CoolSculpting is a fat-freezing procedure that reduces your total number of fat cells. One of the questions we often get is “will I lose weight with CoolSculpting?”, and it’s a fair one, but we must distinguish fat reduction from weight loss.
Weight loss is governed by many different factors, including hormone production, diet, exercise, and even genetics. Fat reduction, on the other hand, is the singular process of removing fat cells. It’s not quite the same as weight loss, and here’s the reason why.
What is fat reduction?
Sometime during your teenage years, the number of fat cells you have stops growing, meaning you have the same number throughout your adult life. When you see fluctuations in weight, you aren’t seeing more or less fat cells, but rather you’re seeing the set number of fat cells you have grow larger and smaller. Weight loss is what you get when those fat cells become smaller.
Fat reduction, on the other hand, involves the actual removal of some of those cells. The CoolSculpting process uses low temperatures to freeze them away, leaving you with fewer fat cells in problem areas. In a normal CoolSculpting procedure, you should expect to see the number of fat cells in the treatment area decrease by around 20%. CoolSculpting is best used when you’re within 30 lbs or so of your goal weight, to treat stubborn pockets of fat that have not changed with diet and exercising.
How does CoolSculpting work?
If CoolSculpting doesn’t make you lose weight, then how does it work? Your dermatologist will use specialized equipment to apply cooling to targeted areas and cause the death of the fat cells. It’s completely safe, with no need to worry about damage to other parts of the body in the treatment area, which is protected by a gel-like substance applied at the beginning of the procedure.
After the procedure, your body will naturally process and eliminate the dead cells, leaving you with a more defined contour in the treatment area.
But what if my goal is weight loss?
CoolSculpting may still help! While CoolSculpting does not necessarily cause dramatic weight loss, if you are within 30 pounds of your goal weight, the results seen with CoolSculpting may motivate you to continue your healthy lifestyle. It can be motivating to see your results in the mirror, and other patients have been inspired to go the extra mile by the results they’ve seen!
