CoolSculpting: The Cherry on Top for Targeting Stubborn Fat
It’s possible to reach your goal weight during your weight loss journey and still have unsightly fat pads in your abdomen, upper arms, thighs, and love handles. These trouble areas are frustrating because this unwelcome fat remains regardless of how well you eat or how often you visit the gym. Sometimes, there’s more to improving your figure than diet and exercise.
CoolSculpting is a non-surgical fat reduction treatment that helps create slimmer body contours by freezing fat cells. Here’s how the non-invasive procedure can help eliminate stubborn fat pads.
What Causes Stubborn Fat?
No matter how much you exercise or what diet you’re on, the stubborn fat on your belly, thighs, and buttocks just won’t go away. Genetics dictates where most excess fat accumulates. Women tend to store fat in the hips, thighs, belly, and buttocks.
At Aria DermSap, we understand how frustrating stubborn fat can be, and inform our patients what causes fat accumulation and what you can do to eliminate pockets of stubborn fat for good.
Menopause
The stubborn fat on the hips, abdomen, and buttocks can result from an estrogen drop during perimenopause and menopause. As a woman’s body moves past its child-bearing years, it redistributes the fat stores to her midsection, creating what many refer to as a muffin top.
An unhealthy diet
A diet filled with processed foods, sugary drinks, and refined carbohydrates results in stubborn fat on your hips, abdomen, and buttocks. These foods increase insulin resistance and fat storage, ending with stubborn fat cells.
Chronic stress
When you experience high stress levels, your body releases cortisol. Cortisol prepares your body to deal with the stressor by triggering a flight-or-fight response. But when you’re under chronic stress, cortisol levels build up in your blood, leading to visceral belly fat, which forms around the midsection and creates an apple shape.
Yo-yo dieting
Yo-yo dieting refers to losing weight while dieting and then gaining it back again. You lose muscle mass and excess fat when you lose weight, especially if your protein intake isn’t adequate. But when you regain weight without strength training, the weight you put on is mainly fat. Yo-yo dieting can increase body fat in your abdomen, thighs, buttocks, or upper arm.
Understanding CoolSculpting: A Non-invasive Solution for Stubborn Fat
While losing stubborn fat may seem impossible, Aria DermSpa offers a comfortable in-office solution. Dr. Lisa Donofrio offers CoolSculpting treatment to address stubborn fat that wreaks havoc on your figure.
With cutting-edge cryolipolysis technology, she uses cold temperatures to target stubborn fat on your belly, thighs, and buttocks to destroy it. As these fat cells die, your body naturally removes them through its lymphatic system, leaving you with a slimmer profile.
Because CoolSculpting destroys unwanted fat cells permanently, the treatment leaves you with fewer fat cells and fat bulges. Your results should remain permanent with proper lifestyle choices. However, if you gain weight, the fat cells left behind become more prominent.
Targeting Problem Areas
CoolSculpting freezes fat away through innovative technology that uses a scientific process called cryolipolysis, which permanently kills fat cells. It’s not a weight-loss treatment. It’s a top non-surgical fat-reduction treatment dermatologists and plastic surgeons use. It’s ideal for body contouring in areas that stubbornly resist diet and exercise. Dr. Donfrio will work with you to develop a customized plan to tone and sculpt your troublesome areas. Depending on your unique cosmietic goals, this plan may include one session or several. Here’s what CoolSculpting can do for specific areas of the body:
Flanks (love handles)
Muffin tops and love handles frustrate women and men. If diet and exercise fail to reduce bulges at the top of your pants, CoolSculpting can quickly freezes the fat in these areas. If you can pinch fat on your flanks, CoolSculpting can treat it.
Abdomen
If you’re sick of a lingering belly bulge that hangs over the top of your pants, your abdomen may benefit from CoolSculpting. A flatter stomach can boost confidence and help your clothes fit better. Remember, if your belly bulge includes excess skin that sags, you may be better suited for Futura Fit non-surgical body sculpting.
Thighs
CoolSculpting is highly beneficial in reducing fat in the inner and outer thigh areas. Say goodbye to saddlebags and hello to a sensual thigh gap. Slimming down the thighs is essential for better fitting outfits, particularly pants, and tight dresses. Since the thighs are commonly resistant to body slimming exercises, CoolSculpting is an excellent choice.
Double Chin
If you thought reducing double chin fat was impossible, think again. CoolSculpting is a double chin treatment that reduces fat beneath the jawline by up to 25%. CoolSculpting is one of the only ways to slim and sculpt the neck area for people with a genetic predisposition for fullness under the chin.
Bra Fat
Also known as bra bulge, the area between your breast and armpit often laps over or out the side of your bra. Before treating this area, Dr. Donofrio will examine the extent to ensure this excess tissue is fatty tissue and not glandular breast tissue. As long as this area contains pinchable fatty tissue, CoolSculpting is a viable option.
Back Fat
Trying to eliminate back fat through diet and exercise alone can frustrate men and women. If back fat is causing you stress and lowering your quality of life, it may be time to CoolSculpt it. CoolSculptingback fat can be beneficial in achieving a more fit appearance and helping clothes lay smoother against the body.
Banana Roll
The fat deposits that can form under the buttocks, also known as a “banana roll,” can create a bumpy appearance of the upper thigh beneath the buttocks. It is a notoriously difficult place to fight fat for men and women—even star athletes can have a banana roll. Fortunately, your banana roll can be CoolSculpted for a slimmer and smoother lower buttock contour.
Upper Arms
Particularly for women, upper arm flab can be a significant problem. If you’re tired of feeling like you have “bat wings,” it may be time to consider CoolSculptingyour arms. Even in cases of extreme weight loss, it is common for arm flab to be the last to go. Arm flab is no match for CoolSculpting—if it’s squeezable, it’s freezable!
Submandibular Area Below the Jawline
CoolSculptingis the first and only non-surgical fat reduction treatment to shape the area below the jawline and improve lax tissue. Contouring this facial can help to achieve a defined jawline and reduce the appearance of a double chin.
CoolSculpting vs. Other Fat Reduction Methods
CoolScupting is one of many fat reduction options for women and men trying to enhance their body outline. Dr. Donofrio offers a selection of fat-reduction methods, including liposuction, ThermiTight, Kybella®, and Futura Fit. Here’s how they compare:
CoolSculpting vs. Liposuction
Determining whether liposuction is better than CoolSculpting will rely on your treatment goals, budget, and health.
With CoolSculpting, results are gradual as your body processes and shed the dead fat cells. With liposuction, there is often swelling immediately following the procedure. This swelling can take a few weeks to go down.
Since CoolSculpting is a non-invasive procedure, minimal risks are involved. Potential side effects include bruising or tenderness following your CoolSculpting procedure. Liposuction is an invasive procedure with more risks associated with surgery, including fluid retention, numbness, infection, and fat embolism.
CoolSculpting vs. ThermiTight
Instead of opting for fat reduction procedures only, many women and men are choosing ThermiTight – a minimally invasive technology that significantly addresses loose skin. Whether you’d like to trim your waistline or achieve sleeker arms, ThermiTight can be customized to meet your cosmetic needs and goals by adding a skin-tightening element CoolSculpting doesn’t offer.
CoolSculpting vs. Kybella®
Kybella® is a non-surgical option that is limited to treating a double chin. It’s a convenient injectable that destroys fat cells to restore a sleek chin and neck contour.
CoolSculpting vs. Futura Fit
Futura Fit combines electrical stimulation with ultrasound technology to reduce fat, strengthen muscles, and produce an ideal definition. And with no surgery, incisions, or risk of scarring, this treatment offers no downtime.
What to Consider When Choosing a CoolSculpting Provider
Look for a practice owned and operated by a dermatologist or plastic surgeon. Research the physician, their facilities, cleanliness, and their reputation in your area. Check if the practitioner has a gallery of CoolSculpting before and after photos. Don’t trust a practice that tries to hide its work.
About Dr. Donofrio
Dr. Donofrio is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA.
She is the past president and three-year board member of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery and a board-certified fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology. She offers multiple body-sculpting surgical and non-surgical procedures and has faithful patients who trust her with their facial beauty and body outline. To learn more about CoolSculpting in New Haven and Madison, contact us online or call (203) 421-6674 to schedule your consultation.