Does fat come back after radiofrequency or cavitation?

Does fat come back after a course of radio frequency / cavitation / other fat reduction treatments?

Let’s make it crystal clear: fat can easily “come back” after any treatment of any kind, even liposuction (and of course, as you know, fat can come back after dieting).

This is because, if you overeat, drink too much alcohol, do not exercise or take specific medication (such as corticosteroids, estrogens or progestogens):

• Your body can create new fat cells out of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which are found in all body tissues

• Existing fat cells can increase more than 3,000 their original size

This is why people grow new fat even in areas where fat was removed by liposuction.

This is basic adipose tissue physiology and very established knowledge now.

If someone tells you that your fat (or cellulite) will “go forever” no matter what, they are either totally ignorant or simply lying - it doesn’t matter if they are a beautician or a plastic surgeon.

Let’s make it very clear: FAT CAN ALWAYS COME BACK ON ANY GIVEN BODY AREA if we are sedentary, overeat, drink too much alcohol, take specific medication or develop a specific medical condition. No surgery or “permanent” treatment in the world can change all that.

How to keep fat away after radiofrequency, ultrasound or cryolipolysis

So, if you take care of yourself with healthy nutrition, balanced calorie intake and exercise, fat will not accumulate again on the area treated by radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation or cryolipolysis.

These are the three technologies worth talking about when it comes to fat reduction.

• The former two (radiofrequency & ultrasound) help more with hypodermal fat (what people call “cellulite”) and not so much with subcutaneous fat (what people call “fat”).

• The latter, cryolipolysis, helps only with stomach and waist subcutaneous fat reduction and it is not very successful with subcutaneous fat on other body areas - and definitely NOT with cellulite.

So the best solution to reduce cellulite fat (and a bit of subcutaneous fat) is to:

• Have a course of 6-12 radiofrequency / cavitation treatments provided by a well-trained, experienced and knowledgable therapist (most RF/ultrasound operators only receive one day's training - and zero training in the science of cellulite)

• And then follow a super-healthy lifestyle to prevent the reappearance of topical fat / cellulite fat.

Top-up treatments to keep cellulite / fat at bay

Given that very few of us are “saintly”, when it comes to diet and exercise, consider that you will most probably grow some of the subcutaneous fat / cellulite fat removed by a treatment or even surgery.

To prevent this, you can have top-up treatments every 2-3 months or perhaps a course of 3-6 treatments every 1-2 years.

On the other hand, if you are 90% or 100% perfect with diet and exercise, you don’t really need any top-up sessions after your course of treatments (perhaps a few sessions every 2-3 years to counteract the normal ageing process).