Can You Gain Weight After Coolsculpting?
After Cool Sculpting, there are fewer fat cells in the treated area. If you then gain weight, the fat has to go somewhere and will settle into fat cells in other areas. (Karl Hekimian, MD, Scottsdale Plastic Surgeon)
After about the age of 18, your body does not make new fat cells. When you gain weight, you do not create or gain more fat cells.
The fat cells you have just get bigger. When an area is treated with Coolscupting, the fat in that region is broken down and removed by your body’s own immune and repair systems.
From then on, that area will have a thinner layer of fat beneath the skin. If you gain weight, the treated areas will remain thinner in relation to the untreated regions.
You will not, however, preferentially gain weight in untreated areas. It may just appear that way. (Matthew M. Dunham, MD, Colorado Springs OB-GYN)
Coolsculpting is able to freeze a bulge and reduce fat in 25% of a given area to various parts of the body. It is the number one non-invasive method of fat reduction in the country. It is neither a weight gain nor weight loss method.
If you are gaining weight you need to consult a nutritionist to assess your diet and have special blood tests to make sure that you don’t have any underlying thyroid or other issues. (Michele S. Green, MD, New York Dermatologist)
CoolSculpting Only Effects 20-25% of the Fat Cells in the Treated Area
It’s important to remember that whenever coolsculpting is performed it only effects 20-25% of the fat cells in the treated area.
The fat cells that are left behind are still subject to changes that occur with weight gain and weight loss.
Following coolsculpting treatments, problem areas are less likely to have dramatic fluctuations in fat accumulation as a result of weight gain.
In most patients weight gain tends to be more evenly distributed after this type of procedure.
How weight gain effects any particular patient following coolsculpting is unpredictable and depends on several variables.
The number of residual fat cells in the treated area is probably the most important factor in subsequent weight gain.
For this reason, patients who undergo coolsculpting should make every effort to combine this procedure with life style changes. (Richard J. Bruneteau, MD, Omaha Plastic Surgeon)
Weight gain after Zeltiq CoolSculpting
Similar to liposuction, there will be less fat cells after zeltiq than before and if weight is gained, it will go less on the areas treated than the non treated areas of the body. The residual cell in the CoolSculpting area can gain more fat if you overeat. (Ronald Shelton, MD, Manhattan Dermatologic Surgeon)
Fat Does Not Distribute More to Untreated Areas
CoolSculpting is a treatment that permanently removes adipocytes (fat cells). About 22-25% of fat cells in a treated area will die away within 8-12 weeks. This leaves fewer adipocytes in those treated areas. As such, when you gain weight, you will have a 22-25% smaller increase in volume compared to untreated areas.
So when you gain weight, the other areas will look more pronounced. The same is true for people who get liposuction done. In the old days when liposuction was done purely with a cannula, you would see streaks across the abdomen (or wherever the treatment was done) when the individual gained weight.
This was because the cannula was a very precise tool that would only remove fat that it came in contact with. With CoolSculpting it’s not that bad or obvious.
I’ve had several patients, whom I treated 4-5 years ago, who came back to me after a large weight gain.
Their treated areas were noticeable, but weren’t obviously abnormal. (Garry K. Kim, MD, Pasadena Internist)
There is a distinction between weight loss and the fat reduction. Coolsculpting is an effective nonsurgical treatment for fat reduction. It will eliminate 20% of the fat cells in the treated areas. However, the remaining fat cells can grow or shrink as before with weight gain or loss.
Therefore, if you can gain weight it will obscure the results of the coolsculpting. (Kris M. Reddy, MD, FACS, West Palm Beach Plastic Surgeon)
I have not seen the results masked by a 5 pound weight gain because the weight gain is evenly distributed throughout. The fat that is removed through Cool Sculpting is permanent. (Robert Whitfield, MD, FACS, Austin Plastic Surgeon)
Contour improvement after Coolsculpting is permanent
The contour improvement you gain from Coolsculpting is permanent and is irregardless of whether you gain weight.
That being said, the 20-25% reduction you will experience from Coolsculpting means that there are still 75-80% of fat cells remaining.
Therefore, the remaining cells can still get larger but the treated area will always look better for having done Coolsculpting.
Fat goes to where there are fat cells. Any weight you gain will be redistributed to all your fat cells, and just less will go to the area that you treated with Coolsculpting than it previously would have. (David P. Rapaport, MD, FACS, Manhattan Plastic Surgeon)
Weight gain following Coolsculpting
Coolsculpting is the same as liposuction with regard to future weight gain. If you gain weight in the future, generally we see a diffuse gain everywhere (including the treated areas).
You will notice less accumulation in the treated areas because the number of fat cells that can expand and contract is less in those areas. (Grant Stevens, MD, Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon)
What if I gain weight after CoolSculpting?
If you were to gain weight after any fat reduction procedure, whether it be liposuction or cryolipolysis with CoolSculpt you will add those pounds preferentially to areas where fat was not previously removed/destroyed.
Since CoolSculpting is not a weight reduction treatment most patients, if appropriately selected, will not be prone or allow themselves to gain a significant amount of weight were this will be a noticeable issue. (Oscar A. Aguirre, MD, FPMRS, FACOG, Denver Urogynecologist)
The fat tends to increase in untreated areas more easily than treated areas. However it is our practice to recommend to the patient to really watch weight and at least not gain after procedure.
Sometime recruiting a weight management program is a good idea. (Parham Gharagozlou, MD, FACP, Walnut Creek Physician)
Fat distribution after liposuction/CoolSculpting
By the age of 20 we have all the fat cells in our body for life. When we gain or loose weight the fat cells increase or decrease in size based on how much weight we gain or lose.
Removing fat cells via liposuction or destroying them via CoolSculpting or any of the other non-invasive permanent fat destruction technologies reduces your number of fat cells in a particular area thus with weight gain post procedure it will appear the “untreated areas” are bigger than the treated areas. (Paul Pietro, MD, Greenville Physician)