1. We do not invent anything
No clinic, no practitioner, no price, no study, no author, no statistic, no percentage, no satisfaction rate, no case history, no quotation. Where a piece could only be written by inventing something, we change the piece rather than the truth. This is the standard from which the others follow.
2. We do not repeat the industry's figures
We do not print fat reduction percentages, satisfaction rates, inch loss totals, session prices or before and after outcomes, even to argue with them. Repeating a figure lends it a precision it does not have, and those figures are the instrument this publication exists to examine. Our reasoning is set out in full in where fat reduction percentages come from.
Where the size of an effect is not well established, we say that it is not well established. We do not supply a number in order to sound authoritative.
3. The verdict vocabulary is fixed and published
Every claim panel ends with one of exactly five verdicts. There are no others, and we will not add one to fit a case.
Supported. The mechanism is established and the claim stays inside what that mechanism can do.
Partly supported. There is something real underneath the claim, and the claim as worded goes further than the underlying finding does.
Not established. The claim may or may not be true. Evidence able to settle it either way is not there, and the claim is being presented as though it were.
Outside the mechanism. The claim requires the treatment to do something its mechanism cannot do. This is not a question of weak evidence, it is a question of the wrong instrument.
Rules question. Whatever the science, the claim as worded raises a question under United Kingdom advertising or medicines rules, which is a separate matter from whether it is true.
Every verdict tag is set in the same colour, deliberately. A colour scale would turn a vocabulary into a score, and these five terms are not points on one line. They describe different kinds of problem.
4. Claims are quoted as the sector makes them
The claim quoted in a claim panel is a formulation of the kind actually used in this market, presented as a claim under examination rather than attributed to any named business. We do not attribute a quoted claim to a specific clinic, because we do not name businesses, and because the point of the exercise is the claim rather than the claimant.
5. We do not name, rank, rate or review clinics
Not now and not for money. A ranking implies that we have assessed clinical outcomes, complication management and consent practice across those businesses. We have not, and neither has almost anybody else publishing such a list. Where a subject appears to call for a list of the best providers, we publish the verification method instead.
Our paid listing tier, described on the provider listings page, is alphabetical, labelled, built only from disclosed verifiable facts and is never a ranking or an endorsement.
6. Evidence is described in shape
Rather than quoting a result, we describe the body of work: how many studies, of what size, over what follow-up period, using what outcome measures, with or without controls, funded by whom, and whether the findings point in the same direction. That tells a reader how much weight a finding can carry, which a single number does not.
We cite institutions we are confident exist: NICE, the NHS, the MHRA, the ASA and the CAP Code and its published rulings, BAAPS, the British Association of Dermatologists, Cochrane, PubMed-indexed journals, the healthcare regulators, and legislation on legislation.gov.uk. If we are not confident a source exists, we do not cite it.
7. Every treatment page states who it is not for
The candidacy block is not a legal disclaimer. It is the part of an assessment that a commercial consultation is structurally least able to perform, and it is where most of the value of this publication sits. It appears on every treatment page and is consolidated in one article.
8. There is no photograph of a human body on this site
Anywhere, ever. Body photography is the most persuasive instrument in this category and the least capable of showing what it is presented as showing, for reasons set out in how to read a before and after photograph. A publication examining that instrument should not be using it.
Our imagery is cool physical abstraction: frost and crystal growth, thermal gradient fields, wave interference patterns, water displacement, dense foam structure, cooling metal surfaces and cross sections of layered translucent material. It is generated for this publication, it depicts no person, no body, no anatomy, no device, no clinic and no outcome, and its absence of bodies is the point rather than an oversight.
9. The commercial model is stated in full and cannot buy a verdict
Revenue comes from a paid provider listing tier and from one labelled sponsor line in a reader newsletter. Both are described in full on the provider listings page, including the rate card and including what we refuse to list at any price.
No payment of any kind can influence a claim verdict, the wording of a claim panel, whether a treatment is covered, or the tone in which it is covered. There is no arrangement under which it could, and if one were ever proposed and accepted, this page would say so before anything else changed.
The principles below govern every commercial relationship this publication has or could have, in the four forms it could take.
Affiliate and commission. There are none. No link on this site earns us anything, no treatment booked by a reader earns us anything, and there is no commission, revenue share, referral fee or introduction fee on anything, from anyone, in either direction. We do not take a cut of a booking and we do not pay for one.
Sponsorship. One labelled sponsor line in the reader newsletter, placed after the editorial content, bought at the published rate. It buys that line. It does not buy sight of an issue before it is sent, any input into what is in it, any veto over any part of it, or any mention in editorial.
Paid listings. One alphabetical listing tier of verifiable provider facts, containing no opinion, on a page headed and labelled as paid listings and kept outside the editorial sections. No listing appears inside an article, beside a claim panel, or anywhere that could suggest an editorial connection. There is no ordering by payment, no featured or preferred position, no highlighting, badge, seal, star or score. A listing is removed, not quietly kept, if a stated fact stops being verifiable, and no listing is accepted from a provider whose advertising we consider would breach the advertising code for as long as it stands.
Commercial content. There is none, and there will be no unlabelled kind. We accept no sponsored articles, advertorial, guest posts, link exchanges, paid insertions or editorial content written or paid for by a provider, at any price. Nothing on this site is written by anybody with a commercial interest in what it says. If a commercial format is ever introduced that does not exist today, it will be labelled as commercial in the place a reader sees it, placed outside the editorial sections, and any link it carries will be marked as sponsored so that neither a reader nor a search engine can mistake it for an editorial judgement.
One sentence covers all four, and it is the one that matters: a paid relationship never determines a ranking, a score, an inclusion or an editorial conclusion on this publication. It cannot move a claim verdict or the wording of a claim panel, cannot decide whether a treatment is covered or how prominently, cannot place a business in any list, and cannot keep one out. Paying us is not a disadvantage either: a provider that buys a listing is treated exactly as one that does not, in both directions. Since this publication names, ranks, rates and reviews no clinic or practitioner at all, as standard five above sets out, there is no ranking for money to enter; that is the point of the design rather than a happy accident.
We take no affiliate commission, run no advertising network, and accept no payment from device manufacturers. There is no arrangement under which any of the above could change quietly: the model is published, the rate card is published, and what we refuse to sell at any price is published on the provider listings page. If any of it ever changes, this page changes first.
10. Corrections are made openly
If we get something wrong, tell us and we will correct it. Corrections are made on the page, and material corrections are noted rather than made silently. We do not delete pages to make an error disappear.
Regulatory positions in this field change. Where we describe one, we link the primary source and encourage readers to check it rather than to rely on our summary. If our summary and the primary source disagree, the primary source is right and we would like to know.
A note on tone
This publication covers a subject where careless writing does damage. We try to observe three things.
Weight and body composition are discussed as physiology, not as discipline, effort or character. Nothing here frames a body as a problem to be corrected. And we do not sneer at anybody for wanting a treatment: the failure in this market is on the side of the sellers, not on the side of the people they sell to.