Wellness

Want to lose weight? don't burn that fat, just freeze it

ANI
Sydney, December 29, 2012

First Published: 13:34 IST(29/12/2012)
Last Updated: 16:07 IST(29/12/2012)

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A plastic surgery treatment that uses extreme cold to blast away love handles and spare tyres is rapidly gaining popularity in America.

The CoolSculpting treatment, which can be done during a lunch hour, is proving particularly popular with men who do not want surgery or liposuction, the

Sydney Morning Herald reported. The procedure is done with a machine that uses vacuum pressure and deep cooling to target fat. It freezes unwanted fat cells in the waist, hips, thighs, buttocks, abdomen, arms and back. Patients can even read a book or watch a film while undergoing the treatment.

It is used for small areas of fat that refuse to budge with exercise, and is done without anaesthetic or medication.

Dr Grant Stevens, a plastic surgeon at Marina Plastic Surgery, which has so far done 4000 procedures in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, claimed he had his love handles done himself. After the treatment the fat dies, the skin tightens, and incredibly easy only takes about an hour, he explained. He added the fat once frozen doesn't come back. Moreover there are no incisions, scars or suction hoses, he said.

Weight loss

Only 13 per cent of his usual clientèle are men, but for fat freezing it rises to 45 per cent. The men have their love handles treated. The other place is the tummy, and they also have their man boobs done. Women go for love handles, muffin tops, the thighs and arms, Dr Stevens stated.

Dr Mathew Avram, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, who helped to create the technique, said it targeted and cooled fat cells to temperatures that ''''trigger their natural death''''. But doctors have warned that the system, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2010, is not a weight-loss treatment.