'Men lose their fat to gain an edge at work,' claims report

IT WAS once the preserve of women anxious to shed a few pounds and stave off the ravages of time. Most men would - literally - rather run a mile than have liposuction to help them get rid of excess fat.

But new, non-invasive techniques of liposuction combined with a need to gain an edge over rivals in recession-hit offices has meant that men are rapidly catching up with women in the quest for a perfect body.

One new clinic is about to start using ultrasound treatment to help men in Scotland reduce their spare tyres, beer bellies and man boobs while another says it has set up a "men-only" service to cater for rising demand.

The Transform group, which has clinics in Glasgow and Edinburgh, said in the last year demand for liposuction from men had increased by 31 per cent.

One reason is that the new techniques can be carried out without cutting into the body. Conventional liposuction, which can remove larger quantities of fat more quickly, involved inserting a hollow tube, a cannula, into the fat-affected area and sucking it out with an aspirator.

An Dau, of Lux clinics, which uses lasers, said: "Scottish men absolutely suffer from the same body insecurities as women. When we opened our medi-clinic this summer, we believed our clientele would be predominantly women. After all, body hang ups are associated with females.

"But, quickly we saw that the non-invasive alternative to surgical liposuction was a big hit with men too. They now make up 15 per cent of our clientele. We have been seeing men of all ages and professions who have been actively looking to get rid of persistent pockets of fat in their chests, stomachs, arms and even chins."

Dau added: "It is not invasive. There is no pain, so no downtime so people can just go back to work afterwards," Dau said.

Spire Murrayfield will shortly start offering the Ultrashape treatment, which uses ultrasound waves to destroy fat which is then, as with the laser treatment, disposed of by the body's natural processes.

Mark Butterworth, consultant cosmetic surgeon at the Spire Murrayfield in Edinburgh, said it had also seen an increase in men coming forward for cosmetic procedures to lose unwanted fat and generally improve their appearance.

"Previously we may have seen one man in every 20 women," he said. "Now it is much closer to one in ten."

One factor was that the market place for jobs was becoming more competitive.

"The younger, fitter and healthier these guys look the more competitive they seem to be in the job market than the old, tired-looking guy in the corner competing against them for a job," Butterworth added.

"We have had people who say ‘there are these young bucks on the scene, I can't be seen to be looking tired and haggard'."

Ken Stewart, from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), said rates of cosmetic surgery had been affected by the recession, but the proportion of men having procedures compared to women was going up.

"When you are in middle age, you can't always shift every pouch of fat, so sometimes people are left with small areas they want addressed."

Stewart said more non-invasive procedures would become more popular as some people wanted to tackle unwanted fat but did not want surgery.

"I don't think they will replace liposuction entirely, but they will make it more accessible to people who don't want to go under the knife."

One man who wanted help to tackle his persistent "spare tyre" was 52-year-old Douglas, from Edinburgh, who underwent three session of laser treatment three times a week for a month.

"I felt I needed a kickstart to try to lose weight and that combined with going to the gym helped to get the whole thing going," he said.

"You go in and lie down for 20 minutes on your back and 20 minutes on your front and they fire cold laser beams at you," he said.

About halfway through the second week he started to see a difference, and by the end of the treatment, he had lost two inches around his waist.

For Douglas, the technique was preferable to an invasive operation.

"It was what I was hoping for, so I was quite pleased," he said. "I am not keen on having a knife taken to me for unnecessary reasons, so it was definitely a better alternative." n [email protected]