Summer is fast approaching, and thoughts turn to cookouts, vacations and bathing suits. You’ll probably be able to handle the first two on your own, but if you’re looking for a little help to feel fit and fabulous on the beach or by the pool, CoolSculpting body contouring may be the solution. The nonsurgical treatment for stubborn fat freezes the fat cells and eliminates them naturally—but the best time to start is well before you need it.

OrangeTwist co-founder, W. Grant Stevens, MD, F.A.C.S., is a world-renown plastic surgeon and a pioneer in CoolSculpting technology. He’s performed more than 50,000 treatments since 2009, more than anyone else in the world. We sat down with Dr. Stevens to get the skinny on how CoolSculpting can help people get ready for summer.

Q: Who is a good candidate for CoolSculpting?

Dr. Stevens: This is for someone with a few extra inches of stubborn fat they’d like to get rid of without surgery or downtime. It’s for someone who doesn’t want to spend a lot of time in a treatment room but who wants impressive, permanent results. It’s not for the obese or for someone who wants to lose a lot of weight. Weight loss involves the shrinking of fat cells; CoolSculpting removes them.

Q:  What differentiates CoolSculpting from other fat-removal techniques?
Dr. Stevens: There are so many advantages of CoolSculpting, which is why I’m such a huge proponent of it. It’s nonsurgical, so it eliminates the issues sometimes associated with liposuction, such as anesthesia, incisions, pain and recovery. However with liposuction, your results are apparent sooner. Because CoolSculpting prompts a natural biological response in your body, it takes a little longer for the body to process the cell-sloughing. The skin recedes naturally, so there are no loose folds or reason for a tummy tuck after the treatment. Each treatment targets 20% to 25% of the fat. If you have four cycles around your waist, you’ll end up losing about 1 to 2 inches. Clients—and I’ll include myself in this—want to do several cycles because it works so well the first time and we want more.

The medical term for CoolSculpting is “cryolipolysis,” or killing fat by cold. Fat cells are more sensitive than the surrounding skin, bone, muscle, nerves and tendons, and they’re uniquely sensitive to cold. With the right temperature, we can send a signal to the fat cell to die, which is called apoptosis. That death does not occur immediately. It happens over a one-to three-month period of time, during which the body eliminates those dead or dying fat cells in a very natural fashion. With liposuction, the fat cells are removed immediately through suction. Both CoolSculpting and liposuction deliver long-term results, banishing fat cells in the treated area for good.

Q:  What’s the No. 1 question people ask you about CoolSculpting?
Dr. Stevens: The No. 1 question that people ask me is, “Does it work?” And yes, it does. I’ve seen it work over and over again.

Another question I get is, “Why can’t I just get in a freezer and lose fat?” or “Why aren’t people in cold climates all skinny?” The answer is that it’s just not cold enough, and the cold isn’t applied in the precise way to kill the fat cells. And if you go too cold on your body, you’ll end up with frostbite. CoolSculpting uses a very precise temperature range for the most accurate results.

Finally, consumers want to know how much weight they’ll lose. This isn’t a weight-loss procedure; it’s a fat-reduction treatment. We encourage everyone to live a healthy lifestyle in order to maintain the results that we give them. But if they gain weight, they’ll gain it in the areas where they still have fat cells. It might include the area we treated, but generally it goes to the other areas that haven’t been treated such as the breasts, bottoms, arms or back.

Q:  What is the most common reaction that you get when people have their CoolSculpting done?
Dr. Stevens: The most common reaction I get is, “Thank you very much. May I have another session?” In other words, the overwhelming majority of people are very happy. People also want to know if they can get it in other areas. The answer is yes; we have different kinds of applicators so we can treat almost all areas of the body.

Q:  Why is OrangeTwist an optimal place to get CoolSculpting?
Dr. Stevens: We have the most up-to-date machines in the world. Because of how the technology’s advanced, each cycle is now only 25 minutes (older machines took an hour or more), and you can freeze fat off in a half, a third or even a quarter of the time because we can use multiple machines at once. Our newer machines have virtually eliminated any discomfort or bruising that sometimes occurred with the older machines. And finally, not all offices are equal when it comes to assessing patients and the art of using the applicators. Our staff has devoted thousands of hours of rigorous training in the art and science of CoolSculpting. People keep coming back not only because they have confidence in our work, but because we provide an experience unlike any other that puts them at ease.

Come in for a free consultation. Let’s get started!