For most of the last decade, the business of body sculpting rested on a simple promise. If diet and exercise could not remove a stubborn pocket of fat, a surgeon could. Weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s have complicated that promise, and new quarterly results from a well known name in the field show how.
AirSculpt Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AIRS), which runs body contouring centers across the country, reported today that it performed 2,483 cases in the three months ending September 30th, down from 2,780 a year earlier. At centers open in both periods, volume fell 9.6%. Revenue slipped 8.7% to $31.9 million, and the company lowered its full year revenue forecast to between $144 million and $146 million, from a prior range of $151 million to $157 million. Its chief executive described the quarter as below expectations.Â
Tucked inside those numbers is a more interesting detail. About 250 of the quarter’s procedures, roughly 10% of the total, were tied to GLP-1 patients, and the company says growing that business is a priority. Fewer people walked through the door, but a meaningful share of those who did came after a weight loss drug had already done part of the work.Â
The drugs behind this shift include semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) as Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide, sold by Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) as Mounjaro and Zepbound. Their reach is now enormous. KFF, an independent nonprofit that researches and polls Americans on health policy, surveyed U.S. adults in late 2025 and found that 12% were currently taking a GLP-1 drug, and nearly one in five had tried one at some point. Use was higher among women than men, at 15% compared with 9%.
So is the drug simply replacing the scalpel? Nobody can say for certain yet. The company’s release does not blame GLP-1s for its drop in volume, and one company’s slowdown can have many causes. National data offers a mixed picture. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, liposuction remained the most performed cosmetic surgery in 2025 at 317,196 procedures, down just 1%. Brazilian butt lifts, which rely on removing fat and moving it elsewhere, fell 5%. Those are soft numbers, but they hardly describe a collapse.Â
What the same data does show clearly is growth on the other side of the ledger. Cosmetic surgical procedures rose 7% overall in 2025, led by lifts. Upper body lifts grew 22%, arm lifts 21% and thigh lifts 20%, the kinds of operations that deal with loose skin rather than excess fat. Some 82% of member surgeons said they received consultation requests related to GLP-1 use, though the society notes its figures do not prove the drugs caused any particular increase.
For clinic owners, this points to a change in who the customer is and when they arrive. The traditional patient wanted fat removed. The newer patient has often already lost the weight and wants help with what was left behind, which calls for different procedures and a longer relationship. Medical spas are already part of that journey at the start, too. In the KFF poll, 9% of people who had taken a GLP-1 said they got it from a medical spa or aesthetic center.Â
There are reasons for caution. The drugs are expensive, and 14% of users in the KFF survey said they had stopped taking them because of the cost. A patient whose weight is still changing is rarely ready for skin removal surgery. Meanwhile, the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell to $0.4 million from $3.0 million, a reminder that a new patient pipeline does not automatically replace an old one.Â
The clearest lesson from this quarter is that GLP-1 drugs are changing the timing and the reason people seek aesthetic care, rather than simply shrinking demand. Clinics built around a single fat removal procedure face the toughest adjustment. Those able to follow patients through the full weight loss journey, from the first prescription to the final lift, may find the drugs have widened their market rather than taken it away.
