Freezing your fat? Talk about drastic measures for a cosmetic adjustment. Cryolipolysis, the professional name for the action, is used for fat removal through a steady cooling regime, but the procedure has been on the fence of its safeness, while posing many intriguing questions. Is the process efficient in practice? Is it in strong demand because of its non-evasive plus? Such intriguing questions have caught the interest of a team in California, so much so that they wanted an answer to each.

The surgeons from Southern California conducted the study by taking 528 “consecutive patients”, 76% women and 24% men, and treated each with “CoolSculpting” by Zeltiq between January 2010 to December 2012.

The experiments answered both questions. Cryolipolysis was highly effective on cutting down the subcutaneous fat volume on a person quite safely. There were only three cases of a post-op mild or moderate pain, but that was quickly resolved. As for the answer to the second question, the popularity of the procedure sky-rocketed in 2012, with a “growing demand in men.” Before the study, 62% of the testers hadn’t previously done any cosmetic alterations, but time post-op showed that 40 % of newly instated patients received more cosmetic surgeries.

Lead author of the study, Grant Stevens, MD, has said “Our review showed that cryolipolysis is not only safe and effective for nonsurgical, localized fat removal, but also provides high patient satisfaction levels,” while adding, “With careful treatment planning, proper applicator placement, and multiple treatment cycles, cryolipolysis can produce results comparable to those of liposuction.”