Author: Kate Dee, MD.
If they are all getting Emsculpt on Bling Empire, it must be great, right? Body Sculpting has become very popular, and what’s a better indication of trendiness than appearing on reality TV? But what about the science? Should you believe the hype? [Aside: If you haven’t seen it, Bling Empire is a reality TV version of Crazy Rich Asians. Totally ridiculous but quite entertaining.]
Now that we have some experience with the Emsculpt Neo, we can talk about how it is different from other devices and from the original Emsculpt, and how results differ too. We’ve had to field lots of questions and can tell you definitively that the Neo, with its combination of HIFEM muscle stimulation and RF heating is a huge advance, placing it far ahead of any other device in the body sculpting world.
The original Emsculpt uses High Frequency Electro-Magnetic (HIFEM) muscular stimulation to cause massively strong contractions – called supramaximal because they are stronger than the muscle contracts in any normal physiologic condition. Emsculpt delivers over 20,000 of these supramaximal contractions in 30 minutes. No amount of cross-fit can equal that. The Emsculpt studies showed that HIFEM alone can produce on average a 16% increase in muscle and a 19% decrease in fat with 4 sessions.
Radiofrequency (RF) is a great tool to heat and melt fat. At Glow, we have many years experience with Vanquish ME and Exilis Ultra, both of which use RF. We have used these devices in combination with Emsculpt to get the best results. RF works by heating the fat cells causing damage and ultimately cell death. Emsculpt Neo has RF built in to the paddles, deploying both HIFEM and RF simultaneously. The question I had when first looking at the Neo is how does it improve results over using these technologies separately? Is there a benefit from simultaneous treatment? Will we still need those RF devices? The answer is yes and yes, as it turns out. Here’s what we have found.
The addition of RF heating improves the yield for both muscle and fat. It was not surprising that RF improves the fat loss— RF has a strong record killing fat. It turns out that warmer muscles are stronger and provide more effective contractions. This increases the yield on muscle as well. The official studies of the Emsculpt Neo show a 25% increase in muscle and a 30% decrease in fat, a marked improvement over HIFEM alone. We have seen this borne out in real life experience.
How do the other machines fit in? As always every body is different, and treatments have to be designed around each individual. Emsculpt Neo has paddles that are focused in one area about the size of the center belly fat. We use Vanquish ME because it can reach all the way from one love handle to the other, and it can also treat both the inner and outer thigh at the same time. We have found that for those areas, combining Emsculpt Neo with Vanquish ME gives us the absolute best results. Exilis Ultra can be used in many different areas that the other devices can’t reach, and it also tightens skin. So for some bodies, these devices are very helpful in achieving the desired results.
We are adding the latest before and after images to our gallery on the website here. We have found a very high patient satisfaction with our suite of body sculpting treatments, in which the Emsculpt Neo has now taken center stage. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
