The obesity epidemic in the United States is still very much alive, with more than two-thirds of American adults considered to be overweight or obese. It’s formed a bustling market for diet and weight loss products that range from strict workout regiments, to getting your own dietetic meals delivered to your door. One of the quickest weight loss alternatives is surgical, however these processes can be costly and can have long recovery periods. A doctor in San Francisco has developed a new weight loss device that promises to safely reduce body fat without the cumbersome tasks of dieting or going under the knife.
Known as SculpSure, the machine is attached to a patient’s body as they lie on a flat surface, and uses a combination of light energy, heat, and coldness to eradicate unwanted fat cells. The patient lays on a flat surface and has brackets placed around the parts of the body where fat is prevalent, and blasts that particular area with laser light. The brackets from the machine heat the fat cells and dissolve them, while keeping the surface of the skin cool. This process destroys roughly a quarter of the fat cells in the targeted area of the body within the first half hour, after which they’re naturally broken down and metabolized.
“It’s not strictly a melting. It’s actually you’re damaging the fat with heat, light energy. It’s light energy,” says Doctor Keith Denkler, who developed the device. “And the fat cell dies. Then the body goes and metabolizes the site, which is the cell and it takes away the fat.”
The best part about the SculpSure is how long the procedure takes – 25 minutes, meaning you can hypothetically squeeze an appointment at Dr. Denkler’s San Francisco-based clinic in between errands or on your lunch break at work. While the procedure is more so recommended for patients with healthy skin (according to Dr. Denkler, a small percentage experience discomfort and slight pain from the application of heat), there’s no recovery period and the immediate effects on the body subsequent to the procedure are seamless.
Results tend to vary from case-to-case, but the average time frame it takes for someone to start seeing the results takes 6-12 weeks. SculpSure works best on people with isolated concentrations of fat throughout their bodies like love handles that are unaffected by dieting. While this device is in its infancy, there is a lot of potential for how effective the SculpSure can truly be, which Dr. Denkler and other researchers in the industry will surely work towards achieving moving forward.
