Summer sneaks up on you in Ontario. We don’t have the luxury of a long and gentle spring to ease us into the balmy months. One day it’ll feel like winter is going to go on all year, then the next it’s suddenly time to hit the bistros and beaches. Having summer sprung on you like this can leave one feeling a little bit unprepared. Is there still time to do some swimsuit shopping? Have you made sure to take time off for cottage trips?
When it comes to body goals, it can seem like it’s already far too late. For many, it might feel like they fell a little short of the mark when it comes to their health and workout goals. Their beach body isn’t quite beach ready. It’s for this reason that people start to look for options to quickly cut down on the fat before summer ends. One of the most well known of these is liposuction – a drastic step just to help impress a little more at the beach! If you know a little bit more about fat-fighting options, you may have heard of CoolSculpting. But how does this compare to liposuction? Is it worth it? We’ll help give better context for comparing the two.
Just what is CoolSculpting?
If you haven’t heard of CoolSculpting, don’t worry. We’ll make sure you know what we’re talking about before we go forward. The name is pretty self-explanatory – it’s sculpting your body, using the power of cold.. Essentially, CoolSculpting involves the application of cold to certain areas of fat on the body. The fat cells under the skin in that area are frozen, which destroys them. Then the body naturally processes these cells out of the body. The “trick” to CoolSculpting is that your skin is much more resistant to cold temperatures than your fat is. This means that you can attack fat cells with freezing, while leaving your skin unblemished.
And that’s the basics! But how does the process compare to liposuction? If you’re on the fence about how (or if) to tackle stubborn pudge, here are some things to keep in mind.
CoolSculpting vs. Liposuction
The surgical story
One of the most important things to get straight about liposuction vs. CoolSculpting is this. Liposuction is a surgical procedure, while CoolSculpting isn’t. If there’s one thing to remember, it’s this! Liposuction involves making an incision into the body, and using a tube and suction to remove the fat. CoolSculpting involves placing special “paddles” against the target areas where you want to destroy fat cells. Often, two paddles are used to gently “squeeze” the area for the best results. With CoolSculpting, there’s absolutely no needles, incisions or any other surgical operations.
The downtime
The fact that one of these procedures is surgical and the other isn’t has significant implications on how much of your time you’re going to be devoting to each. Let’s look at liposuction first. The surgery itself is going to take from one to three hours long, and you’ll need one to three days of total rest. After this, you can expect a good deal of discomfort, and most people stay off work for two weeks or so. It’s only after a month that your schedule can start to return to normal.
The CoolSculpting procedure itself will rarely take any longer than an hour. Since it’s non-surgical, you can go right back to whatever you were doing that day. This means you could even get some summer CoolSculpting done over a lunch break! The effects of CoolSculpting may take a few weeks to fully manifest as your body flushes out the destroyed fat cells, but you can go about enjoying your summer as you like during that period.
The scope
This isn’t to say that there aren’t good reasons that people get liposuction. But these generally aren’t the same reasons that people look into CoolSculpting. Liposuction is intended as an emergency tool for those who are trying to lose weight, but struggling to make meaningful gains.
CoolSculpting is a little bit different in application and use. Many customers are already well on their way to meeting their weight loss goals through diet and exercise when they look into CoolSculpting. Their issue isn’t that they aren’t losing weight, but that they’re not losing it in the places they want it to go. CoolSculpting can be considered something of a weight loss “touch up”. If you still have stubborn fat hanging on in your belly, chest, chin, arms or thighs, CoolSculpting can be a great way to smooth out those last stubborn areas to help complete your self-transformation.
Is CoolSculpting right for me?
Have you been getting your summer body ready but feel that you just need a little bit of a touch up? Then CoolSculpting might just be right for you.The procedure is a low risk way to take more control of how your body looks – simple as that. To get the most out of CoolSculpting, your best bet is to get into a consultation, and talk with the experts. This can help you establish reasonable expectations for your CoolSculpting and get an idea of what are the best areas to target!
Are you looking for CoolSculpting in Newmarket or anywhere else north of Toronto? Then make sure that you contact us today! At PSSC, we have two of the most seasoned and experienced plastic surgeons in Newmarket, who have helped countless locals get the results they wanted. We’re always happy to give advice and information, to make sure you have the best CoolSculpting experience possible. We’re also ready to answer any other questions you might have about cosmetic procedures in Newmarket – so contact us today!