Judy Zhu Wei, MD

My patients have seen excellent success with Kybella injections.  Kybella is particularly attractive because it is a non-surgical way to get rid of double chins.  It is an injectable acid that is specifically formulated to be effective on the submental fat (double chin fat).  It permanently destroys the fat cells under the chin.

My patients have seen excellent success with Kybella injections.  Kybella is particularly attractive because it is a non-surgical way to get rid of double chins.  It is an injectable acid that is specifically effective on the submental fat (double chin fat).  It permanently destroys the fat cells under the chin.

Dear SMP,

Consider what you are trying to achieve.  Are you looking for a tightening of the skin over your obliques, which your photos show already have some definition?  For skin tightening I've treated patients with desired results using PROFOUND.

Are you looking for slightly more muscle build in the abdominal muscles?  For that I would suggest EmSculpt High Intensity Focused Electromagnetic.  

If you've been working out consistently and you can feel the hardness of the muscles under the fat laying on top of your abdominal skin, getting rid of that fat with SculpSure could be just the thing you need to bring out your abdominal definition.

If you'd like to view my video walk through of the benefits of different types of procedures for body sculpting, click the link below. It starts right when I'm talking about body sculpting.

With my own patients I examine them thoroughly, even testing their hormones (males and females) to determine if an imbalance is contributing to how much fat they are storing and where on their body it is being stored.  After the examination I offer them a customized treatment protocol that may even combine different modalities to get them their desired results.


Best Regards, Dr. Judy Wei

Please keep in mind that every patient's body is different. So any answer a doctor gives you here about the possibility of micronized fat from the ALMI procedure hardening in your body may not be applicable to your particular physiology. With that said, there are different types of fat in the body.  Some fat, known as fluffy fat, is soft and is not known to harden. Other types of adipose tissue (fat) is fibrous. It may be fibrous due to one's genes (African American women are known to have more fibrous fat for example). It may be fibrous because the muscles on top of which it is sitting are muscles one has actually built up with exercise over time.  Fibrous fat can indeed form hard nodules on its own. But neither one of these types of fat has been known to harden once injected into patients for the ALMI procedure. Remember, the fat is micronized (manually processed to break it down. Not liquid like melted butter but smooth like lard.) before it is injected.

Fat also isn't known to "melt" away after being injected during the ALMI procedure. But micronized fat can be reabsorbed by the body. Fat is energy, after all.  The point of injecting the fat is to get the stem cells in the fat to grow into the same kind of tissue into which the fat is being injected. The "fertilizer" for that growth is plasma rich platelets (PRP).  PRP injections are frequently combined with fat injections to promote stem cell growth.  Once the stem cells grow into the same tissue as that to which they were injected, there is no chance of melt away because it isn't fat tissue anymore.

If you'd like to view walk through, with photos, of the ALMI procedure where I talk in detail about the fat tissue and the stem cells and fibrous fat, please visit the video link I've attached to this answer.

Best Regards,

Dr. Judy Wei