Ingredient Beauty BenefitsBody shape
Localized fat, the line of the body, and skin that has gone loose.
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- What does it change?
Removing or moving localized fat, and cutting away loose skin to close it again. Not a way to lose weight.
- Is there anything short of surgery?
Yes, and this is where the evidence on this site spans the widest range. Deoxycholic acid has two placebo-controlled phase 3 trials; the far more famous cryolipolysis has no trial against doing nothing that we were able to find.
- Can it be undone?
Removed fat does not come back, but the result reverses if the remaining fat cells grow. Skin that was cut away, and its scar, cannot be undone.
There are no numbers and no citations in this box. What has been established, and how far, is below.
This slot used to live on the skin axis, with a note admitting it was "not strictly a skin concern, but the procedures in this layer needed somewhere to go." Somewhere exists now, so it moved.
First, plainly: nothing here is a way to lose weight. All of it treats localized fat — the part that stays when the rest goes. If weight returns, the result returns with it.
Nowhere on this site does the gap between famous and well-supported show more clearly.
- Deoxycholic acid has two placebo-controlled phase 3 trials — the thickest evidence in this layer
- The most widely used, cryolipolysis, has no trial against no treatment that we were able to find
Removing fat and removing skin are different operations. Liposuction takes fat; abdominoplasty, brachioplasty and thigh lift cut away loose skin. After major weight loss, taking more fat does not tidy the line, and the second group is what is needed — at the price of a long scar.
Fat can also be moved. Fat grafting and gluteal augmentation do that, and only what survives stays.
The lines left in the skin are under stretch marks; the dimpled surface is under cellulite. This site does not cover prices, clinics or testimonials.
Options before surgery
Used for the same concern but not surgical. These do carry evidence grades.
- Moderate evidenceHIFU body contouringDevice-based
- Moderate evidenceDeoxycholic acid injection (submental fat)Injection
- Moderate evidenceCryolipolysis (CoolSculpting)Device-based
- Moderate evidenceSynchronised radiofrequency and HIFEM (EMSculpt-type)Device-based
- Early researchMicrowave energy deviceDevice-based
- Early researchAcoustic wave therapy for celluliteDevice-based
- Not establishedEndermologieDevice-based
Operations for this concern
Surgery on this site is not yet graded for evidence. Reversibility is shown in place of a grade.
- Autologous fat graftingOnly partly
- LiposuctionCannot be undone
- Thigh liftCannot be undone
- Calf reductionCannot be undone
- AbdominoplastyCannot be undone
- Arm liftCannot be undone
- Gluteal fat graftingOnly partly