Recently, there has been a surge in women opting to lose weight.
For Dr Pranav Pancholi a cosmetic dermatosurgeon and Head of Dermatology at Avane Clinic in Nairobi, it is a confidence booster.
“My patients want to feel good and confident as they go about work and life,” he says.
Last June, on a chilly morning, at Avane Clinic’s Gigiri operations, we found banker, Saina Sintet. At 39, Saina is looking forward to her forties.
“In my line of work, it is very important that you look good. It is just the nature of the job. I make sure I look presentable when I am meeting clients,” she says.
Sintet was that morning scheduled to undergo coolsculpting around her abdominal region.
“This is a non-surgical procedure that uses controlled cooling to reduce stubborn fat in specific areas of the body. The frozen fat cells die and are cleared by the body’s immune system,” says Dr Pancholi.
At her heaviest Sintet weighed 104 kilograms a year ago.
“Thank God I have a dresser who has been great in helping me decided what and how to wear,” she says. “Even so, I needed to work on bringing down my weight because it had started to affect my energy levels, the quality of my sleep, and being fat is generally not good looking.”
Her 2024 New Year Resolution was to lose weight. But not just lose weight; achieve the right shape in the process.
“What’s the right shape?” we asked.
She responded, “Trim at the top and waist and with hips.”
Dr Pancholi is no stranger to this. Naturally women tend to have bigger hips in relation to their waists and busts. This is what is in vogue even today, locally and internationally.
At Sintet’s first consultation meeting with Dr Pancholi, her vitals were recorded.
“The good doctor put me on medication to control my pressure. My health history was documented. And my blood samples were taken too.”
According to Dr Pancholi, all patients who seek his services undergo a state-of-mind analysis – by him and a resident counselor.
“It is very important that we establish that their reasons for wanting to look ‘good’ have nothing to do with an irrational mental obsession. Our interest is for the patient to live a fulfilling life, and that cannot be driven by mental health challenges such as body dysmosrphia.”
Dr Pancholi went ahead to design a weight loss program for Sintet.
“First, we needed to normalize her pressure using medication. Then we prescribed the right diet for her body weight and body type. We then installed an Allurion balloon in her stomach. This made her feel full faster and reduced her food intake. Because she is busy, we advised at least two, one-hour aerobic exercises every week,” he says.
“These initial measures brought her body to a place she was healthy enough to undergo liposuction and coolsculpting,” the doctor says.
After two weeks Sintet having finished three sessions of coolsculpting is satisfied with the transformation.
“The last time I looked like this was probably in university.”
Looking and feeling good, Dr Pancholi says, is important for human beings.
“Research after research shows that an attractive person, on average, will most likely get the job, the promotion, the salary increase ahead of everyone else.
