Can Red Light Therapy Help Me Lose Weight?

Red light therapy is a new innovative fat removal treatment. It is attractive to most people because it is noninvasive. When doctors started using light therapy all those decades ago, they did not imagine the applications that it made possible. 

To some, the promise of red light therapy may be too good to be true. However, champions of the therapy say the technology has worked for stubborn fat. They say it has succeeded where diet and exercise have failed. 

So, what is it? How does red light therapy work? How Does it help with weight gain? Read on to learn more.

What Is Red Light Therapy?

The term red light therapy may be less common than LLLT or low-level laser therapy. It can also be referred to as photobiomodulation. It is a noninvasive therapy that most doctors can perform in their offices. It can be categorized as a form of body sculpting using the power of low wavelengths of red light to blast fat away. 

How Does Red Light Therapy Work?

Practitioners theorize that it works on a cellular level. You will need several sessions to see the results. 

One theory says that the lasers create holes in the fat cells, causing them to flow out, and your body eliminates them. According to a demonstration done in a 2002 study, researchers exposed fat cells to lasers in a lab. After four minutes of exposure, 80 percent of the content in the cells flowed out. After six minutes, about 99 percent did.

Does Red Light Therapy Work for Weight Loss?

A 2020 study suggests that the therapy works after several sessions. In the study, researchers divided 60 participants who were overweight into three groups. They exposed some participants to therapy two times a week. Within that time, the participants who received the treatment experienced a 0.8-inch reduction in waist circumference. 

Another 2013 study followed 86 people who had 20-minute red light sessions every day for two weeks. These patients lost 1.12 inches of waist circumference, 1.2 inches in the thighs, and 0.77 inches in the hips. 

How Does Red Light Therapy Work on Weight Loss?

The idea is that once the photons from the low-level lasers enter the body, they spark a chain of reactions. Some of the reactions they start are:

Higher Cellular Metabolism

As mentioned, red light therapy causes the mitochondria to produce ATP. ATP improves how efficiently energy cells use energy and increases energy production. The result is that your organs start performing much better than usual. 

Reduction of Fat Cells

Again, lasers have the specific effect of causing fat cells to leak. Red light therapy seems to stimulate adipocyte apoptosis, the body's natural death of fat cells. The ability of red light therapy to target specific fat cells is an exciting possibility in the body sculpting industry.

Regulation of the Thyroid

A study done in Brazil showed that red light therapy could reduce autoimmune activity within the thyroid.

For more on whether red light therapy can help you lose weight, visit Pinellas Laser Lipo at our office in Seminole, Florida. Call (727) 353-0096 to book an appointment today.