CoolSculpting FAQ - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know But Were Too Afraid To Ask

 

Coolsculpting is a revolutionary new procedure which is aimed at reducing fat. It is typically most appropriate for individuals who are approximately no more than 30 pounds over their ideal weight. The candidate should either be maintaining their current weight or trying to lose weight. The procedure will destroy fat cells, as opposed to sucking them out of the body, which is the method used in liposuction. Coolsculpting is most commonly used to treat areas of the body that have fat bulges, although these shouldn’t be more than a couple of inches when pinched by hand.

 

How Does Coolsculpting Work?

 

As mentioned, the main focus of the procedure is to destroy fat cells on a permanent basis. The process will initially pull the fat bulge into a machine which will then be held between two cooling plates by a vacuum. The cooling plates will then be activated and will reach a temperature where your skin, blood vessels and nerves will remain unaffected, but fat cells will be killed off. Each specific area will generally take no more than an hour to treat, and therefore you may decide to have more than one area treated during one sitting.

 

What Happens to the Fat?

 

 

You won’t actually notice any difference immediately after the procedure, as it will take a few weeks for the treated area to shrink. Fat is usually held in cells, which automatically expand and deflate as you gain or lose weight. Coolsculpting will destroy approximately 1 in 5 of these cells and over time they will release fat, which will then be absorbed. The fat deposits that these cells release work in exactly the same way as fat consumed when you eat and therefore will be used as energy.

It is important to realize that Coolsculpting has nothing to do with weight loss. As the name suggests, it is merely used to “sculpt” a particular area of your body. In order to lose weight you will still need to eat at a calorific deficit (eat less calories than you burn on a daily basis), which can also be helped by regular exercise. However, through Coolsculpting as long as you aren’t gaining weight, and either maintaining or losing weight, the fat released from the cells during the procedure will eventually be expended as energy, e.g. while you walk, go about your normal daily activities, or during exercise if you wish to help the process along.

 

Is It Safe?

 

This is probably what most people want to know, although you should be aware that Coolsculpting procedures have been performed literally hundreds of thousands of times. It is considered safe in comparison to other cosmetic methods of fat reduction, but you may still experience certain side effects. These may include, extremely mild bruising, a little soreness and the area that has been treated may feel numb for a little while after. Most people won’t experience any pain after the treatment, but you should still be aware that approximately 1% of patients do suffer with pain afterwards. However, much in the same way as following liposuction, you can take some form of pain relief, e.g. paracetamol, aspirin, etc.

The author of this post, Nancy Baker, is a freelance blogger who is a part of the team at Coolsculpting which provides non-surgical procedures for fat reduction. Her hobbies include painting and photography. Log on to www.drcooljones.com to know more about her work. You can also follow her on Twitter @Nancy Baker.

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