Is Being Skinny Worth It? South Korea's Weight-Loss Culture and Its Health Risks

In South Korea, K-pop star Jang Won-young of the group Ive has become a symbol of the country's ideal physique. At 173 cm tall and 48 kg, her slim figure is widely admired — but medical experts note her body mass index of about 16 kg/m² falls well below the healthy range, exposing her to risks associated with being significantly underweight. Her case reflects a broader problem affecting many women across the nation.

According to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, released by ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Heo Jong-sik, 6.2% of South Korean women were underweight in 2025 — defined as a BMI of 18.5 or lower. That figure was nearly four times the rate among men, which stood at 1.6%, and well above the national average of 4.2%.

Women's underweight rates exceeded men's in every region, reaching a high of 8.2% in Seoul. Obesity, meanwhile, was more common among men nationwide, peaking at 49% on Jeju Island. The average obesity rate was 41.5% for men and 24.2% for women. South Korea classifies obesity as a BMI of 25 or above, a lower threshold than the international standard of 30.

"While preventing and managing obesity matters, we also need to ask whether society's pressure on women to be thin is driving harmful weight loss," Heo said. He also raised alarms about the growing popularity of weight-loss drugs, calling on regulators to ban their use by people whose BMI already falls within the normal or underweight range.

Misperceiving a normal body as fat

Studies show that a striking share of Korean women at healthy weights believe they are overweight. An August report from the Korean Society for Study of Obesity found that 18.9% of women with a normal BMI (18.5 to 24.9) considered themselves obese, compared with just 4.1% of normal-weight men. Even 0.6% of underweight women saw themselves as obese, according to an analysis of the KDCA's nationwide survey covering 2022 to 2024.

A separate KDCA analysis of Koreans' physical well-being from 2013 to 2021, published in 2024, found that 15.1% of women aged 19 to 29 were underweight. Among them, 16.2% had tried to lose weight. Overall, 53.9% of women with a normal BMI had attempted to slim down.

"A social and cultural climate that glorifies thin bodies and encourages reckless dieting is fueling young women's excessive focus on their appearance," the report warned, cautioning that unnecessary weight loss can carry serious health consequences.

South Korea is not generally a heavy country: its obesity rate is the second-lowest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, behind only Japan. Because Korea's obesity threshold is equivalent to "overweight" in most other nations, the share of Koreans who are overweight by OECD standards is in fact lower than the obesity rate in the United States.

Contrary to these misperceptions, the female obesity challenge is far less severe than the male one. KDCA data shows the male obesity rate climbed by nearly 10 percentage points between 2015 and 2024, while the rate for women barely moved, rising just 0.3 points.

Health risks of being underweight

Normal weight generally signals a healthy body, while an underweight classification can indicate nutritional deficiency. Research links being underweight to a weakened immune system, higher risks of osteoporosis and anemia, and growth delays in children.

A 2022 nationwide cohort study of Korean patients found that severely underweight people with a BMI below 16.5 had a 28% higher risk of fractures than those at a normal weight. Those moderately underweight (BMI 16.5 to 17.4) faced a 14% higher risk, while mildly underweight individuals (BMI 17.5 to 18.4) had a 9% greater risk. The study, titled "Severity of underweight and risk of fracture: a Korean nationwide population-based cohort study," was published in Scientific Reports.