Does coolsculpting get rid of cellulite? Facts vs marketing hype.

Coolsculpting, your thighs and cellulite

Our Beachy Legs articles are a practical way to share our experience in cellulite and skin tightening, from our London clinic with everyone in the world. Check all our articles here. And if you do live in London, you can book an assessment, consultation or treatment with us here.

• Does fat freezing / cryolipolysis remove cellulite?

• Coolsculpting for cellulite? Don’t fall for the misleading claims.

• Cryolipolysis: the only non-surgical solution for stomach / waist fat reduction

• Never take risks with a second cryolipolysis procedure - it is not worth it

• Coolsculpting and paradoxical reactions: the Linda Evangelista incident

• Coolsculpting, skin tightening and skin looseness

• What is best for non-surgical fat reduction: cryolipolysis or laser?

• Check our professional consultancy, for a masterclass in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

Does fat freezing / cryolipolysis remove cellulite?

This a common question we are asked at the clinic.

Coolsculpting is the most well-known example of cryolipolysis (“fat freezing”) technology.

Cryolipolysis aims to lead to subcutaneous adipose tissue adipolysis (i.e. fat cell death) with the application of extreme cold.

Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) is fat tissue UNDER the skin, while cellulite is fat tissue INSIDE the skin (hypodermis).

So, by definition, cryolipolysis / coolsculpting does NOT remove cellulite.

This fact is also reflected in the official literature of cryolipolysis equipment manufacturers: they DON’T make claims for cellulite reduction.

Coolsculpting for cellulite? Don’t fall for the misleading claims.

However, that doesn’t stop many unscrupulous practitioners to claim cellulite reduction with coolsculpting / cryolipolysis / fat freezing.

And it doesn’t stop some naive members of the public to think that if cryolipolysis / coolsculpting works on deep fat, it will somehow magically work on their cellulite too.

Cryolipolysis: the only non-surgical solution for stomach / waist fat reduction

According to feedback for several years at the clinic, from more than a hundred clients who had undergone cryolipolysis treatments, it seems that it is:

• about 50% effective in the reduction of stomach/waist fat

• about 10-20% effective in the reduction of thigh/arm fat

And it is this medium success rate for the reduction of stomach/waist, and especially the low success rate for the reduction of other fat, the reason why we do not offer cryolipolysis at our clinic.

However, cryolipolysis remains the only non-surgical treatment that can actually work (even with a 50% chance of success) in reducing up to 25% of stomach/waist fat.

The official studies are clear and only state about 25% fat reduction, so don’t expect 100% or even fat 50% elimination.

And don’t do cryolipolysis a second time, as the chance of complications increases a lot and the chance of extra fat reduction beyond 25% is minimal.

Never take risks with a second cryolipolysis procedure - it is not worth it

I have recently seen a client who had decent success with their first cryolipolysis and then got massive fibrosis with their second one.

A famous vaser surgeon tried to remove their fibrosis with vaser (what an irresponsible idea) and then with another vaser procedure (now this is bordering malpractice), which made things worse.

Now they are still struggling with cortisone injections, massage and ultrasound to break down the fibrosis. Two years of suffering, which could be avoided ig they stuck to one “cryo” only.

So our advice is that if you want to have waist/stomach non-surgical fat reduction, try one session of cryolipolysis and if you belong the ~50% of people on whom “cryo” works, that’s great.

If not, at least you will have tried to avoid surgery. Not all treatments work for everyone and no treatment has 100% success rate.

Unfortunately each trial comes with a £500-£750 price tag, but that’s the only thing that may work for non-surgical fat loss (on the waist/stomach only). Nothing else really works non-surgically - especially NOT laser treatments. And nothing really works, beyond a 10-20% success rate, on arms and legs.

Coolsculpting and paradoxical reactions: the Linda Evangelista incident

Cryolipolysis has a few typical side effects, most of them reversible: redness, irritation and skin numbness, which may persist several weeks.

These adverse reactions are another reason for us not offering fat freezing at our clinic: we do not want our clients to suffer ANY adverse reactions and we want to maintain our 99.5%+ safety record (we have clients who their stomach / thighs are damaged for life by a single session of cryolipolysis and we do not want to be the ones causing such problems to people).

But some people don’t care about such potential reactions and for those people cryolipolysis is an option for belly fat reduction.

Very occasionally, once every 1800 sessions, there may be a paradoxical fat increase reaction (as opposed to fat reduction that cryolipolysis attempts to deliver), as widely known now from Linda Evangelista’s experience.

Paradoxical reactions almost always occur with harsh, destructive treatments (freezing your skin for up to an hour is quite harsh for your tissues).

Paradoxical reactions are almost non-existent with more safe, stimulating treatments, such as the deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation (the strongest SAFE anti-cellulite technologies known today, and the one we practise).

As many people consider 1:1800 cases very rare, they don’t worry so much about this specific reaction. However, after the Linda Evangelista incident attitudes changed and more and more people do worry and do not want to undergo fat freezing treatments.

Coolsculpting, skin tightening and skin looseness

Can fat freezing be used for skin tightening?

Again, same with cellulite reduction, cryolipolysis does NOT stimulate skin tightening and the manufacturers of this equipment actually make no such claims.

So the “skin tightening with cryolipolysis” idea is another wishful thinking myth.

In fact, when cryolipolysis is effective and reduces fat significantly, it always leads to skin looseness (according to how much fat was lost). This is due to the extra skin which previously used to accommodate the extra fat.

That loose skin can then be tightened with deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency treatment, the most effective SAFE skin tightening procedure available today.

What is best for non-surgical fat reduction: cryolipolysis or laser?

NOTHING is really effective, on ANY body area, except coolsculpting on the stomach:

• Non-surgical laser fat reduction has proven a total waste of time and (a lot of) money

• HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) is another such gimmick which is supposed to lead to fat reduction, but it doesn’t. At low intensities nothing happens, at high intensities it can cause burns.

• Other destructive methods (such as fat removal injections or static, extremely high intensity radiofrequency) are plagued by adverse reactions and/or ineffectiveness

• Deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation do help A BIT with fat reduction, but the results are not significant or consistent among different people. So although we use those technologies, we don’t even make a claim for fat reduction at the clinic with these technologies, except perhaps to trim 1-2mm of fat on slim people - no more. So I would advise you not to believe such claims elsewhere.

Generally speaking, for guaranteed and significant fat reduction, liposuction is the best option.

Of course, lipo has its own problems so it is not a solution for everybody.

For those people, and after considering all the caveats above, fat freezing is the only game in town - for stomach/waist fat reduction only.

Check our professional consultancy, for a masterclass in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening? Attend a half-day, 1-day or 2-day or 3-day professional consultancy / one-to-one training and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible. Service available via Zoom or at our central London practice.