RALEIGH, N.C. - If you’re frustrated by fat that just won’t go away, no matter how much you diet and exercise, you may be interested in a new procedure that promises spot fat reduction without surgery.

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Lipotherapy helped Marianne Nicholas lose inches and regain the confidence she had lost. 

 

“I just felt like, well, my life is over, I don’t feel like me any more. I feel like the used up, worn out version of me,” said Nicholas.

 

In her late 40s, Nicholas had initially planned a mid-face lift, but after meeting Dr. Deborah Hudak, she decided on lipotherapy to reduce fat that had accumulated around her chin. 

 

Just one treatment gave her better results than she had expected.

 

“I felt that this was the best option for me as far as minimal downtime and not have my appearance changed severely so that it was obvious to everyone that I knew that something drastic had been done,” said Nicholas. “I didn’t want drastic, I just wanted better.” 

 

Not everyone is a candidate for the procedure, says Dr. Hudak. 

 

“If it’s truly a person who has a body mass index of 30 or less and they’ve been using diet and exercise and they cannot get rid of the fat in certain areas,” said Hudak. “The only way really for them to reduce inch-wise where it is they want to lose is through liposuction, surgical excision, smart lipo (the laser), or lipotherapy.”

 

Like Liposuction, this procedure targets the subcutaneous layer of the skin, which is composed mainly of fat.   But instead of vacuuming out the fat like in liposuction, lipotherapy uses injections through the layers of the skin that cause the fat cells to die. 

 

Hudak marks the areas where she’ll put the injections to ensure an even distribution of the medication mixture.   Some practitioners use injection guns; Hudak prefers needles. 

 

“This is very, very technique dependent,” she said. “So not all physicians who even learn under the same people are going to get the same results.”

 

Although the procedure is minimally invasive, there are some temporary side effects – which include swelling, itching and sometimes bruising for a few days after the treatment. 

 

For Marianne, the results were better than she expected. They were so good that she decided to have her arms done as well.   She says it has been the boost she needed to get her life back on track. 

 

“I feel the same way I did when I was 30. I have the same energy level, the same enthusiasm, that was missing,” she said.

 

The procedure, which costs around $400 per session, has not yet received FDA approval, although is has been approved in France for over a decade. Doctors caution that it is not a weight reduction procedure. 

 

To find a doctor who performs the procedure, visit the International Meso-Lipotherapy Society.

 

For information about Dr. Hudak and her practice, click here.