Looking for a radical lunchtime cellulite removal solution?

One-off, permanent, lunchtime cellulite removal treatment: is there such a thing?

A few days ago I received a telephone call from a prospective client who was interested in a radical cellulite solution, something like those lunch-time "boob jabs”, "flab jabs” and lunchtime "smart-lipo“ we see advertised in the classified sections of glossy magazines. “I want to kill my fat cells once and for all with a non-surgical method, so that they never come back.", she demanded. "What I’m looking for is a permanent, radical solution to my cellulite, not just a cellulite reduction treatment”, she furtehr explained to me with the conviction of someone being 100% brainwashed by advertising hype.

Unfortunately, there is so much misinformation today about surgical and non-surgical beauty treatments and procedures, that people are led to believe literally anything. We are made to believe that we can detoxify our bodies by applying detox patches or by having detox foot baths, that cellulite can disappear by wearing MBTs and Fit Flops, and that fat can be completely and permanently eliminated from our body no matter how much we eat and how little we exercise.

A cellulite treatment to be effective must be holistic and gradual - overnight fixes simply do not exist

I tried to explain to this lady that what she is looking for does not exist, and that cellulite reduction calls for a holistic approach that involves diet, exercise, regular treatments and, unfortunately, time too. Due to it’s very nature, being basically fat inside the skin, cellulite cannot disappear overnight with a surgical removal procedure such as liposuction, unless of course you want to remove your skin altogether. (liposuction does work because it removes fat stored underneath the skin, but this is deep fat - not cellulite). And at the moment, there is no machine that is proven to permanently destroy cellulite fat cells with a single application - not one! Most of the machines that claim to destroy fat cells with one application (think lasers and similar gimmicks) actually do not destroy the fat cells and do need 10 or 15 applications to be effective, making them as efficient as more traditional treatments, such as intensive cellulite-specific massage, but at 200%~500% the cost.

A few weeks ago, I started treating a new client that had received one of those miracle lunchtime treatments for cellulite at the cost of £450 for a little more than one hour of ultrasound treatment. She was promised that only one treatment was all that was needed, possibly two, and her cellulite would disappear forever. Unfortunately she believed the hype and she coughed up almost half a grand, only to realize a few weeks later that her cellulite was exactly the same as it was before. Thankfully she didn’t have a spare £450 for the optional second treatment that would permanently seal the results of the first, and saved herself a bit of money. I explained to her my views on cellulite reduction and miracle lunchtime treatments and she agreed that this time she had to take it more seriously and go for slow and steady progress instead of the instant gratification approach.

Another client I started treating a few days ago paid a cool £750 for a handful of laser treatments, only to realise that it doesn't work at all and request some of her money back. Laser treatments are divided into two categories: low level laser therapy, which is great for musculosceletal injuries, and high intensity machines which are great for hair removal and facial skin resurfacing. However, both are pretty useless for cellulite reduction, for different reasons. The LLLT is too weak to have any effect on cellulite, while high-intensity (ablative) lasers are designed to slough off/damage the epidermis (the most superficial part of the skin) rather than to affect the subdermis, where cellulite is located.

To be honest, if such an instant treatment exists and it is safe, we will immediately adopt it ourselves too. In fact every single day we check all the new research that comes up looking for ways to help our clients achieve better results, faster. In addition, we check all the trade journals, we travel abroad for trade exhibitions and we regularly evaluate and try new machines and new techniques. Who wouldn’t want to have instantly better smile, instantly better looking legs, instantly reduced wrinkles on their face? And what practitioner would not like to offer real miraculous results to their clients? The only reason I am writing this article is because I want to disseminate the truth as it exists today. If things change tomorrow, believe me, I will be one of the first to adopt the new miracle technology and provide it to my clients. But this technology does not exist today.

Let me put it differently, if money was no object and such a miracle treatment existed today then no rich or famous person would ever have cellulite, which evidently is not the case. Cellulite is the most democratic of aesthetic conditions, affecting both the poor and the rich and requiring as much diet and exercise effort from the less well-off as it requires from the wealthy. There is no cellulite surgery equivalent to face lift, liposuction, tummy tuck or boob job, whereby all you need to immediately get rid of your wrinkles or body fat is to spend enough money on a very good doctor. And there is no cellulite injection equivalent to botox: injection-based mesotherapy is too painful, expensive and temporary to be considered as a viable solution to cellulite. Unfortunately, cellulite reduction takes time and typically requires diet and exercise.

Mesotherapy as a miracle lunchtime cellulite treatment

Mesotherapy is a process whereby homeopathic remedies, drugs or nutrients are injected straight inside the cellulite tissue by multiple minute syringes. The process is obviously intrusive and quite often leads to severe irritation, bruising and inflammation, with the occasional severe systemic side effect such as fainting, hyperthyroid disease etc. - depending on the drug used. A certain mesotherapy procedure, called Lipotherapy (or more affectionately Flab Jab), has been banned in the UK as it was deemed unsafe by the authorities. Lipotherapy involves a mix of gall bladder acids (AKA bile acids or deoxycholate) and phosphatidyl choline (purified lecithin) being injected into the body. The promoters of the procedure describe it as soya extract (i.e. lecithin) that melts the fat but the reality is that they forget to mention that what does the job is not the lecithin but the bile acids (the same things you secrete to digest your food in your intestines) and it works by damaging fat cells and all surrounding tissues and by causing severe inflammation in the area - not by gently melting the fat.

However, although lipotherapy is banned in the UK, I do know of "flab jab" parties, similar to botox parties, taking place in London with the injections self-administered by the patients or administered by unscrupulous nurses, but I hope you will never put yourself to such risk...

Mesotherapy utilizing homeopathic remedies is a contradiction by it’s own very nature, going against all the principles and rules of homeopathy and has never knowingly produced any results for cellulite.

Mesotherapy with nutrients (vitamins, herbal extracts etc.) seems like a good idea, but still it is not a miracle lunchtime treatment: it requires several injections applied over a few weeks, and it’s results are not impressive and by no means permanent. You usually need to have repeat courses of injections every six months. In fact, I do occasionally treat a lady who does just that, and has been doing so for the last few years: she receives a very potent cocktail of drug-based mesotherapy injections a few times a week for about a month, twice a year, having to withstand the severe pain that these injections cause. Yes, she does get results but they are temporary (if they were permanent she wouldn’t need to repeat the painful process twice a year). So is the whole hassle worth it? I am inclined to congratulate this lady for her braveness, but to be honest if I ever had cellulite, I would much rather spend my “anti-cellulite budget” on weekly preventive holistic cellulite treatments than get injected every six months for weeks on end.

Mesotherapy with drugs may be effective but then you run the risk of those drugs causing side effects throughout the body, as a large proportion of the drugs injected are absorbed into the general circulation by the rich capillary network of the skin. I know of doctors using diuretic drugs and thyroid hormones, among other chemicals, in their mesotherapy cocktails. Honestly, I would not want to receive such injections. This is not the life I would like to live. And given that mesotherapy is very expensive, I think the holistic option would also make more sense financially.

No-needle mesotherapy is a safe alternative to injection-based mesotherapy, but only if a high concentration of active ingredients is used for the treatment, and in 99% of clinics this is not the case. Needle-free mesotherapy is not a miracle treatment, but it is safe and in combination with other treatments, such as high-power radiofrequency and high-power cavitation, it can be an powerful tool against cellulite.

Can surgery such as liposuction or smart lipo magically remove cellulite?

Liposuction and smart lipo are surgery solutions that aim to remove deep, "storage" fat from the body. This fat is found underneath what is called the superficial fascia, which in simple terms is just a layer or connective tissue sheath, that separates the skin from the deep fat and muscles. Cellulite in contrast is fat enclosed inside the skin and therefore can not be removed with a surgical procedure, as this would require the removal of the skin itself - not a good idea obviously...

Therefore smart lipo or liposuction ads promising to remove celulite with these procedures are completely unjustified and misleading. Those procedures do remove the underlying layer of "flab" but they leave cellulite itself untouched.