Stubborn pockets of fat often evade the best laid exercise and nutrition plans, clinging to our bodies despite our healthy habits. For years, liposuction was the last resort to rid oneself of this unwanted flesh. But in the past decade a new procedure has bypassed the needles and knives of traditional cosmetic surgery, offering a path to fat loss that, in most cases, involves no more discomfort than a chill followed by numbness.
Cryolipolysis is the technical name for the procedure, which uses cold (“cryo,” in ancient Greek) to induce fat breakdown (“lipolysis”). In general, fat cells are forever — they only shrink as you lose weight, never fully disappearing. You can, of course, physically remove them through liposuction. But now you can also kill them by lowering their temperature to the point of cell death (about -11 Celsius).
