BEAUTY: SHAPING UP FOR SUMMER

Imagine the scene: the weather has changed overnight and before you have time to check your previous season’s cupboard, you’re forced to slip into a short sleeve, lightly woven, silk shirt. You look the part, despite the hot weather.

You rush into the boardroom, apologetically greeting everybody and throw yourself onto the nearest chair. Silence… and then the awful sound of ripping material. It’s the fabric around those two buttons that were doing their best to keep your shirt together; but even silk has its limits!

What happened the last few months? Where did the extra centimeters come from and more importantly how are you going to get rid of them?

Cold weather causes most people to react in the following ways: the body craves extra calories to produce extra heat, so we tend to eat more carbohydrates and comfort food.

To make matters worse, we tend to dream up all kinds of excuses not to go to gym during winter, so our normal calorie expenditure is reduced, leading to a steady increase in body weight and that dreaded thing called cellulite!

Excess weight and cellulite is a nightmare for those who have struggled with it for years. There is no single solution to combat excess weight and cellulite, especially because cellulite is basically resistant fat and even if you eat healthily and maintain a healthy weight, localised fat pockets may still develop and refuse to disappear.

A possible explanation behind this is that some fat cells have a predominance of alpha receptors. When adrenaline attaches to alpha receptors, fat breakdown slows down and the fat tends to accumulate more.

This explains why some people will experience problems in areas that just won’t respond to consistent and regular exercise. These problem areas are typically around the hips, tummy and upper thighs, leading to love handles, saddle bags, and spare tummy rolls.

Don’t despair! To improve your looks you can start on a maintenance program consisting of a combination of treatments, diet, exercise and medicinal products.

Skin and Body Renewal centres have developed a new program, called the 3 D Body Renewal which includes five body shaping treatments that target abnormal resistant fat and sculpt the body to a more aesthetically pleasing shape.

3 D Body Renewal is a non-invasive treatment program that targets subcutaneous fat to remove centimetres from the waist, hips and thigh. A major benefit of 3 D Body Renewal is that there are fewer downsides risks as compared to other fat reducing modalities such as laser lipolysis or traditional liposuction.

The treatments are:

UltraShape®, a totally non-invasive body contouring treatment that effectively and safely reduces unsightly fat deposits using focused ultrasound to target and selectively disrupt fat cells, leaving surrounding critical structures such as skin, blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue intact.

Lipodissolve involves micro injections of a mesotherapy solution that dissolves fat cells to diminish localised resistant fat deposits.

A Radiofrequency procedure (either TriPollar ™ or Velashape™ or Accent XL) tightens sagging skin, stimulates long term collagen and improves the results of the Lipodissolve procedure.

Carboxytherapy dramatically improves the circulation to the treated area, thereby enhancing the excretion of the released fat from destroyed fat cells. This involves injecting tiny amounts of Carbon dioxide beneath the skin to break down fatty deposits and stimulate collagen production.

Slender Wonder, a safe and effective medical weight loss program that specifically addresses abnormal, exercise resistant fat. The programme consists of a low GI diet; supplements in the form of capsules; a daily meal replacement with a low GI health shake and daily injections of a lipotrophic substance (HCG) that releases the abnormal fat in the body.

Added to the Slender Wonder program, a product called Imzo Zinsel C, which increases circulation and carries key essential nutrients to the affected areas, is also offered.

The full effect of each combined treatment session takes approximately two to four weeks to manifest skin rejuvenation and a further three months to achieve enhanced tightening as collagen is stimulated down the line.

To make sure that you look your best this summer make sure to eat healthily and get to your gym asap. But there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get a boost from these programmes; after all, sometimes even nature needs a little help.