6 Treatments for Stubborn Belly and Thigh Fat in 2023

Obesity occurs when calorie intake exceeds what the body needs and builds up as adipose tissue. Women generally tend to develop localized fat in the lower belly, thighs, and arms, while men tend to gain fat around the organs, belly, and waist. These places that gain weight especially easily and are hard to slim down are your stubborn fat. But there are hundreds of weight-loss methods, so stop believing that eating less and moving more is all it takes. This article rounds up 6 effective weight-loss methods in one place and shows you how to quickly get rid of stubborn fat!

Method 1: Can Lipolysis Injections Eliminate Belly and Thigh Fat?

Weight loss effect: ★★★★

Lipolysis injections are a cell-lysing medication that acts on superficial fat. The medication enters the subcutaneous tissue and dissolves and destroys fat cells, which are then cleared through the body's natural metabolism, reducing the number of fat cells and improving localized subcutaneous fat accumulation.

Lipolysis injections mainly dissolve superficial fat, which is then cleared by the body's metabolism. To eliminate deep fat or large areas of fat, many more injections are needed, so we would instead recommend liposuction for improvement, which saves a long wait and is also cheaper.

Method 2: Do Weight-Loss Pens Really Work?

Weight loss effect: ★★★★

Weight-loss pens are legally approved weight-loss medication cleared by Taiwan FDA. They are self-injection pens that look like ballpoint pens, and their main ingredient is a "GLP-1 incretin analog" that suppresses appetite and reduces hunger, lowering calorie intake to achieve weight loss.

Weight-loss pens work by suppressing appetite. One course of treatment is 3 months. After about 1-2 months, the body shape starts to change gradually, fat mass begins to drop, and weight goes down step by step. After 3 months, weight is reduced by 5-10%. If your weight has not dropped by at least 5% from your starting weight, it means the treatment has had no significant effect, and we recommend switching to another weight-loss method.

Method 3: Can Liposuction Really Help You Lose Weight?

Body shape improvement effect: ★★★★★

Liposuction can improve your body shape and is the fastest method of all. The latest technology is VASER liposuction, which, compared with traditional liposuction, does not cause tearing damage or destroy surrounding blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue, effectively reducing bleeding, bruising, and pain.

VASER liposuction also allows the extracted fat to be transferred back into other parts of the body. Whether it is the hourglass waist, vest lines, and peachy buttocks that women love, or the six-pack and V-line that men pursue, all can be achieved through fine sculpting, giving the body firmer curves!

One important reminder: many people think liposuction will make them super slim and even expect to lose 10 kg right away, but the correct idea of liposuction is body sculpting. Weight basically does not change much; only the number of fat cells in the body is greatly reduced. What matters more at that point is diet control. If you keep overeating, the fat cells will still swell and grow larger, so there is still a risk of regaining weight.

Method 4: Does Thread Embedding Work for Weight Loss?

Weight loss effect: ★★★

Traditional Chinese medicine thread embedding, billed as "fast, convenient, and effective," is a weight-loss method many people have probably tried. Thread embedding can indeed suppress appetite and affect the absorption and metabolic speed of the stomach and intestines, but it is easily disrupted by factors such as individual constitution and lifestyle habits. We recommend combining it with diet control and exercise after thread embedding; otherwise the effect of this weight-loss method is still limited.

In addition, thread embedding relies on the professional skill of a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. If the threads are embedded too shallow or not at the correct acupoints, not only is there no slimming effect, but the fat can form hard nodules, causing granular bumps on the body that take several months to disappear.

Method 5: Does Cryolipolysis Really Work?

Weight loss effect: ★★★★

Cryolipolysis takes advantage of the fact that fat is sensitive to cold, using low temperatures of -10 to -5°C to destroy fat cells, which are then cleared from the body through metabolism. It is most suitable for improving abdominal fat accumulation. According to clinical medical statistics, one cryolipolysis treatment can reduce fat thickness by 20%, and a second treatment can reduce it by 25%.

However, please note that the effect of cryolipolysis decreases with the number of treatments, because once the superficial fat has been eliminated, it is hard for the next session to achieve the same result as the first.

Method 6: Can Muscle-Building Fat Reduction (CMSlim) Really Give You a Six-Pack Easily?

Weight loss effect: ★★★

The muscle-building and fat-reduction (CMSlim) treatment that has become hugely popular in recent years claims you can get a six-pack by lying down for 30 minutes. Is it true or not?

CMSlim muscle-building and fat-reduction treatment targets abdominal obesity, the biggest worry for modern people, and is promoted for achieving "supramaximal muscle contractions" that voluntary exercise cannot. Using high-energy focused electromagnetic field technology, it makes the muscles contract continuously, reaching up to 20,000 contractions in 30 minutes. After 4 sessions over 2 weeks, it can increase muscle by 16% while reducing fat by 19%!

However, muscle lies beneath the fat layer, so for people with thick subcutaneous fat, no matter how many muscle-building sessions they have, the results still will not be visible. It needs to be combined with fat-reduction treatments such as cryolipolysis, weight-loss pens, and lipolysis injections, first removing excess fat and then training the muscle, to make the definition look more obvious.

Looking at all the methods above, although the core of weight loss is still diet control and regular exercise, these are two things everyone knows but often cannot really follow through on, and most truly effective and immediate weight-loss methods rely on the help of aesthetic medicine. But does weight loss through aesthetic medicine require special care afterward? How long do the results last? And how do you prevent weight regain? We answer these here as well!

Q: Does weight loss through aesthetic medicine require special care afterward?

Aesthetic weight-loss treatments can be divided into invasive and non-invasive types. For invasive treatments, we recommend that once the recovery period is over, you pair them with diet adjustments and regular exercise to help the results last long term. For non-invasive treatments, we recommend drinking more water and eating more protein after the treatment, reducing refined starches, and exercising regularly, all of which help the body metabolize and clear the destroyed fat cells faster.

Q: How long do the results of aesthetic weight loss last? How do I prevent weight regain?

No matter which aesthetic weight-loss method you use, once you have slimmed down, if you return to your old eating habits, or often stay up late, eat late-night snacks, and do not exercise, you will usually regain the weight within about 3 months to half a year. The core of weight loss is still building the right eating mindset, keeping up regular exercise, and eating more protein. This is the only truly effective way to slim down with aesthetic medicine and not regain the weight!