Before evaluating an aesthetic treatment, there are questions that might seem unrelated to the clinic: how you sleep, what you eat, how much you move, whom you connect with, and what your relationship with your body feels like.
For the plastic surgeon and lecturer at UBA Fernando Felice, these answers help illuminate the context of each patient. His proposal is to invert the usual order of the conversation: first review the foundations of daily life, and only then consider surgery or a procedure when appropriate.
That approach underpins his first book, The Best-Kept Secret of Beauty, which features a foreword by Dr. Daniel López Rosetti. “There you’ll find the foundations, there is where it all begins,” summarizes the specialist.
Beauty does not begin with a treatment
For decades, Felice notes, aesthetic medicine has concentrated much of its discourse on technology, procedures, and the pursuit of immediate results. His perspective calls for broadening that focus and seeing the body as a whole, not as a sum of areas to be corrected.
“The starting point should not be the treatment itself, but the patient’s lifestyle,” he asserts. Sleep, diet, movement, relationships, and one’s relationship with their own image function, from this vantage point, as the framework on which to assess any intervention.
Sleep allows the body to rest and recover; movement helps keep the body active and preserve muscle mass; and proper nutrition provides the materials needed to build and repair tissues.
None of this replaces a treatment when it is indicated. It does, however, allow examining it within a broader context and to avoid presenting an aesthetic intervention as the sole possible answer.
The Importance of Asking Whether a Procedure Is Necessary
One of Felice’s most emphatic points concerns the real need for certain treatments requested in clinics.
“Most of the treatments patients request aren’t necessary —even when many doctors perform them—and, in some cases, they can be harmful,” he warns.
This statement raises a vital question before making a decision: does the procedure address a specific indication, or would it be wiser to first review other aspects related to habits, expectations, and the relationship with one’s own image.
The book arises from more than 25 years of experience in the clinic and the operating room. Rather than promising quick results, it proposes a sequence: organize the habits that sustain health and then, if appropriate, evaluate the available alternatives together with a professional.
Why Protein Is Much More Than Muscle
One chapter of The Best-Kept Secret of Beauty is devoted to protein, a nutrient often associated almost exclusively with training and muscle development.
“Proteins are essential for maintaining tissues, the skin, hair, the immune system, and the body’s capacity to repair itself,” explains Felice.
Hence, talking about proteins also entails referring to the structure of the skin and hair, to the defenses, and to how the body recovers and repairs itself on a daily basis.
Insufficient intake can especially affect muscle mass and recovery. However, the doctor clarifies that signals such as fatigue, hair loss, or changes in the skin are not specific indicators of a protein deficiency and must be evaluated within each context.
The recommendation is to avoid self-diagnosis and not attribute everything happening in the body to a single nutrient.
How Much Protein Does the Body Need
There is no universal amount that can be applied identically to everyone. “The need depends on age, physical activity, body composition, and health status. There is no universal recipe or magic number,” says Felice.
As a general reference, a healthy adult needs about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. From age 65 onward, European scientific society guidelines cited by the specialist suggest raising that amount to between 1 and 1.2 grams per kilogram for healthy older adults.
With the years, muscle may respond less to the protein stimulus—a phenomenon known as anabolic resistance. For that reason, a larger amount may be required to achieve an effect similar to what is seen in youth.
Strength training and proper nutrition can help delay or lessen that process. Still, the right amount should be defined according to each person’s particular conditions and with professional guidance.
How to Distribute Protein Throughout the Day
Beyond total quantity, how you spread it matters. The guidelines mentioned in the book advise distributing protein across several meals, roughly 25 to 30 grams per meal, rather than concentrating it all at dinner.
The aim is not to consume protein “for the sake of it” or to turn a nutrient into a universal remedy. It is about incorporating it into a diet appropriate to age, activity, and health status.
The central idea is simple: what we eat also participates in how we age. A skin with repair capacity and a body that maintains its muscle mass are, in part, the visible result of decisions sustained over time.
The Questions That Aesthetic Medicine Is Beginning to Ask
The need to reassess professional practice was also a focus of Masterhub, the International Congress of Aesthetic Medicine led by Felice, held on October 15 and 16.
The gathering brought together more than 2,300 health professionals over two days of training, updates, and exchange. Among the topics raised was a question that also threads through the book: what does each patient really need before receiving a treatment proposal.
For Felice, a professional should be judged not by the number of procedures offered, but by their ability to listen, assess the context, and guide each person to the right starting point.
