the shedding of fluids, or water weight. ‘Even if you didn’t go for acupuncture, you are bound to lose weight with such a diet,’ he says.

The Atkins low-carb diet gained a following with success stories claiming that they were able to lose up to 6kg in two weeks.

Associate consultant Dr Sonali Ganguly at the Department of Endocrinology, Singapore General Hospital, says studies of slimming by acupuncture have reported weight loss of 1 to 5kg after eight to 12 weeks of treatments.

She agrees with Mr Khoo that ‘it is unlikely that a 30kg weight loss can be attributed solely to acupuncture’.

Nevertheless, acupuncture slimming centres are enjoying booming business. There are at least three such establishments in Singapore.