In a study recently conducted by Men's Health magazine, 5 of the Top 10 Fattest Cities in America were in Texas: Corpus Christi, El Paso, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. While our legislators are trying to get our weight in check with a bill to get restaurant chains to post nutrition information on menus, we decided to give our readers a throwdown between the two top non-invasive fat reduction procedures: Zeltiq and Zerona. While there are many fat reduction options, this throwdown focuses on non-invasive technology, which translates to lose weight with no cutting, no surgery, and no downtime.
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In an effort to understand the nuances of both procedures, American Health and Beauty spoke with Dr. Bruce McClendon of Realis Medical Spa, a local Houston medspa that offers both Zeltiq and Zerona.
Zeltiq CoolSculpting uses cryolipolysis to bring fat to near freezing, at which point the fat cells are destroyed without damaging skin. Since it only works on fat that can be suctioned into the two cooling plates in the device's hand piece, Zeltiq works best on spot fat reductions. Dr. McClendon says, "It works extremely well on people who have small bulges on their abdomen, their arms, back fat, saddlebags and love handles," or for people who are generally fit and exercise regularly but just cannot lose that last bit of fat.
Zerona, a low level laser treatment, uses laser technology to reduce fat. The original use for Zerona was to assist in traditional liposuction but it has since been used on its own to reduce fat. Zerona not only differs from Zeltiq in its mode of application, it is an ideal procedure for a patient who wants to lose overall inches. The Zerona laser is aimed at one part of the body but the overall loss can be measured on the entire body. In Dr. McClendon's experience, he says, "An ideal Zerona patient is someone who wants to lose inches uniformly but doesn't need skin tightening" and in general, his patients have lost 3-9 inches measured in 3 different areas.
At Realis MedSpa, which also offers other body contouring options such as liposuction and laser lipolysis, Dr. McClendon says they take many factors into consideration to help determine the right fat reduction procedure for their patients. And while non-invasive fat reduction procedures may not yield as dramatic of a result as liposuction, Zeltiq and Zerona are excellent options if the patient wants to lose a small amount of weight. The difference between the two is where the patient wants to lose the weight: Zeltiq for spot reduction and Zerona for all over reduction.
In the horizon, Zeltiq will soon offer different sized cooling plates for their hand pieces for larger spot (half of the abdomen) and smaller spot (under the chin) treatments. These different sized plates will allow for Zeltiq to "spot-treat" different areas of fat that previously could not fit in the initial hand piece.
