Will CoolSculpting help me with my pouch and love handles? (Photos)

Hi dgiancola33

Liposuction is a procedure to remove localized fat pockets through small inconspicuous incisions often hidden in an natural body crease or wrinkle. Areas that are commonly addressed include the abdomen, flanks, upper back, thighs, arms, and neck.
For more information about this procedure, please visit our website.

Congratulations!

Coolsculpting will absolutely help with stubborn pockets of fat in the abdomen and flanks and you seem like a great candidate for treatment. Coolsculpting is non-invasive fat freezing, body contouring treatment and requires no downtime, perfect for a busy mother who's always on the go.
It is recommended to wait a full 12 months post c-section - this timeline will allow you to fully heal from your procedure and ensure the safest treatment with the best results.

Thank you for your question and be well.

no coolsculpting will not help you. you have loose skin and fat that need to be surgically removed and liposuctioned together.

my whole practice is doing lipoabdominoplasty, or at least liposuction with internal heating (which is not the gold standard for skin tightening with body contouring).

the smaller you are before liposuction the more contouring you can get from the procedure. most of my liposuction patients get pre and post surgical optimization with hormonal therapy (see link to help boost their weight loss before surgery and help them heal after).

You need a formal evaluation by an expert in body shaping and contouring to determine what is best.  Traditional liposuction awake and smart liposuction are old methods and do very poorly for tightening skin or significant skin tightening or contouring.  Small problem areas can be improved slightly by these methods.  The best in body contouring not only removes fat with energy devices like VASER ultrasound but also internally heat the skin with radio-frequency devices such as J PLASMA/RENUVION, InMode BodyTite, ThermiRF to heat the under surface of the skin and tighten it at the same time as fat removal. These combinations are called 4D HIDEF VASER contouring and can only be done by a well . trained body contouring specialist. At the same time fat should be harvested, PRP and stem cells added and injected into muscles or indentations/cellulite to get body shaping and contouring.  This is known as a Brazilian butt lift when you inject the fat to the buttock for contouring and lifting, but fat can also be used in areas such as the chest/breast, arms/shoulders, calves and face.  Cellulite should also be treated with cellfina, sculptra, subcision and/or fillers such as bellafill, renuva synthetic fat, or sculptra.  If skin is very loose before surgery then it will need to be removed such as lower abdominal skin (tummy tuck/abdominoplasty), breast skin (breast lift), arm skin (brachioplasty).  Overall you need a full assessment, but simple liposuction alone will not tighten skin and needs a combination of various methods -- fat removal, skin tightening, defining, fat grafting, skin removal -- to get the best in body contouring and body sculpting.  Dr. Emer.

Thank you for your question! CoolSculpt does a great job at decreasing adipose tissue. I would recommend 8-10 cycles on the abdomen and 4-6 cycles on the flanks to start. I would then follow with Velashape to further treat the adipose tissue and increase the collagen in the skin.

Thank you for sharing your photos! For people who don’t want surgery CoolSculpting is a very effective option to help reduce fat in selective areas. The CoolSculpting fat-freezing procedure is the only FDA-cleared, non-surgical fat-reduction treatment that uses controlled cooling to eliminate stubborn fat that resists all efforts through diet and exercise. The suction and cooling temperature are set by the CoolScultping machine to provide precise cooling, causing damage to only the fat cells, leaving other surrounding tissues (skin, nerves, etc.) unharmed. Some people experience discomfort at the beginning of the treatment from the suction and cold, but this usually dissipates as the treatment progresses. Common side effects are numbness, swelling, tenderness, and bruising to the treated area, though these typically subside in a few days, but can last as long as a few weeks. After CoolSculpting, treated fat cells that die are naturally eliminated from the body. This process is not as rapid as invasive procedures, such as liposuction. Typically, the most dramatic results are seen in 1-3 months after treatment. Larger areas that will require more than 1 round of treatment usually can be re-treated 30 days later. Careful patient selection is important to ensure safe and effective treatment, so I suggest making an appointment with a board certified plastic surgeon for consultation to discuss your options.

Thank you so much for your question. Before I get to the answer it is always best to remember that nothing replaces an in person consultation and treatment with a board certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon. Only they have rigorous training and rigorous examinations that ensure that you’re getting the absolute best. You wouldn’t want anyone other than a cardiac surgeon working on your heart and you should have same standards for your cosmetic procedures. The plan and treatment or only as good as the person performing them.

To answer your question it depends on your expectations.

From the picture it appears that you have a bit of an overhang. Generally speaking surgery would be the recommendation here. However that can come with significant downtime.

Call sculpting should definitely result in some improvement here. The only issue with coolsculpting is that with this much distention you will need some type of skin tightening as well. Furthermore being a cold modality cool sculpting can leave a bit of a contour deformity in the areas that was applied.

If you’re doing a non-surgical approach I think your best bet would be with radio frequency modality. Evolve tone and bodyFx from Inmode have shown Upto 39% fat removal vs 25% with coolsculting.

Individual results are very varied however. I think you would benefit from an in person consultation to really go over the expectations. This way you can see the spectrum in range of efficacy. I think this is a key factor in determining whether you’ll be happy with any of the treatments.

Good luck and happy to help

CoolSculpting may be an option for you, if you are looking to reduce volume and fit better into your clothing. CoolSculpting is not a skin tightening procedure and if you have loose skin before you will have loose skin after and it may be more noticeable after the procedure with the reduction in volume. When we see patients we consult them on both surgical and non-surgical options. The patient's timelines, budget and goals/expectations really help us to determine what treatment will be best for them. I would recommend going to a plastic surgeons office that offers CoolSculpting and you may want to learn about the surgical options as well.