Celebrities swear by ancient weight loss technique
3 March 2012 The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) Rosemarie Lentini
It’s the “no-food” diet that shrunk the stomachs – and bank balances – of some of Sydney’s most rich and powerful people.
Not that they’re spilling the beans. It’s their shrinking waistlines which tell the tale. Wentworth MP Malcolm Turnbull, Eastern suburbs cosmetic physician Dr Naomi McCullum and corporate advisory firm Pottinger’s joint CEO Nigel Lake are among more than 20 CEOs and celebrities who have tried Dr Shuquan Lui 101 Wellbeing Program.
Mr Turnbull lost about 13 kg.
“I treat a lot of CEOs and top-level people,” Dr Liu, a qualified traditional Chinese medicine practitioner for about 20 years, said.
“They see me because they understand my program and I’m a professional – I never tell. I treat many famous people, like celebrities and well-known people. I see many of them and they recommend friends.”
With clinics in Bondi Junction, Chatswood and Warringah, Dr Liu is secretive about his clients and the formula of his fat- stripping herbal treatments, which cost about $3600 over two months.
Clients can lose up to 8 kg in weight and 10 cm from the waist in the first 2 weeks by drinking a herbal mixture, receiving acupuncture treatments and fasting. Food is reintroduced in week three.
Dr Liu admits his diet plan – which started as his Ph.D. project –I s controversial but said that the “results speak for themselves”.
“My treatment aims to help patients get to the top level of their well-being,” he said.
“If your organs are not well it doesn’t matter what exercise you do or what you eat. When the patient comes in, we don’t really focus on how much they weigh. We see how much space there is between the liver, spleen and large intestine -your waist area. And we’d say ‘you need to lose about 10 cm in your middle’. One centimetre is usually about one kilogram weight loss,” he said.
While Dr Liu’s mysterious program has a following in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Dieticians Association of Australia spokeswoman Melanie McRice was concerned the diet was a fad that’s “just as unhealthy” as the lemon detox, Dukan, blood type and liver cleansing diets.
The 101 Wellbeing Program
Weeks 1 to 4: clean and release
First fortnight
*no food + tailored herbal tea mixture
+ acupuncture, reflexology, tui na and moxibustion treatments
Second fortnight
*herbal T + treatments + reintroduce “small” foods “to clean internal organs”
(cooked green vegetables, cooked white protein, fish, chicken, prawns)
Weeks 5 to 8: Repair and recover
*stabilise the body: maintain your weight witless herbs + less treatments + light exercise
*bring in more foods, except ones causing water retention
Weeks 9 and beyond: Maintenance
you’re on your own
ingredients
there isn’t a single recipe, with herbal teas tailored to the health needs of clients
- Renshen (ginseng): spleen and lung
- Dang Gui (Angelica root): women’s reproductive health in some cardiovascular
- Da Zao (black dates): spleen and stomach
- Hou Pu (Magnolia back): gastrointestinal issues
- Gou Qi Zi (gogi berries): fatigue, vision and male erectile dysfunction
- Lu Gen (reed rhizome): lung and stomach
