Taemin's Diet Secret: Slow Meals, Grilled Salmon, and 7 Hours of Sleep

Taemin's current diet doesn't look much like the rigid meal-prep routines that idol fitness content usually showcases. On the 9th, the SHINee member appeared on Yu-in Radio, a YouTube channel with around 260,000 subscribers, and walked through the eating habits he's been following since deciding to start dieting recently.

The centerpiece is grilled salmon. "These days I need to be dieting, so I've been grilling salmon and eating that," he said, adding that he also makes aglio e olio pasta on some days and yogurt with banana on others. It's a varied, relatively relaxed approach for someone in active body management mode, and the mix of protein, healthy fats, and lighter fruit-based meals lines up more with a sustainable routine than a crash plan.

The one-hour meal

What stood out even more was his pace at the table. Taemin mentioned that he takes well over an hour to get through a single meal. Asked why, his answer was disarmingly simple: he's watching something while he eats. Getting ready to head out afterward brings the full morning block to around two hours.

Slowing down at meals is, as it happens, genuinely useful for weight management. A University of Rhode Island study comparing slow and fast eating in 30 healthy women found that the slower eaters consumed an average of around 579 kcal per meal, compared to roughly 646 kcal for faster eaters, and reported feeling more satisfied afterward. The researchers suggested that taking small bites, setting down chopsticks or a fork between each one, and chewing thoroughly are practical ways to keep the pace down. Taemin's method of being absorbed in a screen may achieve much the same effect without the conscious effort.

Sleep as a non-negotiable

He was equally direct about sleep. "If I don't get at least 7 hours, my condition for the whole day suffers. I feel it physically," he said, adding simply that getting enough sleep is essential for him. For someone whose performance schedule demands full-body output, treating that 7-hour threshold as a hard floor rather than a rough target makes a lot of sense.