Highlighting Advancements in Body Contouring, with Suneel Chilukuri, MD

At the Dermatology Education Foundation (DERM) 2025 NP/PA CME Conference in Las Vegas, Suneel Chilukuri, MD, discussed highlights from his session titled ‘Advancements in Body Contouring.’

Chilukuri, known for his role as a board-certified dermatologic surgeon for Refresh Dermatology, focused his HCPLive interview on advancements and future potential of body contouring, particularly in light of the growth of GLP-1 therapies. He noted that GLP-1 therapies are projected to grow from a $1 billion industry to a $1 trillion industry.

“It's great for a lot of things [and for] diabetics,” Chilukuri explained. “It's great for inflammation. We're seeing that there's improvement with psoriasis. We're seeing improvement with eczema. We're seeing decreasing Alzheimer's and better improvements with those patients who have dementia. All of that is because of the inflammatory component. So the positives are easy but the negatives are this: What we're finding is, in a typical weight loss, where you're losing about 70% of that weight comes off with fat, 30% is muscle loss with the GLP-1s. We're seeing the opposite: 70% of that weight loss is actually loss of muscle. So when we talk about body contouring, it's not just about removing fat, but can we do something to re-establish that skeletal muscle?”

Chilukuri highlighted non-surgical methods like cryolipolysis, radio frequency, ultrasound, and microwave technology to enhance muscle content. He placed emphasis on patient selection, the importance of collaboration among medical professionals, and the value of medical conferences for knowledge sharing and innovation in body contouring.

“We have categories that are going to come from cryolipolysis, which revolutionizes this whole space,” Chilukuri said. “And then, of course, heat-based things. So that can be radio frequency, or it can be ultrasound. The newest one that's coming into the US is by microwave technology. We can use a combination of those to also improve the overall muscle content that's inside the skin, whether we use it inside the body, whether that's with EMS or using 2 magnets that are called Hyphen technology. So the tools are there. We just have to optimize and understand who that patient is and where they are in their weight loss journey.”

For any additional information from Chilukuri’s presentations at DERM2025, view his full interview video above. To find out more from the meeting, check out the latest conference coverage.

The quotes used in this interview summary were edited for clarity.

Chilukuri's disclosures include being a speaker, consultant or investigator for Advalight, Scientis, Aerolase Lasers, Sciton, Allergan Aesthetics, Sente Skin Care, AMP Aesthetics, Skin Medica, Benev, Vydence Lasers, BTL Industries, ZO Skin Care, Cartessa Lasers, Evolus Aesthetics, Galderma Aesthetics, Hydrinity, InMode Aesthetics, Merz Aesthetics, Pharma Research, Prollenium Aesthetics, PCA Skin, Rejuran USA, Revance Aesthetics, Revision.