Weight loss can be tough at any age, but the older you get, the more difficult it becomes. This is especially true when it comes to body sculpting. Significant weight loss can lead to areas of hard-to-lose fat pockets around your body which exercise and diet alone can’t easily address. CoolSculpting is a revolutionary treatment offered by Artful Aesthetics in Oakland, CA that can spot target areas around your body and rid you of unwanted fat for good.
What’s CoolSculpting?
CoolSculpting is formally known as cryolipolysis and is an FDA-approved treatment used to address areas of your body where pockets of diet and exercise-resistant fat exist. The treatment works by freezing fat cells, causing them to gradually die off and be eliminated from the body through your urine.
Cryolipolysis is a relatively new treatment, but it has consistently helped patients reach their aesthetic goals through targeted fat loss. It’s one of the only treatments on the market capable of “spot targeting” fat to sculpt a specific part of your body.
How Does CoolSculpting Freeze Fat Away?
When an area of your body is treated by cryoplipolysis, the fat cells in that area die off and are permanently removed from the body. That being the case, treatment doesn’t remove all of the fat cells from the targeted area. It removes just enough to create an appealing, youthful contour to help you attain the physique you’re looking for.
To fully understand how cryolipolysis freezes fat away, you need to understand the types of fat found in your body, and how they respond to diet and exercise.
The Types of Fat In Your Body
There are two major types of fat in your body: visceral fat and subcutaneous fat. Both of them have their purposes, and they both respond to diet and exercise differently.
Visceral Fat
Visceral fat is located deep within your body and is used to insulate and protect your organs and muscles. It is firm to the touch and is usually responsible for large fat deposits in your gut, thighs, butt, and upper arms. The location(s) where visceral fat accumulates will depend on your genetics, your sex, and your lifestyle choices.
For example, women tend to gain more visceral fat around their thighs and buttocks, while men usually carry excess weight in their belly. Genetics can sometimes cause this situation to reverse, with a man gaining weight in his lower body and a woman putting on weight in her upper body. Either way, visceral fat is very responsive to diet and exercise and, when you lose weight, most of it comes from this type of fat.
Subcutaneous Fat
Subcutaneous fat accumulates just below your skin and, unlike visceral fat, is far less responsive to diet and exercise. Like visceral fat, subcutaneous fat can help insulate your body and protect your organs. However, subcutaneous fat tends to accumulate in specific areas, such as your hips, love handles, thighs, upper arms, knees, under your chin, and your back.
Since subcutaneous fat is much less responsive to diet and exercise than visceral fat is, it usually results in fatty deposits around your body that seem to linger no matter how much you exercise or how healthy you eat.
Enter CoolSculpting
There’s no way to “spot target” fat around your body through diet and exercise. Crunches won’t give you the abs of your dreams, nor will tricep curls help define your arms. To sculpt your body you’ll need to look to cosmetic treatments such as cryolipolysis.
How It Freezes Fat
Treatment involves the use of paddle-shaped applicators that fit around your targeted area. The paddles utilize suction to keep your skin in the right place and then they start to gently cool the area. As the area gets colder your fat cells begin to freeze and crystallize. This effect damages the cells beyond repair and they are then removed from the body.
The layer of fat in the targeted area is gradually cooled to a temperature between 30.2 degrees F and 39.2 degrees F. At these temperatures, fat cells freeze but your surrounding tissues don’t; none of your other tissues in the area freeze in this temperature range, making treatment safe, non-invasive, and effective.
How Fat Is Destroyed
The principle that the treatment’s success relies on is that fat cells are much more susceptible to damage from cold temperatures than other cells are. The coolness administered to the area injures the fat cells beyond repair, which in turn triggers your body’s inflammatory response, resulting in the death of fat cells in the area. Once they’re dead, a type of white blood cell known as Macrophages are called to the area to rid the dead cells from your body.
How Much Fat Does Treatment Eliminate?
As mentioned, a single treatment does not eliminate all of the fat cells from the targeted area. Research has shown that you can expect anywhere between a 15 and 28 percent fat reduction four months after treatment. You’ll probably start to notice a change in the area a few weeks after treatment, with more dramatic results becoming apparent after 2 months or so.
Is Cryolipolysis an Effective Weight Loss Solution?
The treatment can, and will, result in the permanent removal of unwanted subcutaneous fat in the targeted area(s). Since fat is being removed from your body permanently, you will lose weight after treatment, however, the amount you lose won’t be very significant.
If your goal is significant weight loss, you may want to wait before having cryolipolysis done. To get the best results, you need to be around 10 to 15 lbs. away from your weight loss goal. If you have too much fat on your body, the treatment will still permanently remove some, but not enough to provide you with a significant change in your appearance. If you have questions about the best time to undergo treatment, make sure to ask your provider.
The Benefits of CoolSculpting
Your Treatment Is Customized
Each patient has their own specific needs, and no two bodies are exactly alike. The location and quantity of subcutaneous fat in your body are governed by genetics; one patient may need contouring around their waistline, while another may want to address their upper arms.
Both of these areas are difficult to “spot target” with diet and exercise alone. With cryolipolysis, these areas and others can be sculpted to meet your desired body contours in ways that diet and exercise just won’t.
It’s Non-Invasive
In the world of aesthetics, non-invasive treatments are few and far between. Non-invasive treatments, like cryolipolysis, do not result in the painful recovery period that other treatments or procedures require. Being non-invasive, cryolipolysis is much easier for your provider to administer, resulting in not only less pain but less cost, too.
Surgical procedures designed to remove body fat tend to require anesthesia, hours-long procedures, and significant recovery periods. Cryolipolysis does not. Treatment is quick, virtually painless, and effective.
Treatment Is Low Risk
Surgical procedures, even if routine, carry a certain amount of risk. Patients with comprehensive cosmetic goals often turn to surgery to reach them, and that’s fine, but even minor procedures can carry a certain amount of risk.
Cryolipolysis doesn’t involve incisions, anesthesia, compression garments, or recovery time. You may not see results as quickly as you would with liposuction, but you’ll be much more comfortable while your body eliminates dead fat cells after CoolSculpting than you would be had you undergone a more invasive procedure like liposuction.
Its Track Record Is Outstanding
Cryolipolysis as a treatment for fat reduction was discovered more or less by accident. Researchers were conducting an experiment involving children eating popsicles when they noticed that kids who kept the popsicles in their mouths started forming dimples. After looking deeper into it, researchers discovered that the cold temperatures of the popsicles were actually freezing and reducing the fat cells in the children’s cheeks.
Since then, and in every clinical trial afterward, CoolSculpting has shown it can accomplish excellent results when used to sculpt specific areas of your body. Since its initial approval by the FDA, it has been subsequently approved for different areas of the body. Today, you can treat just about anywhere and expect to experience excellent results.
Treatment Doesn’t Take Long
The other “spot targeting” treatment capable of producing dramatic results is liposuction, and it requires a pretty long time commitment from those looking to sculpt their physique. Preparation for liposuction and the procedure itself can take several hours, and the recovery period could have you unable to engage in physical activity for a while after your procedure.
Cryolipolysis treatment is much faster than liposuction. Treatment generally takes about 30 minutes to complete, though if you want to target multiple areas, the session will take a bit longer. Since treatment is pretty brief, it’s easy to pop in during your lunch break or in between errands. With no recovery period, you can pop right back out and continue on with whatever you had to do that day.
How You Can Maximize Your Results
You already know that treatment is not a replacement for diet and exercise when you want to lose weight. However, the fatty tissue targeted during treatment will be gone for good. To maximize your results, you should be at or close to your ideal body weight at the time of treatment and continue to take steps to maintain your weight afterward.
Some, but not all, of your fat cells will be removed during treatment. If you gain significant weight afterward, it will almost certainly compromise your results. In order to keep your body looking sexy and sculpted, you should continue to follow a healthy diet and engage in regular exercise.
Are You a Candidate for Treatment?
CoolSculpting is non-invasive, virtually pain-free, and is becoming more and more popular by the day with people looking to improve their physique. Those who are near their target weight, are sick and tired of seeing unwanted fatty deposits when they look in the mirror, and are in good general health make the best candidates.
At your initial consultation, you and your provider will go over your medical history, including any medications, surgeries, or other issues you’ve experienced. Having a pre-existing condition does not necessarily disqualify you from treatment. Most health issues are unaffected by cryolipolysis, making it one of the most widely available treatments on the market.
Are You Ready for a Change?
CoolSculpting is an FDA-approved, non-invasive treatment for targeting areas of unwanted fatty tissue around your body. It works by freezing fat cells, causing them to crystallize and die off. After that, they are removed from your body by your immune system. Treatment is fast, virtually pain-free, and will result in the permanent removal of subcutaneous fat.
If you’re not happy with what you see when you look in the mirror, and you think that cryolipolysis may be the answer, contact Artful Aesthetics in Oakland, CA.
