CAN you imagine standing on a vibrating machine with different areas of your body pressed against it for a few minutes while it sends energy through your body and you lose weight in the process? Sounds almost too easy right?

According to Paula Sutherland, it works. Plus, she told the Jamaica Observer that it is so much easier than exercising.

Sutherland, who is a client at 456Slim — which is located at MegaMart’s Waterloo Road, Kingston location — since starting whole-body vibration, said she is satisfied with the changes she has noticed with her body.

“Before, when I had on a lot of weight, I felt ‘luggy’, but now I feel good, ” she told Your Health Your Wealth during a recent interview. “At first I used to walk and I used to feel tired easily.

“I used to exercise, sometimes, but this is faster than the exercise,” she said smiling.

Sutherland explained that since she gave birth to her daughter, the size of her belly remained the same and no matter how often she walked, she just could not shed the pounds.

Now on her eighth 15-minute session, Sutherland said she is seeing changes now. She even showed off a loose top that she wore, sharing that when she started the whole-body vibration with 456Slim, she was wearing the same top as a tightly fitted one.

With whole-body vibration, 456slim’s Sandra Commock explained that the client stands on the machine with a vibrating platform. She said that problem areas, such as the stomach, arms and legs, are then placed against the pole as the machine vibrates. The vibration transmits energy to the body, forcing the client’s muscles to contract and relax several times each second. She called it, simply, a vibral massage.

Commock told Your Health Your Wealth that when the body is placed against the vibration, it is as if you are working out in a gym.

“It is doing the work, not you,” she said, adding that 15 minutes on the machine is like several hours of working out in the gym, so you lose and shed the inches quickly.

She said all areas of the body can be pressed against the machine, except the breasts because the tissues are thin. Commock explained that positioning clients on the machine is dependent on the muscle they wish to work.

While most people can do whole-body vibration, Commock cautioned that if a client is pregnant, wearing a pacemaker, has bad heart problems, blood-clotting issues, has gall and kidney stones, or did a surgery, then they are advised against using the machine.

“It is vigorous, so any condition for which the doctor has said ‘don’t exercise’, we don’t [allow those clients to do it],” she insisted.

456Slim has been at MegaMart since the beginning of September 2015, and while most of the feedback has been positive, Commock admitted that a few people are reluctant to try their service.

“So you have people who come and when they come they are extremely happy. Most people — I would say 99 per cent — are extremely happy; the other people are sceptical. They just see a pole and wonder what could that be. The concept is different, so you know they are apprehensive about it,” she told Your Health Your Wealth.

Commock said doctors and gym instructors will say there is no way it can work, but insisted that all they had to do was try it. She admitted too that whole-body vibration technique works better with dieting, but said people will see results even without dieting.

She also told Your Health Your Wealth that her business partner Kevin Welch deals with the mainitenance of the machines.

For $8,000 per month, Commock said clients can use the machine as often as they wish for a month, while 12 15-minute sessions would cost them $5,000.

“Say you are a regular client or you are a very thin person and you just want to do one session, it is $500,” she continued.

According to Mayo Clinic, advocates say that as little as 15 minutes a day of whole-body vibration three times a week may aid weight loss, burn fat, improve flexibility, enhance blood flow, reduce muscle soreness after exercise, build strength, and decrease the stress hormone cortisol.

Mayo Clinic also said, however, that comprehensive research about whole-body vibration is lacking.

“It’s not yet clear if whole-body vibration provides the same range of health benefits as exercise you actively engage in, such as walking, biking or swimming,” Mayo Clinic said. “Some research does show that whole-body vibration may help improve muscle strength, and that it may help with weight loss when you also cut back on calories.

Sutherland is at least one client who is satisfied with her weight loss results so far.