Targeted Fat Loss

One of the biggest weight loss and fitness myths is that crunches will make your tummy shrink or that lunges will make your thighs smaller, etc. So many workouts and fitness devices claim to be effective to get targeted fat loss in one area.

by Bharat Kothakota , MD MPH

One of the biggest weight loss and fitness myths is that crunches will make your tummy shrink or that lunges will make your thighs smaller, etc. So many workouts and fitness devices claim to be effective to get targeted fat loss in one area. But, the truth is that spot-reduction of fat is not real. You can't target certain areas of the body with exercises to only lose fat in that area; rather, when your body loses fat, it loses it everywhere.

Targeted fat loss have never been possible through exercise or without surgery like liposuction, until now. CoolSculpting actually makes spot reduction of fat possible with a non-surgical procedure. You can't do that with diet and exercise.

How Fat Works

The amount of fat in your body is a fixed number. Somewhere during adolescence, your body stopped producing fat cells at this time and has stayed at the same number since. During normal weight loss or weight gain, the amount of fat cells you have never changes. Instead, the cells get smaller or bigger.

This depends on how much energy (food) you consume vs the rate that your body is using that energy. When someone eats more food than their body needs, the extra energy gets stored in fat cells, causing the cells and their body overall to get bigger. When someone eats less food than their body uses, it turns to fat deposits to use the energy stored there. This causes the cells and a person's body to get smaller.

This happens to all of the fat cells in the body. There is no way to choose which fat cells the body will use to burn energy. Therefore, you can't get targeted fat loss through exercise. As much as we all wish it did, it just doesn't work that way.

The only way to lose fat is to burn more energy than you eat. This is why it's been shown to be effective to exercise before breakfast for a fat loss fitness plan. Of course, this doesn't mean you should go hungry by any means, but you should just watch the calories going into and being burned from your body. This is why fat loss can take time.

Also because of the way fat is normally lost, if you have a body part that's become a stubborn fat-storage point (like love handles), then you're still more likely to lose fat off the rest of your body before you begin to lose it from this body part.

For men, this fat storage point is likely to be the stomach area first and then the sides. For women, it's more likely to be the hips and thighs. This is a gender-based a survival mechanism that developed for protection of different organs. Where your body tends to store fat is based on genetics, too.

Unfortunately there is no exercise shortcut or secret that will only reduce fat in your stomach, sides, thighs, etc. If you want to lose those areas naturally by working out, you have to work hard for results.

How CoolSculpting Works

CoolSculpting is the only way you can target specific areas of your body to lose fat without surgery. This is how it works for targeted fat loss:

After just hearing about how you can't spot-reduce fat with normal weight loss, you might be skeptical. But, CoolSculpting actually works because instead of shrinking fat cells like weight loss does, it removes fat cells entirely.

Through the process of Cryolipolysis, controlled cool temperatures are applied to an area of the body with extra fat that you want gone. The device is precise enough to reach a temperature cold enough to cause cell death of underlying fat tissue without being cold enough to be damaging to the other surrounding tissues. This works because fat cells die easier at cool temperatures than the other cells in the area like the skin.

When the CoolSculpting machine crystalizes fat cells, the cells gradually die off. The dead cells are naturally broken down by the body and eliminated from the body over time. This process is visible three weeks to three months after CoolSculpting when you will start to see your stomach, thighs, love handles, etc. get slimmer over time. With just one session, you could get rid of 20 to 25 percent of visible fat in these hard to reach areas. You might be satisfied with your fat loss results from just one session, many patients are. But other patients do come back for multiple treatments to slim the area even more to reach their goals.

With the CoolSculpting process, you can spot-reduce fat permanently. Once these fat cells are gone, they are gone for good, because the body can't regenerate new fat cells.

With CoolSculpting, you can get targeted fat loss in these areas:

• Abdomen
• Love Handles
• Double-chin
• Thighs
• Bra Fat
• Back Fat
• Area Underneath the Buttocks
• Upper Arms

Even though CoolSculpting can do what diet and exercise can't to get rid of your stubborn fat, it is not a replacement for a healthy lifestyle. Candidates for CoolSculpting are those who are already relatively in shape and at or near their goal weight. The fat cells treated by CoolSculpting will disappear, but you should still work out and eat healthy to maintain your great results and avoid gaining weight in new places in the fat cells that remain.

With CoolSculpting, you can now get the targeted fat loss you've been wishing were possible. Then, you can continue making progress with your fitness in a slimmer body that gives your confidence a boost.

CoolSculpting at Self Care LA

Our doctors at Self Care LA are experienced CoolSculpting experts. They have helped many patients achieve their body goals using this breakthrough technique to help people get targeted fat loss. View our before and after photos of the amazing results. Then, contact us at Self Care LA to book a consultation or appointment to be on your way to "freezing the fat" in the areas you're most concerned about.