ITZY's Yuna Shuts Down Years of Hip Pad Rumors With One Swimsuit Photo

ITZY's Yuna posted beach vacation photos on September 6, and the timing did what words never quite managed: they landed directly in the middle of a years-old conversation about whether her proportions are real.

The photos show Yuna in a deep burgundy monokini, white knit draped over one hand, walking along a beach with her hair loosely pinned up. She captioned the set "cloudy days are fine too." The fit of the swimsuit, specifically the waist-to-hip ratio that's followed her career since she debuted, started the usual cycle all over again, except this time the reaction skewed toward vindication rather than suspicion.

The accusation she had to address on TV

For a while, Yuna couldn't get through a performance cycle without online speculation claiming she wore hip padding under her stage outfits, or that she'd had some kind of procedure done. The rumors were specific and persistent enough that she addressed them directly on MBC's Radio Star in 2024. "People talk about it a lot," she said at the time. "They ask what I've had put in." Her response was to tell viewers to go watch the "Loco" music video, essentially pointing to evidence already in public view rather than arguing the point.

These new photos are the longer version of that same answer.

What she actually does to stay in shape

The beach photos also pulled attention back to the fitness and diet habits Yuna has shared publicly over the past year or so. In January, Cosmopolitan published a home workout video featuring Yuna running through her post-schedule routine: planks, seated knee-ups, and single-leg raises, three sets each, done before eating even after a full day with no meals. "I still have to do it," she said, starting the session.

Her view on stretching is worth noting. She's said she considers it more important than the workout itself, and does five to ten minutes every morning before anything else.

On food, she's not restrictive in the way idol fitness coverage usually frames it. Pizza is one of her stated favorite foods, and she's mentioned eating four slices on days she allows herself to go off-plan. The principle she's applied, as she's described it, is simple: if you moved, you can eat. She works out before and after meals rather than cutting food groups.

In a separate YouTube video from June last year, she showed herself eating salad before galbi, explaining "vegetables first," and mentioned she'd been reducing sugar intake. Research out of Ewha Womans University, published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism on August 17, found that eating vegetables and protein before carbohydrates lowered post-meal blood sugar spikes in healthy Korean women, which is essentially the approach Yuna described, without the study to back it up at the time.

Still touring

ITZY is currently midway through their third world tour, which puts Yuna's beach content in context: this is probably a break between legs, not an extended holiday. ITZY has maintained a demanding release and performance schedule through 2025 and into this year, so any footage of the members actually resting tends to get its own moment online.

The runway proportions, the hip pad history, the workout clips, none of it is new. But a swimsuit on a beach has a way of consolidating an argument that no interview answer ever fully closes.