RESCENE's Minami Lost 18kg Before Debut, and Cried Alone in a Car After a Fitting

RESCENE members Minami and Liv have spoken candidly about the extreme weight loss they endured while preparing to debut, with Minami describing the period as one of the hardest of her life. In a video titled Battle with Weight: The Truth About 20kg posted to RESCENE's YouTube channel on the 11th, the members revisited diet experiences that went well beyond the usual pre-debut regimen.

Minami clarified that while a 20kg weight loss figure had previously circulated, the actual number for her was 18kg. Liv lost 13kg. Both said the training continued even after scheduled activities wrapped for the day.

Workouts at the edge

The members recalled running roughly 10km along the Han River and completing as many as 10,000 jump-rope repetitions in the early hours of the morning. Their trainer from that period appeared in the video and described a program built around jumping burpees, push-ups, and other exercises performed in eight sets each. He called it "military training level intensity", the Korean equivalent of full combat conditioning.

That physical pressure carried a significant emotional weight alongside it. Minami said every source of stress in her daily life converged into the diet. "I think I cried every single day," she said. The lowest point came during a costume fitting when a pair of jeans wouldn't clear her hips. Her manager and stylist forced the clothing on together, and Minami went to sit in the car alone afterward.

"I cried so much that my makeup had to be completely redone, and filming was actually halted," she recalled. It's the kind of detail that makes the production machine visible in a way idol content rarely does, the stop wasn't voluntary; the tears simply wouldn't stop in time.

Hiding snacks, eating in secret

Food became its own source of anxiety. The members described eating salads in front of others while secretly eating more on their own, and hiding snacks in increasingly creative places: under mattresses and pillows, inside bathroom drawers, and at one point, in the ceiling. The image is funny in retrospect, and both members laughed recounting it, but it also points to how completely the pressure had permeated the ordinary rhythms of their days.

Minami said she can talk about that period as a memory now, but has no desire to return to it. Her closing message was direct: finding a diet method that suits your own body matters far more than chasing thinness. "Please don't push yourself through a diet that's too painful for you," she said.