Too good to be true? Yes.

A new website has launched an inspirational “virtual weight loss” feature.

You upload your photo and they show you what you’d look like at a more ideal weight.

The site, www.loseadresssize.com, calls the free service a “motivational diet tool.”

Sounds interesting enough. Who hasn’t wondered what they might look like with slimmer thighs, firmer biceps and a toned abdomen. Perhaps it could be uplifting and at the very least smile inducing to visualize what-if.

The website allows women and men (hurry, now www.loseapantsize.com has not yet been registered) to see what they might look like if they lost 1, 2 or even 3 dress or pant sizes.

The “after” image, which take up to 72 hours to receive, is meant to help participants set their “body shaping” goals.

But there’s no nutritional information, exercise regimens or pseudo-health food supplement links to offer you any means of achieving this new and improved you. There’s just an ad at the bottom of the page for laser liposuction.

And the testimonials don’t exactly say, “get lipo” but they leave the door open.

This comes from Kelly Aquistapace, the woman pictured above: “I was definitely inspired. Now I’m going to do whatever I can to lose that weight.”

The site is associated with Dr. Ahn Ngo, medical director for Final Inches Medical Body Shaping Centers, (www.finalinches.com), but funny thing,  Brian Stern, who was president of Fig Pacific Management Co. and owned the Fig Medical Body Shaping center in Costa Mesa just happens to be the registered domain owner of www.loseadresssize.com.

You might remember Fig because they had three centers here in St. Louis and a total of 18 nationwide before a number of unhappy clients started asking very loudly for their money back.

This comes from a March 5, 2008 story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Mary Jo Feldstein:

“Go Fig Inc., the Maryland Heights company that made LipoDissolve nationally famous and infamous, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year amid a flurry of negative publicity. It had shut down 17 of its 18 clinics (all except for Stern’s Costa Mesa location, which remained open for a while longer) a month earlier, leaving thousands of patients looking for medical care and refunds.

LipoDissolve was a trade name used by Fig that worked its way into patients’ vernacular. Similar names have been used to describe the same procedure of injecting mixtures of drugs into fat deposits with hopes of eliminating them.

Physicians performing the procedure in private practice say Fig’s false promises and money problems turned off prospective patients. Unhappy patients had asked Fig for more than $4.3 million in refunds before the company filed for bankruptcy.”

So instead of the dubious injectables that got Fig into trouble, the new company which is located at the same address as the former Fig headquarters (1202 Bristol Street in Costa Mesa) is focusing on laser liposuction, so we’ll see if the results are different and the clientele is more pleased.

In the meantime, you can always enjoy a 2-dimensional vision of the new you (suitable for framing), free of charge.

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