WarmSculpting with SculpSure

WarmSculpting with SculpSure is a 25-minute non-invasive procedure that will purportedly kill off your fat cells for good to give you a slimmer figure.

It is an FDA-cleared laser body contouring system for your abdomen, love handles, back, thighs, and chin. Though it’s not intended for weight loss, the procedure will purportedly eliminate fat cells so that you eradicate problem areas for good.

The company boasts a 90% satisfaction rate and claims you may start seeing results within two weeks of treatment.

Our analysis will help you decide if this procedure is worth the cost and if it is right for you.

How WarmSculpting Works and Its Effectiveness

Here’s the main idea: When you lose or gain weight, you aren’t changing the number of fat cells in your body. Instead, the cells you have shrink or expand, depending on your habits.

WarmSculpting with SculpSure uses heat from lasers to target your fat cells without disrupting the skin’s surface. The high temperatures damage the structural integrity of the cells so that they break down.

Over the next few months, your body processes and eliminates these broken cells through the lymphatic system, leaving you with fewer fat cells overall.

“Once we reach adulthood, our body produces very few new fat cells,” shares Dr. Travis Shaw, a Virginia-based facial plastic surgeon who currently offers SculpSure to his patients.

“We get larger or smaller based on the amount of fat each cell stores. If we get rid of fat cells via WarmSculpting, liposuction, or other means, the results are permanent, as long as your weight remains stable.”

Will it work as described? According to a 2017 study on the effectiveness of 1060 nanometer lasers (the size used for SculpSure procedures) for fat cell reduction, the lasers led to an 18% reduction in fat thickness at the treatment site after six months.

The study concluded that the treatment appeared to be a safe and effective non-invasive procedure for removing fat pockets.

However, it’s essential to keep your expectations realistic on what this procedure can accomplish. “WarmSculpting is effective on small pockets of body fat only,” shares Dr. Michael D. Mirmanesh, an Aesthetic Plastic Surgeon in New Jersey.

“It can provide approximately 20% of the effect of liposuction; however, not all patients will respond to warm sculpting, whereas everyone will respond to liposuction. Diet and exercise remain the gold standard for losing body fat.”

WarmSculpting Procedure

When you undergo a WarmSculpting procedure, you will have several SculpSure lasers placed on your body’s target areas.

You’ll initially feel a cooling sensation when the treatment starts, which works to keep your skin comfortable. The laser will then cycle on and off for about 25 minutes to raise the temperature of your fat cells.

For most people, this will feel like intense warmth and an intermittent tingling sensation. It should only be mildly uncomfortable. In fact, 2018 research on the safety and efficacy of diode laser treatment for treating abdominal fat found that patients rated the treatment at an average discomfort rating of 3.7 out of 10.

WarmSculpting is considered best for people with stubborn fat pockets that seem resistant to the effects of diet and exercise. You’ll get the best results if you follow a healthy lifestyle both before and after the treatment.

One advantage of WarmSculpting is that you don’t need to worry about any downtime after treatment. This means that patients can undergo the procedure during their lunch break and then return to work immediately after.

Most people will start to see results within six to twelve weeks, but some notice them within two. You’ll likely need follow-up treatment to improve the final results, and some people may go through it three or more times.

Your destroyed fat cells won’t regenerate afterward, so you should be able to maintain the results indefinitely by eating well and getting exercise.

Note that the procedure doesn’t guarantee any weight loss and isn’t suitable for those who are obese. Likewise, it’s only approved for treatment on specific areas: the stomach, love handles, back, thighs, and chin.

Possible Side Effects

As with all medical procedures, there are potential side effects associate with WarmSculpting with SculpSure.

Some people experience discomfort, soreness, bruising, and swelling at the treatment site. These symptoms should go away after a few hours or days in extreme cases.

We didn’t uncover any side effects that seemed more severe than this. Most people seemed capable of returning to their routine soon after the treatment.

Cost Estimates

The cost for SculpSure procedures depends on many variables, including where you live, who is performing it, how much of your body you want to be treated, and how many sessions you plan to undergo.

Expect your costs to fall somewhere between $1,500 and $4,000. According to RealSelf, prices average $2,175.

You can get a better idea by requesting a consultation.

Analysis of Customer Reviews

Comments left on RealPatientRatings give us a good idea of what people think of SculpSure treatments. After more than 100 reviews, the procedure averages 4.16 stars and an 83.2% patient satisfaction rate. Here’s a closer look at what these customers are saying.

Common Compliments:

• Minimal pain or discomfort after the procedure
• Some patients started seeing changes within two weeks
• Pleasant experience, great staff interactions

Common Complaints:

• Some customers had better results in some treatment areas than others
• Results were subtle, not worth treatment price
• Left some customers feeling nauseous for days afterward

Overall, most reviewers seem to have pleasant experiences before, during, and after their SculpSure treatment.

The biggest drawback for many is that they don’t end up with the dramatic transformation they were hoping for. Any results they did achieve were too subtle to notice outside a clinical setting.

WarmSculpting vs. CoolSculpting

WarmSculpting with SculpSure relies on hot temperatures to melt your fat off, but other non-invasive body contouring techniques take the opposite approach with cold temperatures instead. One popular option is CoolSculpting.

CoolSculpting strives to slim down your figure by freezing your fat cells. Handheld devices are placed over your problem areas to form ice crystals in your fat cells, which damages them to the point that they break down and your body will eventually flush them out.

If you undergo two or more procedures, you can expect to lose up to 20–30% of the fat in the targeted area, which is approximately equivalent to SculpSure’s success rate.

As with SculpSure, CoolSculpting is predominately used for the inner thighs, belly fat, and under the chin. You’ll get the best results if you are active and eat well and merely use the procedure to treat problem areas diet and exercise haven’t helped.

Timewise, both procedures should take about half an hour, though CoolSculpting tends to take slightly longer. Both methods require little, if any, recover time, which means that you can plan to continue with your day soon after treatment.

From a pain standpoint, both can cause mild to moderate discomfort during the sessions, to the point that you might want to take a mild painkiller beforehand.

As with SculpSure, the costs for CoolSculpting depend on lots of factors. Except to pay about $750 to $1,000 per treatment area per session. This brings the total cost for most people to between $1,500–$5,000 for two or more sessions.

Overall, both methods can be an effective way to slim down and lose some stubborn fat pockets. The one that makes the most sense for you will likely come down to which practitioners are in your area and what you think of their pricing and promises.

Our recommendation is to book consultations with both a SculpSure and CoolSculpting provider to get a sense of who you are most interested in working with before you make a decision.

The Bottom Line

WarmSculpting is marketed as a quick, painless way to get rid of some of your most stubborn fat so you can better contour your body. This procedure shows clinical evidence of being effective, though the biggest drawback for most customers is that the results tend to be subtle.

If you’re looking for a bigger transformation, you might need to consider a more invasive procedure like liposuction.

As liposuction is a form of surgery, the procedure tends to cost more and requires more recovery time. However, it can remove up to 11 pounds of fat from the targeted areas, which results in instant changes—no weeks of waiting required.

Younger patients with small isolated fat areas are the best candidate for WarmSculpting, says Dr. Mirmanesh. “WarmSculpting has little if any effect on skin tightening,” he shared, “so younger, elastic skin that will snap back will have the best results.”

If you’re interested in WarmSculpting, we recommend finding a practitioner in your area and scheduling a free consultation. This should help you get a sense of your total costs, timeline, and the level of results you can expect.