When clients first begin their journey with us, they are over the moon excited. After all, we have been told for years that you can not “spot reduce stubborn fat” and your cellulite is just another “flaw we women must accept”. So, when scientists started studying the effects of Cryotherapy on fat cells 20 years ago, the beauty & fitness world was forever changed. Fast forward to 2021 and now we are all getting a chance to experience the powerful effects of Cryotherapy on the body--but some of us are still confused about how these treatments work in “real life”. In this article, I am going to go through the 5 most common mistakes people make when they start Cryo treatments and I will do my best at explaining the expectations you should have going into your treatments.

Binge Eating

I started with this one because it’s one of the most insidious reactions to treatments. It’s almost subconscious. After I had started my treatments, I started eating more and being a little more “relaxed about my diet”. The scale went up and lucky for me my waist (the area I was treating) was still going down, but this is not always the case. The problem is that people think they no longer have to “watch what they eat” because the areas they are self-conscious about will get taken care of by the cryo machine.

Reality Check

While the technology will still work, and you will be breaking down fat cells during your treatments -- the fat cells don’t all die at once and will expand every time you overeat. Think of a leaky faucet. You can keep drying up your sink, but if you don’t fix the leaky faucet your sink will just keep getting sprinkled with water. In the same way, if you overeat while you are doing treatments you will just keep expanding your fat cells, sometimes translating to inconsistent measurements and weak progress. Instead, eat regular meals 3-4x per day and get your binge eating in check with the free nutritional coaching that’s provided when you sign up. Use this time to get better with your habits, not worst.

Not following Before & After Protocol

Most of you who have had the treatments done, know that with our permanent fat reduction technology you can not have any sugar or carbs 2 hours before or 2 hours after your treatments. Well, easier said than done. Almost everything nowadays has some amount of sugar in it.

Reality Check

When you don’t follow the protocol you risk not losing the fat cells because sugar blocks fat cell death. Our tips are to stick to scheduling meals on the days of your treatments so that they fall outside of this window, or try some keto recipes on the days of your treatments for best results.

Inconsistency with Treatments

This one is my favorite. I get it, you are busy. Getting into the studio is tough, appointments are hard to come by these days with everyone signing up because of the extra COVID 20 pounds. Or maybe you had two treatments and you saw minimal results so you lose motivation to come in.

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Reality Check

Let me ask you this? Have you ever went to the gym 1x and gotten “results”? How about 2x? Exactly. You can not expect earth-shattering results after a few sessions, and you definitely shouldn’t hold your breath if you are not being consistent. So pick a schedule that works for you. Our recommendations are every 2 weeks for the best results on Cryo. You can come more often, but you are limited to toning or endospheres therapy in between cryo appointments. You can come less often too! Say you can only make it in 1x every 3-4 weeks. That’s fine, just pick a schedule and stick to it. The longer between appointments the slower your results will be (like my gym analogy). But you will see results, especially if the other areas (primarily diet) are in check.

Not tracking progress

I get it, seeing a picture of yourself in our subpar lighting and in your skivvies is not ideal. But without the pictures and measurements, you risk not seeing the results at all. Personally, I like a picture and a measurement after every appointment so I can readjust things at home if I need to. Let’s say I know I ate poorly over the weekend, and I come in for my Cryo session on Monday and I am .5” higher than last appointment, this information gives me the ability to shift gears and clean things up.

Reality Check

Think of the last time you lost a few pounds and all of your friends and family noticed, but you had no idea. We are used to seeing our bodies every day, so the small minimal changes just tend to go unnoticed. Having pictures and measurements to track your progress is essential to understanding how your body is working with the cryotherapy. It’s a mistake to not track at all. Our Cryo & endo techs are open and willing to taking pictures and/or measurements for you. We recommend taking pictures or measurements the same way every time so you don’t get inconsistent data.

Measuring progress in a linear way

Progress with cryotherapy is not always linear. Sure we have some people who will consistently lose 1” every time they come in, but not everyone responds the same way. Some of the factors that cause this variance are age, gender, BMI, hormonal imbalance, stress, diet, etc. This is why staying on a consistent schedule and tracking your progress can be so important because this data will give you more information on how your body is responding to the treatments.

Reality Check

While we can not guarantee exact measurements or results, the average loss is between .5”-1” per visit. But like weight loss, you don’t necessarily lose those inches in a straight line. It may be more like, you lose 2”after the first visit, then .5 inch the next, then maybe a full 1” the following visit, then maybe nothing the next. So do yourself a favor and track and measure your progress, but also be patient.

In Summary

Cryotherapy is the perfect, non-invasive solution to “spot reducing” areas that stress you out, and some of our other treatments are amazing for cellulite. But in our world of instant gratification, it can be hard to have realistic expectations. And when we see before and afters, what we are not seeing is the time and effort that person took to come in and get their treatments, track progress and clean up their diets. Furthermore, everyone is different, so while before and afters-- like the ones on our instagram page-- are incredible, stop comparing yourself to anyone but yourself, and start showing up for yourself so you can get the best results for YOU.

Want to work with us?

If you are looking for a way out of fad-dieting and the endless cycle of not achieving your body composition goals, we can help. We offer cutting edge, science-backed cryotherapy and lymphatic drainage to help sculpt the stubborn fat right off you, reduce bloating and water retention, decrease inflammation, and increase circulation with our in house technologies.

In addition, our weight management and healthy lifestyle coaching will be a great add-on if you are looking to lose weight or create healthier habits that last a lifetime.