Losing extra fat appears a horrendous task with never-ending restrictions to follow! As a health enthusiast, you must also have heard about the cryotherapy weight loss techniques if you are trying out multiple procedures.
If you are still not accustomed to it, cryotherapy uses an extremely cold fluid to freeze your body at first and then destroy the unusual tissues. To eliminate abnormal tissues, a cryoprobe frozen with extreme elements like liquid nitrous oxide or liquid nitrogen is used.
But is cryotherapy medically recognized? What are the extra advantages of the treatment? This article will try to address such questions.
What is a Cryotherapy Weight Loss Procedure?
To brief the long enough procedure, cryotherapy is a medicated treatment that tries to shed extra fat cells through cooling technology. This therapy is trusted because the fat removal procedure does not use surgery or needles to shrink your body cells.
Usually, the instrument used for freezing maintains within -5°c to +5°c of temperature. So, the cryotherapy weight loss procedure works as a substitute for surgical alternatives like liposuction.
How is Cryotherapy Treatment Done?
Cryotherapy involves any freezing treatment which uses a chilling temperature for desired results. Besides losing weight, cryotherapy eliminates abnormal cells by applying liquid nitrogen. The treatment at the local level would include simply cryotherapy facials or ice bath immersion.
In severe cases, the Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC) technique is being used. For implementing WBC, the subject is sent to a cryo chamber for a time duration of two to five minutes. Within this period, the subject uncovers his body in sub-zero temperature to liquid nitrogen or similar liquids.
Your skin temperature drops around 10° centigrade without changing the core body temperature. You won’t feel suffocated as the head and neck area remain uncovered by the chamber, and you can breathe within the normal room air temperature.
So, for the patient, it is recommended to wear loose-fitting clothing within the chamber, and cover-ups like stockings, gloves, and socks should be brought to safeguard from frostbite.
Does Cryotherapy Really Work?
However, those who have undergone cryotherapy and experts alike have timely highlighted the multiple benefits of experiencing the freezing technique. But the US. Food and Drug Administration has not medically recommended the WBC procedure.
So, no testament has been guaranteed by the FDA, which confirms WBC as a safe and medically recommended technique. To know more about the same, you can visit the FDA’s official webpage and analyze the WBC technique’s efficiency.
Does Cryotherapy Burn Calories For All Age Groups?
The basic guidelines for cryotherapy weight loss suggest that the process has no age limit. However, some of the age-dependent health factors can’t be totally overlooked.
- For newborns and babies below the age of one year, the freezing technique should be completely ignored.
- For toddlers aged 2-5 years, abnormal cell removal duration should not exceed sixty to seventy seconds.
- And kids in the age group of 6-9 years of age, exposure to the chamber can be extended for two to three minutes.
- Senior persons or anyone suffering from cardiovascular diseases, serious hypertension issues, severe claustrophobia in their pregnancy, severe anemia, or under other medicated treatments should avoid whole-body cryotherapy for weight loss.
Does Cryotherapy Work for Fat Loss?
Remember that the guardian’s consent must be approved by any individual below the age of 18 years before undergoing the treatment. From 18-mid 40s is the perfect age group for enduring the freezing therapy.
How Many Calories Does Cryotherapy Burn?
Cryotherapy has the potential to burn much more calories than any regular running or jogging exercise. Well, better than your expectation!
Once you follow the regular recommended cryo sessions, in the end, at least you will shed around 2200-3500 Kilojoules (kJ). To convert the figure into calories, you will approximately burn about 600-800 calories.
An indirect help to weight loss journey
So, even though it remains unbelievable, a two to three-minute cryo session remains much more productive in burning calories than an hour-long-running program. Indirectly, also you can lose an extra 400-600 calories per day because your body will feel energized due to the exposure to cold temperatures.
How Frequently Should You Do Cryotherapy For Weight Loss?
The number of cryotherapy weight loss sessions you should attend depends on several other considerations. Mostly what you are expecting from the CRYO decides on the total sessions.
But the thumb rule to entering the cryo chamber is that at least you have agreed on having three CRYO sessions per week. Though every single session helps boost your mood, it only shows the real impact once the cryo sessions are repeated for weeks.
Even studies show that at max, the WBC can be done two times a day.
To maintain overall wellness, attending 3-5 sessions per week for the first month is safe. So, if your only target is to lose weight, then you should undergo the treatment for two weeks straight with 3-5 sessions a week.
But note that only attending the sessions won’t suffice, as you should, side by side, practice a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise.
Coolsculpting vs Cryotherapy
The only thread of similarity between coolsculpting vs cryotherapy is that they both operate at a cool temperature. However, the two cooling treatments vary in terms of the mode of operation.
- For Cryotherapy, as discussed earlier, the whole body or partial organs are exposed within the cryo-chamber. From this point, cool sculpting deviates from the CRYO technique. Cool sculpting is a fat-loss technique that is non-invasive and uses handheld devices to sub freeze the temperatures.
- When with CRYO, the fat cell freezes and, with time, dies and gets consumed by the liver. By following the procedure, unwanted fat cells are removed from the body. But the cool sculpting name tells that the treatment is meant to sculpt the body to the desired shape.
- So, cool sculpting often targets specific areas of your body and then reduces fat with the support of the handheld device. Some of the most often target areas are:
- Thighs
- Chin
- Love handles
- Abdomen
- Lower back
- Arms
- Unlike Cool sculpting, cryotherapy fat loss is implemented on the whole body. It generally functions when the metabolism intensifies, boosting the Brown Adipose Tissue production. The BAT tissues help in fat burning from the body.
- Other than losing weight, the cryo method is useful for other purposes like reducing inflammation and muscle healing. However, cool sculpting is mostly seen as a fat-reduction treatment.
6 Cryotherapy Benefits
Cryotherapy has proved beneficial for addressing the most severe health conditions. We have tried to list out some of the main health benefits of undergoing proper Cryotherapy sessions.
1. Cryotherapy Benefits Weight Loss
Though cryotherapy does not all by itself directly shed tons of weight, it definitely eases your fat-reducing journey. Your body’s exposure to freezing temperatures cools your skin and inspires your body to warm up.
Since it boosts your mood, then you can easily work hard. Only two to three minutes of cryo boosts the body’s metabolism throughout the day. Eventually, experiences from those who have undergone the therapy suggest that your body will adjust to the cold temperature.
2. Faster muscle recovery
Other than cryotherapy’s weight loss advantage, there are other added health benefits. If you are experiencing muscle pain or any other disorders like arthritis, then the CRYO method is useful to cure them.
Cryotherapy also relieves serious pain, similar to applying ice gel or pack in the damaged muscle region. Temporarily your suffering from rheumatoid arthritis will evade after each successful session.
3. Diminishes reactive inflammation
To some extent, inflammation is required to preserve your body’s immune system. However reactive or hyper-inflammation is harmful to your health.
In extreme cases, severe chronic diseases, cancer, dementia, arthritis, and diabetes are linked with reactive inflammation conditions. Therefore, reducing inflammation through cryotherapy successfully curbs the risk of chronic diseases.
4. Helps you come out of stress, anxiety, and depression
Some mental health issues are direct consequences of inflammation. Therefore, attending cryotherapy sessions would reduce your anxiety, stress, and depression levels.
Even the possible symptoms of such mental conditions also lessen among people who agree to go for CRYO as compared to those who neglect such freezing sessions.
5. Reduces migraine pain
Cryotherapy has been a proven method of paling nerve pain by cooling the nerves in the neck region. It is similar to studies where migraine pain was reduced after applying ice packs to the carotid arteries in the neck; The cryo treatment is also hopeful of eliminating migraine pain to a certain extent.
The main idea behind such therapy is to cool the passing blood via intracranial vessels. Accessing the carotid arteries won’t be a problem because they are situated nearer the skin surface.
6. Heals certain skin conditions
Some severe skin ailments like Atopic dermatitis occur due to chronic inflammation. So, the cryotherapy fat loss technique also addresses skin diseases by improving your blood antioxidant levels.
Reducing atopic dermatitis through Cryo therapy also improves other secondary skin issues like skin itchiness, dryness, and rashes.
Supposed Risks of Cryotherapy Fat Loss Method
Unless you are undergoing complicated health ailments like cancer (bone, cervical, liver, skin, or prostate), are pregnant, or fall under the minor category, you don’t have to worry about cryotherapy. In some exceptional cases, the probable risks might occur after such freezing therapy –
- Skin rashes, swelling, body scars, or other skin infections.
- Lack of stimuli or feeling and nerve damage.
- Osteoporosis or bone fracture.
- Unexpected bleeding.
- Intense pain or cramps near the cervix.
The verdict!
Cryotherapy for weight loss is a proven technique that for years has benefitted many not only in shedding body fat but also in reducing severe chronic ailments. However, keep in mind that cryo fat loss therapy is not medically recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration ( FDA). In that case, the safest path would be to consult your doctor before deciding to undergo cryotherapy. And in case your acquaintances are minor or older ones, then it would be good to avoid such fat removal and cooling therapy. But for people within the age group of 18-40s, cryotherapy helps prevent mood swings, cure skin diseases, treat muscle injuries, and of course, remove fat tissues.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q. What are the 3 benefits of cryotherapy?
Answer- Other than helping in losing weight, cryotherapy is also beneficial to recovering the damaged muscle speedily. And it also assists in reducing chronic inflammation and prevents mood swings.
Q. What are the dangers of cryotherapy?
Answer- Though the probability of encountering health risks is rarer after cryotherapy. However, some dangers after a cryo session are cramps around the cervix, bleeding, bone fracture, nerve damage, and swellings.
Q. Who should not use cryotherapy?
Answer- If you are already suffering from severe health diseases like cancer (bone, cervical, liver, skin, or prostate), are pregnant, or fall under the minor category, then it’s better to avoid cryotherapy.
Q. What is the cryotherapy procedure?
Answer – Cryotherapy is a freezing technique using cryoprobe elements like nitrogen oxide to remove abnormal cells and tissues. In most cases, the Whole Body Cryotherapy ( WBC) technique seems helpful. To implement the WBC procedure, an individual is sent to a cryo chamber for two to three minutes. Then they expose his body to liquid nitrogen at sub-zero temperature. The fat cell freezes and then gradually gets consumed by the liver and eliminated from the body.