Best Treatments for Getting Rid of Stubborn Body Fat

This is a guest post courtesy of Dr. Craig Crippen of DermMedica, a skin care clinic located in beautiful Kelowna, BC.

There is nothing more frustrating than working your rear end off with years of exercising and dieting, only for stubborn pockets of body fat refusing to go away. There are several possible reasons why you might have difficulty getting rid of body fat in certain areas of your body: if you have trouble processing insulin effectively, if you have hormonal imbalances, if you have certain genetic body types, and so on. Some parts of your body are also simply more likely to accumulate fat that is difficult to get rid.

Whatever the reason for it, if you have stubborn body fat that you want to get rid of, there are a few non-invasive treatments that can help.

CoolSculpting

The hot new treatment that can help get rid of body fat in multiple areas of your body is called CoolSculpting. It is one of the best ways to get rid of body fat just under the surface of your skin in your stomach, thighs, lower back, chin, upper arms, and chest. It uses a special applicator that is placed on the part of your body you want to target, which then cools your skin and the fat just beneath it to just above freezing temperatures.

The temperature is held at a precise degree for around 30 minutes, which causes the fat cells — and only the fat cells — to crystallize and die. The cells are then naturally absorbed and removed by your body, so over the next few months around 20% to 25% of the fat cells in the treated area will vanish. As long as you avoid putting weight back on and stick to your diet and exercise, that stubborn body fat will be gone for good.

Laser Treatments

There are a few types of laser treatments that use temperature to target and kill fat cells, so your body can absorb them naturally. Zerona, or Zerona Z-6, is another non-invasive procedure that can remove stubborn body fat from your torso and thighs. It does so in a safe manner, specifically targeting fat cells while leaving the rest of your body unaffected. With Zerona, you are required to have a strict diet before and after treatments.

Similar to Zerona, SculpSure uses lasers that are delivered via an applicator placed on your body to heat and kill fat cells, while cooling the skin around it. The fat cells slowly die and get absorbed by your body over a number of weeks, with almost no aftercare or recovery period. Like Zerona, it is more of a contouring treatment and not a significant weight loss or fat removal treatment. It should be used to get rid of stubborn body fat that all your exercise and diet can’t remove.

Radio Frequency Treatments

Similar to Zerona and SculpSure, there are fat removal treatments that use radio frequency waves instead of lasers. Vanquish is one such treatment that specifically works on fat around your stomach. It uses a waist-circumference device that delivers radio frequency waves to disrupt and kill the fat cells, with the same eventual absorption process as the other treatments mentioned above. It is non-invasive and not painful at all, so it also has little in the way of side effects or recovery period.

Another radio frequency treatment is called truSculpt. It combines radio frequency waves and cold temperatures to kill the fat cells in your stomach, lower back and hips mainly, but its handheld applicators can be used on some other parts of your body as well. The temperature will leave your skin red and a bit sensitive, but is otherwise not that unpleasant. You can expect to lose as much as a few inches from your measurements over the next few months.

Belkyra Injections

Belkyra is a different kind of treatment to get rid of stubborn body fat, specifically for removing the fat on the underside of your chin. It uses a chemical called deoxycholate, which exists naturally in our bodies to dissolve the fat we eat as part of the digestion process. The Belkyra treatment injects this chemical to the area of fat under your chin. The chemical then disrupts the fat cells by destroying the protein around your fat cells, causing them to be absorbed naturally by your body.

The injections use very small needles to avoid causing too much pain, and you will experience slight bruising in the area. However, you can return to your usual diet and activities almost immediately. You start to see results as early as a few weeks after the treatment, and may continue to notice further fat loss in the area for up to a few months.

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A Fellow of the American Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery, and a diplomate of the American Board of Laser Surgery in Cosmetic Procedures, Dr. Craig Crippen, M.D. has trained with physicians who are at the forefront of laser & aesthetic medicine. Working extensively in public and private medicine since 2003, Dr Crippen has devoted his practice exclusively to medical & cosmetic skin care procedures/treatments in response to rising demand.