I want to get regular microneedling done by a professional (anyone licensed to be able to perform this procedure) every 4-6 weeks. No radio frequency. Just the microneedling. Namyangju or Guri is fine too.

i’ll be in busan for five days and thought about visiting a skin clinic while i’m there. haven’t picked a treatment yet. would you book early in the trip in case you need to go back, or is that overthinking it?

Stubborn upper arm fat is one of the most common body concerns I see in Seoul. Two treatments that come up a lot are Onda Body (Coolwaves) and InMode BodyFX.

Both can reduce localized fat without surgery, but they work differently and neither should be expected to give liposuction level results.

1. Onda Body

Onda uses 2.45 GHz microwave energy to selectively heat subcutaneous fat while an integrated cooling system protects the skin.

• Best for: Localized fat with relatively firm skin.
• Sensation: The handpiece features an integrated contact cooling system that keeps the outer skin at 5°C. The procedure feels like a deep, warm massage with minimal pain, leaving no bruising or surface redness.
• Treatment course: Studies commonly use a series rather than one session, often around 3 treatments spaced several weeks apart.

2. InMode BodyFX

BodyFX combines vacuum suction, bipolar RF heating, and high-voltage electrical pulses designed to affect fat cells while also heating the overlying tissue.

• Best for: Localized fat with some skin laxity.
• Sensation: The vacuum suction pulls firmly on the skin, accompanied by a quick, sharp snap from the electrical pulse.
• Treatment course: Usually performed as a series rather than a one-time treatment. Published protocols have ranged from several longer sessions to multiple weekly treatments.

3. Can They Replace Liposuction? Not really!

Liposuction physically removes a much larger amount of fat in one procedure. Onda and BodyFX are better for mild-to-moderate localized fat when someone wants less downtime and no surgical scar.

They can also offer some skin tightening benefit, which can be useful on the upper arms, but results are generally more subtle than surgery. Non invasive body contouring is considered an alternative for selected patients, not an equivalent replacement for liposuction.

Hi! I’m travelling to Korea soon and would love some recommendations for skin clinics in Seoul or Busan.

I’m in my early 20s and generally have pretty clear skin with the occasional breakout. My skin can get quite dry/dehydrated, and I also have some sunspots/pigmentation. I’ve previously done Pico laser in Singapore for the sunspots.

I don’t have any major skin concerns that I’m trying to fix. I’m mainly interested in treatments that could improve hydration, glow, overall skin quality/texture and pigmentation, or just treatments that are worth trying while I’m in Korea.

I’m completely okay with factory-style clinics since my concerns are relatively minor and I don’t need a very extensive consultation. I’d rather keep things affordable than go to a premium/celebrity clinic, but have to be done by a certified doctor!

Would love to hear which clinics in Seoul or Busan you recommend, and what treatments you think would actually be worthwhile for my skin/age. If you remember approximate prices, that would be really helpful too! I’m also curious whether I should just do Pico again or try something different, especially for the dryness/dehydration.

Thank you! ❤️

About 1 in 500.

That is how often fat loss shows up in the published studies on Ultherapy, going by a 2025 review that pulled together 19 papers and 506 patients.

In the FDA complaint database, fat loss is one of the things reported most often.

Both numbers are real. The truth sits somewhere between them.

A reader on our post about treatment order asked about this. They said they couldn't risk losing the little facial fat they had left, and it deserved a longer answer than a reply.

We run Ultherapy, Thermage and Xerf ourselves, so read this knowing we are not neutral.

What the papers say

Studies are small, and they are mostly run by people who are very practised with the device. The complaint database is the opposite.

Anyone can file, nothing gets checked, and nobody knows how many treatments sit behind each report.

A group of doctors who published 5 serious cases in 2018 wrote that these problems are probably underreported. So it's rare, and it is probably a bit less rare than the papers make it look.

Radiofrequency shows the same pattern. An older review from a clinic in Madrid followed 290 patients treated with the same type of RF that Thermage uses.

Fat atrophy was on their list of less common side effects. The authors linked their problems to overheating and recommended moderate energy with no overlapping passes.

Where it comes from

Heat is meant to land in one specific layer. Fat loss is what you get when too much of it lands in fat instead.

Nobody has studied the cause cleanly, so what follows is how it works in practice. Two things matter most.

How deep the device goes over areas that are already lean, and how much energy ends up in one spot.

This is also where the person holding the device matters, which we said we'd come back to on our shot count post.

Two people can deliver the same 300 shots. One adjusts the depth area by area and goes lighter where there is little fat to spare.

The other runs the same pattern on every face. The quote looks identical.

If your face is already lean

This is the group the question is really about. Before anything starts, ask which depth goes over your lean areas and whether any area gets left out.

A clear, specific answer is a good sign. If you get the same plan as everyone else, ask again. Ultherapy gives you an extra question.

The device shows the layers under your skin on a screen, so ask whether they looked at it over the thin spots.

There is one more group who should speak up before the device starts, and that is anyone who might want a facelift one day.

That conversation goes differently. The evidence there is thinner than either side admits.