Can you really shred the holiday cookie pounds sans sweat?
Sure, there’s a spate of body-contouring procedures available now that promise a non-invasive way to melt — or, alternatively, freeze — the fat away. But do they work?
One celebrity fan says yes: Earlier this fall, when asked how she stays so gorgeous on an episode of “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen,” guest Brooke Shields, 54, — who just showed off her ripped abs in a super-skimpy bikini — said that although she hasn’t “done anything to her face” she does have one “trick.”
“It’s called WarmSculpting!” Shields proclaimed, sparking this reporter — and probably numerous others — to Google exactly what it is. Turns out, Shields shills for the procedure, also called SculpSure, which uses a laser to heat and destroy fat cells. Of course, this sounds like the opposite of the more well-known, CoolSculpting, another non-invasive fat reduction method, which freezes fat cells to death. CoolSculpting also has a handful of celebrity fans, including Khloe Kardashian.
“Both offer non-invasive body contouring,” says Dr. Neil Tanna, a board certified plastic surgeon with practices on Long Island and the Upper East Side. But, he says, they aren’t magic machines. Tanna calls the procedures the “cherry on top” — in other words, strictly for that “area that still bothers you” after you’ve exhausted the usual diet-and-exercise options.
Both procedures are FDA-approved for a variety of areas (CoolSculpting in 2010 and SculpSure in 2015) — most notably the “love handles,” under the chin and abs — and rely on the body’s lymphatic system to excrete the dead fat cells naturally.
CoolSculpting (starting around $2,000 an area) uses suction and cold plates to freeze fat cells but only one area of the body can be done in a single visit. WarmSculpting (starting around $1,400) is reportedly more painful for people with sensitive skin because its paddles are heated to 107 degrees, but can work on four areas of the body at the same time. Both procedures take around 30 minutes, have no downtime and patients can expect full results — if they’re lucky — in three months.
Data on whether or not these procedures work is limited.
In a clinical trial published in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology in 2014, CoolSculpting participants reported a 25 percent fat reduction in their treatment areas. For WarmSculpting, a 2016 review published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology found an 11 percent reduction in fat. The same report notes that there are no head-to-head trials yet that compare the two procedures.
For both procedures, around 14 percent of people saw no change at all. For Tanna, that risk is too big to take to have these devices in his practices.
“There’s no money-back guarantee on these things and the results are too varied,” Tanna says.
What’s your best bet?
“Diet and exercise,” he says.