Blame it on bikini season or the forthcoming gala circuit, but recently, at dinner parties across the country, a topic has been on the tips of tongues: CoolSculpting. Not an entirely new technology, the fat-freezing procedure formally called cryolipolysis was first discovered after, rumor has it, doctors noticed that children who ate a lot of ice pops experienced fat degradation in their cheeks. “Fat is more temperature-sensitive than your skin,” explains UCLA professor and plastic surgeon Jason Roostaeian. “It goes through the cell death process before your skin does.”
CoolSculpting was first approved by the FDA in 2010, but recently gained attention when it was rebranded from minor spot treatment to a noninvasive alternative to liposuction, promising to eviscerate love handles and bra bulge with the wave of a cooling paddle. Sound too good to be true? According to Roostaeian and Manhattan-based CoolSculpting guru Jeannel Astarita, the technology works. Here, they discuss the ins and outs of fat freezing, from weight loss to health risks.