Hwasa's 40kg Body in Manila Photos Has Fans Talking: Then She Ordered the Biggest Fish in the Restaurant

Hwasa's Manila photos dropped on Instagram with a simple caption, "Romantic Manila", and the comments filled up fast. The MAMAMOO vocalist shared a series of shots taken around the city after the group's world tour concert at the Araneta Colosseum on the 8th, and the images, which showed her in a halter tank top and shorts, drew immediate attention to her noticeably slim silhouette.

The timing gave those photos extra context. Back in April, Hwasa appeared on MBC FM4U's radio program Jung Oh-ui Huimangok Kim Shin-yeong-imnida and revealed she had hit a personal milestone: for the first time, her weight had dropped into the 40-kilogram range, following roughly 5 kg of weight loss the previous year. She attributed the change to a deliberate dietary shift. "Sous vide chicken breast has gotten really good these days," she said, adding that she has always liked the ingredient but is now eating it more intentionally for diet management.

Chicken breast is a staple of Korean weight-loss regimens for straightforward reasons: high protein, relatively low fat, and filling enough to keep snacking in check. Nutritionists generally recommend pairing it with vegetables and whole grains for a balanced plate rather than relying on it alone, but as a cornerstone of a leaner diet, it has the track record to back it up.

For a dedicated mukbang viewer, though, the diet reveal is only half the story. On a recent episode of SBS variety show Miwoosae (translated loosely as My Ugly Duckling), Hwasa took her co-star Han Hye-jin on a Namdaemun Market food tour that ended at her personal favorite restaurant. She introduced the venue as the original home of deokja-jjim, a braised preparation of deokja, a fish in the butterfish family, noticeably larger than the common byeo-ngeo.

Before the main dish even arrived, the table was covered in side dishes: pajeon, ganjang gejang (raw crab marinated in soy sauce), pollock roe, and fried egg. Hwasa assembled her own variation of gejang gyeran-bap, mixing crab meat into soy-seasoned rice with practiced efficiency. Watching her pick every last bit of crab from the shell, Han Hye-jin muttered, "And you earn good money, too," to which Hwasa fired back: "Don't say anything in front of food."

Then the deokja-jjim arrived. Han Hye-jin's reaction was immediate, she described the fish as the size of a pot lid, and Hwasa herself admitted it was the biggest deokja she had ever seen. The restaurant owner noted it was wild-caught and explained that the largest specimens are priced at 180,000 won by market rate. Hwasa, who said the spot was a recommendation from her personal trainer, was so taken with the dish that she brought a pot to pack the leftovers.

Han Hye-jin couldn't help drawing the comparison to Hwasa's previous gopchang (grilled intestines) mukbang, which famously caused a shortage of the ingredient at restaurants across Korea after it aired. "Deokja is about to dry up nationwide," she predicted.

Given Hwasa's track record, that might not be an exaggeration.