“Don’t believe everything that you hear.” Generally, this is pretty smart advice that we all heard from our mothers growing up. Well, the truth of the matter is, there are times when the unbelievable has actually been proven to be reality.

Walking on the moon. The fall of the Berlin Wall. A computer that fits in the palm of your hand.

A new device called Coolsculpting has many of my patients wondering the same thing. “Is this too good to be true? How can a device help me lose fat?”

We all know the basic story. Our bodies gain weight because we eat more calories than we burn. Energy in exceeds energy out, and therefore our body needs to store that energy in the form of fat. Each of our bodies is programmed differently to hold this weight in different areas. Some of us tend to hold the weight in our lower tummy, others around the hips, still others on our lovehandles.

The frustrating thing of course is that these problem areas are the first to gain the weight, and often the last to lose the weight. And while dieting and exercise may allow us to lose weight, we have no control over where we lose the weight. We may appear unhealthy and gaunt in the face before we lose the weight around our trunk.

Now, what if we could not just reduce fat, but target this fat reduction. And what if it could be done without surgery, without needles, and without downtime?  Imagine that results could be seen with just one treatment, rather than a series of five or six treatments. And imagine if these results were permanent. Wouldn’t this sound too good to be true?

Well, this revolutionary device is called Coolsculpting, and although it sounds like a fantasy, it has truly arrived. The device was invented by two Harvard scientists. Inspired by the peculiar finding of dimples in children after prolonged popsicle-sucking, the idea that cold could lead to fat loss started the research. After years of studying the phenomenon, it became clear that fat was more fragile to injury from cold than the surrounding skin and muscle. Simply stated, if you freeze tissue for a certain period of time, fat breaks down, and ultimately is metabolized naturally by the body.

The Coolsculpting device targets a specific area, such as the abdomen, love handle, mid thigh or mid back, and cools the area during a one hour treatment. There are no needles and no sedation is required for the procedure. At the end of the treatment, there is some redness and some mild bruising. There is no downtime required and patients are back to work and back to the gym later that day! For most people, the mild soreness can be treated with a few days of Advil.

The fat reduction is not immediate. In fact, the fat cells at the end of treatment are still alive. However, they have been damaged in such a way that they will gradually die off over the next several weeks. What the patient experiences is a 25 to 30 percent reduction of fat in these targeted areas over the course of about 6 to 12 weeks. The best candidates are those who are at or slightly above their ideal body weight.

As one of the first plastic surgeons in the area to offer this new and exciting technology, my office is offering a special introductory rate. Give us a call today to schedule a free Coolsculpting consultation and find out for yourself how this revolutionary technology can help you!