Apr 26, 2009 08:23 PM
24579 Views
Myself Satish,
I happen to be obese & finally decided to join one of these slimming centres La Bellle(Hyderabad) / VLCC.
I went to VLCC and was explained their packages. I happened to be impressed by their waist and tummy trim treatment, they explained me their multidisciplinary approach wherein I would be guided by all those who would be required like doctors, nutritionists etc. I was told to pay 40000. They used some bioelectric machine which described that my body had 42% fat. So to bring it down I would require 4 months and 40000/- bucks.
I then moved on to La Belle(Hyderabad), even there I was told to stand on a machine which would calculate my body fat%. This machine showed me 58% fat. I was told to pay 35000 to lose this extra weight.
I didnt turn up at their places because I was guided by one of the reviews that u can bargain a lot at these centres. From the 3rd day I was called from both the places offering a discount which was 40% and 50%. So a treatment woth 40000 became 20000.
I happened to return to vlcc and requested for a fat% investigation. They were not very eager to provide me the same, but I could manage to get it done again. This time the machine displayed 51% fat. Now this variation in so called fat% scan really made me go crazy. I asked them if my body fat% changed 10% within 4 days but they were speechless. I tried asking them about my body and why was I gaining weight. The female( I later learned that she wasnt a doctor) was trying to make stories and convince me with her treatments.
I was disappointed and after 15 minutes stood up and was about to go. She requested me to wait and a new female was sent in. She came in with another beautiful discount. She told me if I would pay the money today I would get sixty percent discount and also free hair styling and make up worth Rs 2000/-.
Now I really started realizing that I was being cheated in every possible way.
First the fat% machine which I realized was a perfect dump.
I tried to study these machines online and realized that they were never accurate and would always show an error of+ or - 20%. This is termed as bioelectric impedance and is of no value to interpret fat%. These cost around 3700/- to 7500/- as per company. What can be used to study the fat% is a dual x-ray absorbitometry scan( DEXA scan) This was not to be found in any of the so called slimming centres. These are usually only available at renowned diagnostic labs to calculate used to calculate bone density.
Second - The way they went on to reduce my treatment cost from 40000 to 16000/- Now this shows that they try to extract the maximum from the person depending upon how much he can pay. It is a real unfair process. The females there are trained to extract maximum possilble money from the client. THEY WERENT DOCTORS, they were local girls trained at vlcc centres to behave like doctors.
Third- their treatments were tummy trim, use of heat on skin with vibrations, tummy tuck- as on they would tuck my tummy in( all was crap). They claim that they would make you lose weight by means of MECHANICAL TORTURE. There was no sense of understanding that it was my body and not some bag full of water. I understood that sweating would reduce my water content when done in their described ways and I wouldnt lose fats. When I asked them they couldnt explain any of this. And then they continued to call themselves doctors. I explained them that I suffered from hypothroidism and was under eltroxin daily. They were least interseted in any of that and continued to pursue me to take the treatments
Treatments at La belle or Vibes was not different at all compared to what was offerd at vlcc. What differed was the discount and the body fat percentage in their machines.
I am very sure that their treatments are in no way going to make me lose weight and I happened to save my money. I would advise all people to be away from such false claiming slimming centres. A really miserable experince with these non- medical centres where only glamour is used as a tool to trap clients.
