What is the craziest thing you have ever done to lose weight? An entertainment artiste we spoke with recently shared that he started himself on an apple diet after reading about the “Five-day apple diet for weight loss” plan online. Although apples make up the bulk of the diet, this plan allows people to eat vegetables and other types of fruits and proteins. However, the artiste took it to the extreme, eating apples and only apples every single day. And he did it for a month.
Yikes.
At the end of this self-prescribed diet, the artiste admitted that he felt “really very miserable”. What was worse, he did not lose an ounce of weight.
There are many others like him, going around trying what nutritionists call a “fad diet” with miserable results. “A fad diet is a diet that promises fast weight loss without a scientific basis,” explains Jean Tong, nutritionist and weight management programme manager with Halley Medical Aesthetics. “These diets often eliminate entire food groups and don’t provide a wide range of important nutrients. It may provide short-term results but it will be difficult to sustain in the long run. It can also cause serious health problems.”
So how then do we get rid of the unwanted excess fat cells? Thanks to advances in medical science, there are now non-invasive and no downtime solutions that we can turn to.
CoolSculpting®
CoolSculpting is a device approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) that uses this technology known as cryolipolysis to freeze our body’s fat cells without affecting other parts of our body. These dead fat cells are then disposed off by the body. Once the fat cells are removed, they are gone for good.
The CoolSculpting device comes with several applicators in different sizes to better target fats on the different parts of the body. The CoolMini applicator, for instance, is small enough to address small pockets of fat tissues in the chin, armpit, and knee areas. Bigger applicators such as the CoolCurve, CoolCore, CoolMax, and CoolFit are better suited for addressing love handles, back or bra fat, abdomen, and inner thighs issues. For the outer thighs, the CoolSmooth applicator is highly efficient.
DualSculpting
Most of us are familiar with dual-purpose tools and technology. They help us save money and more importantly, they help us save time. DualSculpting works by combining two CoolSculpting devices to sculpt two different parts of the body at the same time. This effectively reduces treatment time by half, and Halley Medical Aesthetics is one of the few clinics in Singapore that has DualSculpting capabilities.
HIFU
HIFU is short for high intensity focused ultrasound. During treatment, a focused beam of high intensity ultrasound energy is targeted at the problem area beneath the skin. Its precise capability ensures that our skin’s surface is not affected. After the fat cells are destroyed, the body’s healing process will dispose of them naturally. HIFU is a non-invasive treatment is effective on the abdomen, inner thighs, back of thighs, hips, and arms. It is also a no downtime treatment.
If you are now on a weight loss programme and it is making you terribly miserable because you are eating only cabbages or drinking lemonade, please stop. The reason why the weight loss journey for many people is filled with disillusionment, frustration, anger, and uncertainty is that they go on a fad diet that claims to be “easy and quick” but which has no medical evidence that it works.
“Use the right method for the amount of time prescribed by your weight loss physician or nutritionist. Do not take unproductive routes by adopting Internet ‘quick-win’ methods one after another. This will take you even further away from your weight loss goals,” advises Jean.
