Vicki Belo looks back to her past to shape your future

Back in 1990, there were only two procedures that the Belo Group was offering: liposuction and laser removal of moles and warts. That was 18 years ago. Today, the group has expanded to offer so many more beauty treatments and surgical procedures, and has expanded to seven clinics.

They also celebrated their 18th anniversary with a grand party a few months ago, but then Dr. Vicki Belo wanted to extend the celebration to ordinary people with a discount of their services. “Hayden (Kho) was saying, ‘Why don’t we give an 18 percent discount since it’s your 18th anniversary?’ I thought the 18 percent discount wasn’t enough. I wanted a promo that would connect me back to 1990. I said, ‘The only two things I did then were lipo and laser; why don’t we offer liposuction at the price it was back in 1990?’”

Ongoing until Dec. 30, the Belo Group is offering liposuction at the old price, which is about 40 percent off the current price.

“The response has been tremendous,” says Vicki. “People who can’t otherwise afford it are coming and they’re very grateful. I wanted it for people who want it so badly. Up to now, some people think Belo is only for the stars and they’re nahihiya to step inside the clinic. I know the feeling. For the longest time when I was starting, I couldn’t step into a Gucci store because I was intimidated by the salesladies. Now when our patients come in and they realize the prices are reasonable and the staff is so friendly, they get excited to be there.”

Balikbayans, particularly, were very happy about the promo. They inundated the Belo hotline with calls and asked if the promo could be extended because they couldn’t be here before Dec. 30. So the management decided that, yes, they could book and pay for their liposuction within the promo period and do the procedure within the next six months. Twenty thousand, however, will be forfeited if for some reason the patient does not show up on her procedure date because, as Vicki points out, “We need to book the operating room and the doctors to block off their schedule for you.”

The Belo Group does the surgical procedures at their clinics in Medical Plaza in Makati, Westgate in Alabang, Tomas Morato in Quezon City, and Connecticut St. in Greenhills. 

In the past 18 years, liposuction and other cosmetic surgeries have advanced in ways that were not thought possible before. Liposuction has become even more sophisticated with SmartLipo or LipoLite, which Vicki explains is a less traumatic procedure on the body.

“SmartLipo uses a laser to melt the fat. Fat cells are like balloons, they’re very small and thick balloons with the fat inside. When I started SmartLipo, I would even bring a slab of liempo to the TV stations to show the audience how it works. The body’s fat cells are like the fat underneath the skin of lechon or liempo; they’re very tiny but fibrous. When you pass the laser through it, the heat ruptures the balloon so that fat comes out, like sebo na, not beaded like a pearl. That’s easier to suction out because now it has the consistency of Jell-O.”

Once the fat is melted, it can either be left alone and allow the body’s natural lymphatic system to excrete it over four months, or the fat can be suctioned out for immediate results. Done under sedation, the procedure is from two to four hours, depending on the areas being treated. Vicki says that for Pinoys, the most resistant areas — even for people with ideal weight who go to the gym every day — is the puson and love handles.

Vicki points out that there are several advantages to having LipoLite before the liposuction. “One, the doctor doesn’t have to be so rough in plunging out the fat. Second, they don’t need a big, fat cannula, which can be traumatic to the body because then the holes are bigger, you have more bleeding.”

The Belo Group did a comparative study on the arms between ordinary liposuction and one with SmartLipo prior to it. The latter produced less bruising and swelling, it was faster to do and less painful, which means faster recovery time for the patient. 

“Our cannula makes a puncture the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen,” says Vicki. “The other advantage of LipoLite is that this new machine produces heat, causing the skin to contract more. One of the problems of liposuction is that when you get out the fat, the skin is crumpled, but with this procedure the skin contracts.”

Some celebrities that have had this procedure with or without liposuction are Claudine Barretto, Katrina Halili, Donita Rose, Tintin Bersola-Babao, Bobby Andrews and Paulo Contis.

Vicki says that after Claudine gave birth she tried dieting and exercising on her own for six months, “but nothing was moving. She had a lot of fat in her arms and thighs. Then we did SmartLipo. How fast! In two to three weeks, she was so sexy already! Normally I tell people to wait two months for the best results, but with Claudine, it was under a month.”

On Katrina, Vicky says that “for someone so young who has always maintained the ideal weight, her skin was loose. We did her arms, back and abs. She’s so sexy she was voted FHM’s sexiest woman.”

Vicki adds that SmartLipo or LipoLite is not just for young women. It works for middle-aged women and their oldest patients are between 75 and 80 years old. “It’s a safe procedure, as long as they have good hearts. We’ve done people with diabetes, hypertension and cancer. Of course, they have to get a clearance from their doctors and sometimes we do a consult with them.”

The procedure is also for people with normal weight but with problem areas. Even models — most of them underweight by 20 percent — go to Vicki for this. “If a woman is 5’8”, she should weigh about 145 or 150 lbs., but most of the time a model is only 128 lbs. but she has puson pa rin.”

For the men, it’s the love handles that are the most resistant. “Sometimes the men spend two hours in gym every day and they already have abs, but the love handles won’t go away. What’s nice about SmartLipo is that you can etch the shape and create ‘pandesal’ abs.”

Can you get SmartLipo or LipoLite and not have the fat liposuctioned? “You can, that’s how they used to sell it in Italy and Europe. With this new machine now, which is 50 percent more powerful, I feel it’s very effective. It’s under ‘Belo Shape,’ which uses three different machines.”

Vicki’s team doesn’t do liposuction on people under 18 years old — unless they are suffering from the “two-body syndrome,” where one part of the body is a size bigger than the rest. “Typically these are mestiza or people of Spanish origin or blacks. They have a tiny upper torso and then below the waist they have huge thighs. Most of the time it is the parents who bring their teenagers to the clinic. The teenager is very self-conscious about her body, has low self-esteem and cannot fully enjoy the life of a teenager. We do lipo on them because there’s no way you’re going to fix that even if you diet and exercise.”

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For inquiries, call the Belo hotline at 844-2939, e-mail info@belomed.com or log on to www.belomed.com.