Since it was introduced several years ago, Coolsculpting has helps thousands and thousands of people finally say good-bye to stubborn fat deposits. Coolsculpting treatments work by freezing the fat in certain areas. Exposure to freezing temperatures for up to an hour destroys the fat cells. Your body then flushes the dead cells away, leaving you looking slimmer.
One of the big questions people often have about the process is “How many Coolsculpting treatments will I need?” The answer: It depends. Some people need several treatments before they get the results they are after. Others might see the results they wanted with just a single treatment.
Areas You Want Treated
A factor that determines how many treatments you’ll end up needing is how many areas you want to treat. Coolsculpting uses applicators, which connect to the skin and treatment area using gentle suction. The size of the applicator varies based on the size of the treatment area. For example, the Cool Mini applicator works best on the chin area, helping to remove the fat associated with a double chin. Larger applicators work on bigger areas, like the abdomen and thighs.
Some practices offer just a single applicator or machine, which fairly limits the areas you can treat and can extend the time for treatment and the number of treatments you end up needing. For example, if you’re looking to remove extra fat from your love handles or from the outside of your thighs, you’ll want to find a practice that offers DualSculpting.
That means the practice has two machines, allowing you to treat both thighs or both love handles at once. If a practice has just one, you’ll have to sit through treatment on one side, then have treatment on the other side immediately following your first treatment or end your first treatment and plan to return another time for the second.
Depending on the number of areas you want to treat and the number of machines available, you can either be facing a single Coolsculpting treatment session or a series of two, three or even more.
How Many Coolsculpting Treatments Each Area Needs
The type of results you get from your initial Coolsculpting treatment also influences the number of treatments you end up needing. Typically, a Coolsculpting treatment reduces the amount of fat in the area by 20 to 25 percent. If you’d like to see greater improvement, you’ll probably benefit from two or more treatments in the same area.
It’s difficult to say before treatment begins how many sessions you’ll actually need. Many surgeons take a wait and see approach. That means that they recommend waiting until your final results appear before you decide to go forward with a new treatment or not.
Waiting for Results
Although it’s a relatively quick, non-invasive procedure, Coolsculpting doesn’t provide instant or immediately visible results. Far from it. Although you might start to notice a reduction in fat in the treated area after a few weeks, it can take as long as four months before you see the full, final results from treatment.
It all has to do with how quickly your body metabolizes the fat cells and flushes them away. Some people do this rather quickly. Other people’s bodies take their time.
After the four months have passed, it’s a good idea to meet with your surgeon to see where you stand. If you’re happy with the full results, your clothes fit better and you feel more confident, no additional treatments are likely to be needed. But if you’d like to lose another inch or just a bit more fat from a certain area and your practitioner agrees that you’d benefit from an additional treatment, at least one more session might be ideal.
Things to Remember Before Coolsculpting
One of the most important things to remember about Coolsculpting is that it’s not a weight loss procedure. Each Coolsculpting treatment can remove up to 25 percent of fat from an area. If you’re many pounds overweight, a 25 percent reduction in fat in a single area won’t make much of a difference on the scale.
In fact, since fat has a way of being stubborn or behaving in unexpected ways, it’s usually recommended that you lose any excess weight before treatment. Coolsculpting is recommended for people who are at their target weight or pretty close to it. If you want the best results possible with the fewest number of treatments possible, treating Coolsculpting as the finishing touch rather than the starting point is the way to go.
Dr. Paul Vitenas and the staff at Mirror Mirror Beauty Boutique in Houston, Texas, are graduates of Coolsculpting University, meaning they’ve received extensive training when it comes to the best ways to perform the treatment. The spa offers DualSculpting, as well as a range of applicator sizes to truly customize your treatment. To learn more and to schedule a consultation, call 281-810-9083 today.