The Coolsculpting machine is used on writer Helen Grange at Laserderm Spa in Sandton. It targets fat cells, which are particularly vulnerable to cold, freezing them to death. Results can take months to appear. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu The Coolsculpting machine is used on writer Helen Grange at Laserderm Spa in Sandton. It targets fat cells, which are particularly vulnerable to cold, freezing them to death. Results can take months to appear. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu
By now we’re all suffering fat ad fatigue. I mean, how often do commercials for slimming products or treatments ever deliver a really noticeable, lasting result? Fact is few if any of these things work. Nothing beats a healthy diet and regular exercise, but even then, you have those bits that bulge no matter what, right?
I’ve never made more than a mediocre effort at losing my belly flab, probably because I just don’t care that much about it. I’ve half-heartedly contemplated liposuction, but not since Dr Robert Eckeld’s recent study finding at the University of Colorado that liposuction does work initially, but then the fat comes back after a year to another part of the body, mostly the upper stomach or upper arms. The body apparently “defends” its fat by re-growing fat cells, the researchers claim.
I gladly agreed, however, to be one of the first journalists in South Africa to try out CoolSculpting by Zeltiq, a new treatment that, to be blunt, freezes your fat cells to death. They either burst when the fat crystalises, or shrivel and die from stress. It’s been hailed by celebrities on both sides of the Atlantic.
It sounds radical, but unlike liposuction, it involves no anaesthesia, needles or cutting, and zero downtime. So I was happy to try, as the worst that could happen is my tummy would be on ice for a bit, while some fat cells did a long overdue swansong.
Developed at a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School in the US, CoolSculpting has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which means it’s been tried, tested and proven effective.
The process is alternatively called Cryolipolysis (cold lipolysis) and is based on extensive scientific research that demonstrates fat cells are susceptible to extreme cold, unlike the surrounding skin or muscle.
The sub-zero temperatures cause the fat cells to die, which are then absorbed and flushed away by the body over the next few months, reducing your targeted fat layer by, on average, 20 percent and if you’re lucky, nearly 40 percent.
At Laserderm Med Spa in Sandton, aesthetic practitioner Dr Natasha Begg-Spiro talked me through each step of the CoolSculpting procedure before taking my body measurements.
“You’re a good candidate,” she said, explaining that CoolSculpting is not for those who are obese or very overweight, but for people with pockets of belligerent fat on thighs, butts, tummies or arms (“bingo wings”).
On my next visit a few days later, I was weighed, measured and photographed semi-dressed as I turned slowly on a disc on the floor. Begg-Spiro then took various sizes of calipers to check which one best fitted the roll just below my belly button.
Once on the treatment bed and comfortable, the device itself – which looked like a margarine tub-sized vacuum head – was attached to the bottom part of my belly, and the machine was started.
This is the most uncomfortable part, but it only lasts a couple of minutes. Your bulge gets slowly but firmly sucked up into the vacuum head, which consists of two cooling panels that will do the freezing. It’s not painful, just a pulling and tugging sensation.
After a few more minutes, the feeling of intense cold dissipated as my lower belly went numb. I simply settled down to a magazine until the machine signalled the hour was up. Some people sleep or work on their laptops.
When the device came off, I had a very cold red lump to contemplate, but it soon flattened out and by the time I was home it was gone.
It was a little tender in the days following, but far from debilitating. In fact, the only noticeable side-effect was I didn’t feel very up to eating meat.
Begg-Spiro, who was the first guinea- pig on the machine when it arrived at her spa at the beginning of March, reports too that “you don’t feel like eating as much”, which is a bonus if you tend to pile on the portions.
A month-and-a-half later and there has been a definite, if not profound difference. My belly has deflated by a noticeable margin, and the consistency of the fat itself has changed from hard and stubborn to soft and yielding.
Best of all, while the destroyed fat cells are still flushing out of my system, the results have given me a burst of motivation to clean up my act, so lentils and exercise have re-entered my life after a long absence.
Spiro-Begg says the most dramatic results show at two months, though your body continues to flush out the fat cells for up to six months. And as long as you maintain your weight with a normal diet and exercise, the results should be stable and long term. “Every person I have treated so far is pleased with the results and quite of few are coming back to get a second treatment,” she says.
“CoolSculpting is definitely an option for people who don’t want to go the liposuction route. A single treatment is usually enough, but a larger belly might require two treatments. If we are treating love handles, there are two treatments involved, but the second one is half price,” she says.
Initial tests showed that after one procedure, people lost between 10 and 37 percent of the fat, with an average loss of 25 percent after six months. I’m of course hoping I’m in the upper league, then maybe I’ll forgo potatoes and cheese for good, to save up for the next freeze. I’m hoping to get the top of my belly done. - The Star
* Costs: Between R7 000 and R12 000 a treatment, depending on the size of the area being targeted. Love handles entail two treatments, but one is done at half-price, so the cost is about R10 500.
* Contact: CoolSculpting is exclusive (for now) to Laserderm in Sandton. Tel: 011 783 9483 or visit www.laserderm.co.za