Unlock the Truth: How Cryotherapy Can Boost Your Weight Loss Journey

Cryotherapy, which involves exposing the body to extremely cold temperatures, has gained popularity for its potential medical benefits. While some tout it as a weight loss solution, it's essential to examine the science behind these claims. This article provides a comprehensive overview of cryotherapy, its mechanisms, and its effectiveness for weight loss, comparing it with other fat reduction methods like CoolSculpting.

Understanding Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy involves exposing the body to extreme cold for therapeutic benefits. Early cultures used cold as a traditional method of pain relief. In ancient Greece, Persia, and Rome, chilly remedies such as snow, ice-and-water mixtures and cold water were used to treat a wide range of diseases. Ice water plunging remains a common tradition in many northern countries. Nowadays wet sheets have been replaced by cryotherapy chambers, in which cooling is done by a blast of frigid air. During these exposures, you wear minimal clothing, gloves, a woolen headband covering the ears, a nose and mouth mask, and dry shoes and socks to reduce the risk of cold-related injury. The blasts blow over fast - they last only 2 to 3 minutes. Many professional athletes have been using whole-body cryotherapy for some time, often in the form of ice baths or plunges.

The Theory Behind Cryotherapy for Weight Loss

The theory behind cryotherapy for weight loss centers on the idea that extreme cold can freeze and kill fat cells, leading to their elimination from the body. One proposed mechanism involves brown adipose tissue (BAT), which burns fat to generate energy when exposed to cold. This suggests that the body might have mechanisms for reducing fat in response to cold temperatures.

Research on Cryotherapy and Weight Loss

While the idea is intriguing, scientific evidence supporting cryotherapy for weight loss is limited:

One 2020 study on menopausal women found that whole-body cryotherapy was linked to reductions in belly fat. However, the study authors noted that these findings were limited to this population.
A 2018 study found that long-term cryotherapy activates a process in the body called cold-induced thermogenesis. This led to an overall loss of body mass, particularly around the waist, by an average of 3%.

Potential Side Effects of Cryotherapy

Before considering cryotherapy for weight loss, it's important to be aware of potential side effects:

Nerve Side Effects: Extreme cold on the skin can lead to numbness, tingling, redness, or other color changes, and skin irritation. These are typically temporary, lasting only a few hours after the procedure. If these side effects haven’t gone away after more than 24 hours, reach out to a doctor.
Long-Term Use: You should not do cryotherapy longer than recommended by a doctor. Long-term cold exposure can cause permanent nerve damage or the death of skin tissue (necrosis). Whole-body cryotherapy is done at below-freezing temperatures, so it should never be done for more than 5 minutes. If you’re trying cryotherapy at home with an ice pack or a tub filled with ice, cover the ice pack with a towel to avoid ice burns. Do not stay in for more than 20 minutes.
Diabetes Complications: Don’t do cryotherapy if you have diabetes or similar conditions that have damaged your nerves. You may not be able to feel the cold on your skin, which can lead to more nerve damage and tissue death.

CoolSculpting: A Targeted Fat-Freezing Method

CoolSculpting is a brand name for a fat-freezing method that aims to get rid of stubborn fat in certain parts of your body. The method is called cryolipolysis. The FDA approved it in 2010.

How CoolSculpting Works

Scientists came up with the idea for cryolipolysis by studying what happens to fat during frostbite. Fat freezes at a higher temperature than skin. The cryolipolysis device cools your fat to a temperature that destroys it while leaving your skin and other tissues unharmed.

Cryolipolysis isn't surgery and doesn't use needles. The device holds the part of your body your doctor wants to target between two paddles. The paddles cool quickly and your doctor leaves them in place for about 35 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes. During that time, the process destroys about 20%-25% of the fat cells in the area that's targeted.

The final results may not show up for a few months, but you may start to see some changes within a few weeks. Your immune system clears out the dead fat cells slowly over this time.

Ideal Candidates for CoolSculpting

CoolSculpting might be a good option if you have a fat bulge that won’t go away, even if you’ve tried exercise and diet changes. It only works on small pockets of fat, so it won’t help you lose weight. But it works best for people with a BMI in the normal range (i.e., between 18.5 and 25). If your BMI is between 25 and 30, you might need two or three treatment sessions.

What CoolSculpting Cannot Address

There are two types of fat: subcutaneous and visceral. Subcutaneous fat is the kind you might be more familiar with: it’s the extra pounds around your stomach, hips, and ankles, as well as other areas with visible fat. Visceral fat is the fat that cushions your organs, so it’s deeper inside your body. You might not be able to see it, but having too much visceral fat can raise your risk for diabetes and heart disease. CoolSculpting can freeze the subcutaneous fat near the surface of your skin. But it can’t do anything about visceral fat.

Who Should Avoid CoolSculpting

Cryolipolysis isn't a way to lose weight. If you need to lose weight, talk to your doctor about changing your diet and exercise routine. If you have a lot of weight to lose, liposuction, or weight loss surgery would probably be more helpful than CoolSculpting.

You should also avoid cryolipolysis if you have:

Loose skin
Poor skin tone
Cryoglobulinemia (a condition where abnormal proteins in your blood thicken in cold temperatures)
Cold urticaria (a skin condition that causes hives when you get cold)
Paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria (a type of anemia that destroys your red blood cells when you're in cold temperatures)
Raynaud’s phenomenon, pernio, or chilblains (conditions that affect blood flow in cold temperatures)
An infection
A hernia

You should also avoid it if you:

Can’t handle cold well
Are pregnant or nursing
Have obesity

Cryolipolysis should not be done on areas with:

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Varicose veins
Nerve problems
Rashes or lesions
A lot of scarring
Poor blood flow

If you fall into any of these categories, ask your doctor about alternatives like diet, exercise, liposuction, or abdominoplasty (tummy tuck).

The CoolSculpting Procedure and Recovery

You can get cryolipolysis done at your doctor's office. You should be able to go back to your regular activities right away, so you don't need to schedule recovery time afterward. It's OK to drive yourself home from the appointment.

During the process, you may feel a pulling or tugging on your skin, tingling, aching, and an intense cold. These feelings might go away in a few minutes as the area becomes numb.

After the procedure, you might notice side effects like:

Redness
Swelling
Paleness
Bruising
Firmness
Tingling, stinging
Aching or tenderness
Cramps
Itchiness
Sensitive skin
Feeling of fullness in the back of your throat (if the procedure was done under your chin)
Numbness

Rarely, you might get:

Paradoxical hyperplasia
Bodywide inflammation
Fat embolism (fat cells entering the bloodstream)
Lipoma (a fatty lump)
Severe or delayed pain
Freeze burn
Dizziness or fainting
Deep thickening of the skin
Hyperpigmentation
Hernia

Sometimes your skin can look less smooth afterward. This is because the treatment destroys a small pocket of fat, but the surrounding areas still bulge. You can fix this with additional CoolSculpting sessions or liposuction.

Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH)

Paradoxical fat hyperplasia, or paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), is when the number of fat cells in the treatment area go up instead of down. It can cause a large, firm, and typically painless mass under the skin in the treatment area. You might also notice a change in body weight. PAH usually happens about 2 to 5 months after treatment. It can occur wherever you were treated.

It’s not clear why it happens, but some doctors think that it has to do with equipment malfunctions or provider mistakes. This could lead to the fat cells being cooled enough to spur growth, but not enough to destroy them. This is a rare side effect, occurring in less than 1% of cases.

It’s more likely to happen if:

You’re male
You're of Hispanic descent
A large handpiece was used during treatment
The procedure was done on your abdominal (or belly) region

Genetic factors may also play a role.

PAH won’t go away on its own. You may need:

Liposuction, a surgery that takes out fat from specific parts of your body
Abdominoplasty or tummy tuck, a procedure that removes extra skin and fat from your stomach
An injection of deoxychalic acid, which also can help remove fat

CoolSculpting Bruising

Up to 10% of people get bruises from CoolSculpting, possibly because of the suction from the vacuum. These bruises go away within 2 weeks.

CoolSculpting Effectiveness

Studies show that cryolipolysis is safe and effective. The risks are few and rare. There's no damage to your liver. Side effects are mild, too, and go away after a short time. On average, it lessens the amount of fat in targeted areas by 10%-25%.

CoolSculpting can help you get rid of stubborn patches of fat. But it won’t help you lose weight, and you can still gain weight after the procedure. So it’s important to follow up with a healthy diet and exercise routine.

If you do gain weight, the extra pounds will probably be spread evenly throughout your body.

Post-Procedure Care and Expectations

After your CoolSculpting session, you should be able to get back to regular activities almost immediately. Don’t forget to schedule a follow-up appointment.

You’ll probably notice side effects like redness, numbness, bruising, and swelling. These tend to go away within a week or two. But for some people, numbness from CoolSculpting can last for several weeks.

You probably won’t notice results right away. Some studies add that the treatment could also help with skin tightening.

After the procedure, it’s important to follow up with healthy habits. You can still gain weight after CoolSculpting. If you gain weight, it will probably be distributed evenly throughout your body. Talk to your doctor about finding a diet and exercise routine that’s right for you.

Speeding Up CoolSculpting Results

There’s no research on ways to speed up CoolSculpting results. But there are some studies being done on how providers can improve your results. For example, the provider can massage the area immediately after treatment. Other studies are looking at whether the number of CoolSculpting sessions, the use of heat, and combined therapy with deoxycholic acid or electromagnetic radiation could improve results. But more research may need to be done before providers start using these strategies.

Cost of CoolSculpting

Cryolipolysis is considered a cosmetic treatment. That means insurance won’t cover it. How much you’ll pay for cryolipolysis depends on several things:

The body part you want to treat (smaller areas cost less)
How many sessions you have
Who does your procedure
Your location

Cryolipolysis for the arms, for example, may take only one session per arm and would cost less per session than larger areas, such as your stomach or hips.

Whole Body Cryotherapy for Weight Loss: A Deeper Dive

Whole body cryotherapy weight loss is all about using extreme cold to help burn calories and boost metabolism. In a cryotherapy session, you’re exposed to temperatures as low as -200 to -300°F. The cold is intense but brief, usually lasting just 2 to 4 minutes. This extreme cold prompts your body to kick into high gear to stay warm.

Cold-Induced Thermogenesis

When your body is exposed to extreme cold, it triggers a process called cold-induced thermogenesis. This is your body’s way of generating heat to maintain its core temperature. The cold activates the sympathetic nervous system, leading to the release of norepinephrine-a hormone that boosts metabolism and helps burn fat.

Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) Activation

A key player in this process is brown adipose tissue (BAT), often referred to as “good fat.” Unlike white fat, which stores energy, BAT burns calories to produce heat. Cold exposure activates BAT, leading to increased calorie burn. In fact, studies have shown that activating BAT can help reduce body fat and improve overall metabolism. The more active your BAT, the more calories you burn, even when you’re not moving.

Fat Cell Reduction

Cryotherapy also aids in the reduction of fat cells through a process called lipolysis. The extreme cold helps break down fat cells, which your body then naturally eliminates over time. This can lead to a reduction in stubborn fat areas and contribute to weight loss.

The Role of Irisin

Cold exposure can increase levels of irisin, which plays a role in converting white fat to brown fat, further promoting thermogenesis. This conversion helps in burning more calories and potentially leads to weight loss.

Benefits of Whole Body Cryotherapy for Weight Loss

When it comes to whole body cryotherapy weight loss, the benefits extend beyond just shedding pounds.

Waist Circumference Reduction: In a study, participants who underwent regular whole body cryotherapy sessions saw a significant reduction in waist size. This is crucial because a larger waist circumference is often linked to health issues like metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Cryotherapy helps by reducing visceral fat, the type of fat that accumulates around your organs and contributes to a larger waistline. After just 10 sessions, participants noticed a decrease in waist circumference, and the results were even more pronounced after 20 sessions.
Cholesterol Improvement: In a study presented at the European Congress on Obesity, participants who underwent cryotherapy sessions experienced a remarkable 20.2% reduction in total cholesterol. High cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, so this improvement is a significant health benefit. By potentially converting white fat to brown fat, cryotherapy helps the body break down fat molecules, which could contribute to lowering cholesterol levels.
Blood Sugar Levels: The cold exposure during cryotherapy sessions may improve insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism, leading to better blood sugar control. This can be particularly beneficial for individuals looking to manage their blood sugar levels effectively.

Potential Side Effects and Considerations

One of the primary concerns with cryotherapy is its effect on the nervous system. The extreme cold can sometimes lead to nerve damage, especially if the sessions are too long or the temperatures too low. Symptoms might include numbness, tingling, or even frostbite in severe cases. It’s crucial to follow recommended guidelines for session duration and temperature settings to minimize these risks.

For individuals with diabetes, cryotherapy can present unique challenges. The treatment may influence blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity, which can be both a benefit and a risk.

The length of each cryotherapy session is a critical factor. Sessions typically last between 2 to 3 minutes. Going beyond this can increase the risk of adverse effects like skin burns or hypothermia. It’s important to adhere to professional guidelines and not extend sessions in pursuit of quicker results.

Cryolipolysis Procedure Explained

The procedure can be done in a doctor’s office or outpatient clinic. The size and shape of the fatty deposit is assessed and the area to be treated is outlined with a skin-marking pencil. Patients are awake during the procedure.

A handheld device called an applicator is used to freeze the layer of fat cells (adipocytes) underneath the skin. First, a gel pad is applied to the area to protect the skin. Next, the fatty bulge is suctioned or vacuumed into the applicator’s hallow opening. You will feel a tugging or pulling sensation as suction is applied. These sensations, intense cold plus other possible sensations - tingling, stinging, aching, cramping - lessen after 5 to 10 minutes as the area becomes numb during the cooling down process. The fat layer is gradually cooled to the target temperature of between 30.2 and 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

It takes up to one hour to treat an area. After the area is treated, the applicator is removed. The area may be massaged for 2 to 3 minutes to assist with the breakdown of the fat cells.

How Fat Cells Are Destroyed

The technique is based on the finding that fat cells are more susceptible to damage from cold temperatures than other cells, such as skin cells. The cold temperature injures the fat cells. The injury triggers an inflammatory response by the body, which results in the death of the fat cells. Macrophages, a type of white blood cells and part of the body’s immune system, is “called to the injury location,” to rid the dead fat cells and debris from the body.

Expected Fat Loss

Studies have shown an average fat reduction of between 15 and 28 percent at around 4 months after initial treatment. However, you may begin to notice changes as early as 3 weeks after treatment.

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