Coolsculpting is a non-surgical treatment that freezes fat and naturally eliminates unwanted fat cells from your body. It’s non-invasive, no surgery or needles are required, and it’s FDA-cleared. Coolsculpting is targeted for treatment of the abdomen, flanks, double chin, and inner and outer thighs.
Two issues seem to always occur with Coolsculpting. How to control the post-treatment tenderness and how to maximize the results. Follow these tips to help ease the discomfort and get the most out of your treatment.
Managing Post Treatment Tenderness
To control the discomfort most people experience from Coolsculpting I recommend the following:
- Bring Spanx. Because you’ll be swollen and tender, it’s much better to bring Spanx or some other compression style clothing with you to wear home. You may decide to wear Spanx for about a week following the treatment… but probably would have been fine after the third or fourth day.
- Take it easy. You may decide to have your treatment in the morning and decided to go into the office and work that afternoon. You will be totally fine and, in fact, can be very productive, but you may be a bit uncomfortable. Leave the skinny jeans in the closet. You’ll probably feel like curling up on the couch under a comfy blanket and relaxing with a good movie. So, just plan to wear easier more comfortable clothing if heading back to work.
- Don’t plan vacation immediately after. You can expect to be swollen for several weeks following the treatment, which isn’t a good look when you go on a 1-week vacation to sail around the Virgin Islands very soon after. Whoops! I guess I missed that memo. Everyone’s body handles recovery time differently, but you might give yourself more than 2 weeks before planning a week vacation of living in a swimsuit!
Maximizing Your Results
To maximize the results you should plan to:
- Massage it. Best practices are to massage the treated area a lot in the days following your treatment. It may be uncomfortable – like massaging a bruise – but muscle through it for the best results possible. The massaging helps break up the frozen fat cells and helps eliminate them from your body. It really helps to have someone else do this for you so you don’t have to “muscle through it” by your own hand.
- Keep Moving. Don’t stop exercising. Just because you had coolsculpting doesn’t mean you can drop the ball on finding that healthier lifestyle. You’ll want to keep working out to make sure you’re still moving in a positive direction with your overall health – not using this as a band-aid solution.
- Don’t take an anti-inflammatory. The swelling and inflammation that occurs naturally after a coolsculpting treatment help with the fat cell elimination so it’s actually a good thing. Skip the Advil (ibuprofen) or whatever anti-inflammatory medicine this time.
