Freezing the fat off

A new alternative to liposuction is being tested that promises to eliminate fat, but unlike liposuction, there are no incisions.

Jodie Sparry says she can't lose those pockets of fat around her mid section, and since regular workouts have not melted her love handles, Jodie has decided to try and freeze them off, instead.

"It's called cool sculpting by Zeltiq,"says Robert Orme, a dermatologist.

This device kills fat cells by freezing them, and then your body flushes them out.

"It's not for the person who's obese. It's for the person who's pretty close to their ideal body weight and just wants to lose the love handles, back fat, belly fat,” says Orme.

The instrument works like a vacuum cleaner.  The vacuum pulls the fatty area into the attachment that’s slightly larger than a cube of butter.  Then, the fat is frozen, and Orme says it kills 25% of the fat cells.

"It feels tight and cold," says Sparry.

The process takes about an hour, and when it's done, Jodie is left with a raised welt of frozen fat.

The welt quickly recedes over the course of several minutes, and Dr. Orme says the dead cells are slowly flushed out by the body.

“It doesn't flood your system with liquid fat. It's one french fries worth of fat that is disposed each day for three months," says Orme.

Sparry says she is already noticing results from an earlier treatment.

“Within about the first month, I couldn't keep my pants up. I didn't lose weight, but I lost inches," says Sparry.

The cost for this isn't cheap.  It's about $500 a treatment, and you may need several treatments to notice results.

The people who make this machine tell me they are waiting for F.D.A. approval to market it for weight loss, but it is a procedure they are doing here at Lone Peak Dermatology in Draper.