as seen in Walmart....

[mclute0]

this was on the shelf by the checkout and made me laugh out loud... it must work, look at her abs!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shape-Freezer-Fat-Cell-Freezing-Body-Sculpting-Machine-with-10-Replacement-Pads/760666139

[BrianHG]

     The theory is that fat cell freezing works, HOWEVER, I believe the temperature needs to be perfectly regulated to a specific temperature within less than half a degree Celcius just under skin.  In other words, a sophisticated real-time thermal scan and regulation using TEC coolers.  The idea was to freeze the top layer of fat cells to death, let the body heal over a month to clear them out, then repeat again and again until you got rid of a small amount of fat.  It is useless for obesity and I have not seen definitive proof that it actually works.

See a picture of the machine and results here: https://ca.coolsculpting.com/home

Sad to say I believe this was invented in my home town.  And I am sure it costs big $ per visit as you need many.

If you exercise on a normal occasion for fitness, I bet if you wear a little over-tight 3/5mm wetsuit/shortie, I bet the effect would be similar as you compress and added sweat away the loose fat.

[jpanhalt]

At my nearest Walmart in Oberlin (yes, where the music college is) is usually where one see these abs:

[CatalinaWOW]

The coolsculpting thing apparently works for quite a few.  But there are some highly publicized cases of extreme failures.  I suspect it is like the collagen injections and all the other things that vanity drives people to do.  Works amazing sometimes.  Works ok most of the time.  And has way too frequent massive failures.  And almost never solves the underlying psychological problems that drive people to spend time and money this way.

[AlbertL]

The coolsculpting thing apparently works for quite a few.  But there are some highly publicized cases of extreme failures.  I suspect it is like the collagen injections and all the other things that vanity drives people to do.  Works amazing sometimes.  Works ok most of the time.  And has way too frequent massive failures.  And almost never solves the underlying psychological problems that drive people to spend time and money this way.

Former supermodel Linda Evangelista is one of the better-known cases where it failed pretty severely.

[thm_w]

This would actually work, but, its easier to just turn down the thermostat in your house assuming you live in a colder climate.
There is also probably no localized effect, its just cooling your whole body down.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cold-air-may-help-you-lose-weight-by-making-your-body-burn-calories-to-keep-warm/2014/01/27/c1e75170-8462-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html

Exposing your body to cool and even cold temperatures may help recruit more brown fat cells. Some research suggests that just 2 hours of exposure each day to temperatures around 66°F (19°C) may be enough to turn recruitable fat brown. You may consider taking a cold shower or ice bath.

If you can convert your fat to brown fat, you'd might be better off than straight up liposuction.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-brown-fat-improves-metabolism

[MrMobodies]

it must work, look at her abs!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shape-Freezer-Fat-Cell-Freezing-Body-Sculpting-Machine-with-10-Replacement-Pads/760666139

1 out of 5 stars review 7/6/2020
Disappointed.
I ordered this item, it came in the mail. It looked like it was used, but I decided to plug it in and see what it was about. It was broken did not power on AT ALL. I then reached out to the seller twice to ask for a replacement, but never heard back. I then reached out to Walmart to return the item. I now see they have it back for sell.
Dannette

So they put that broken one that she returned back on the shelf.

Trustpilot:
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.walmart.com

Reviews  7,307
Excellent    9%
Great    4%
Average    4%
Poor            6%
Bad      77%

I see many reviews are to do with buying broken things from third party sellers and Walmart refusing to refund it or promising to do so.

Zevi Posner 3 reviews US
Rated 1 out of 5 stars Jul 7, 2022
Never received my refund (already over 5 months)
I made a purchase for 8 items on 12/5/21 which they all had to be returned, everything was returned by mid jan 2022
got credit for $862.82 however the rest of the money ($619.53) I never received
Tried contacting them about 5 times and every time the answer was that I will get back my money but I never received it, nor are they even willing to send me a confirmation email!!!

Sounds very sloppy to me and not like a reputable place to shop.

[james_s]

The things people try to do to get a quick fix to a long term problem.

It is annoying that the body never evolved a protection mechanism to stop storing fat once it has reached capacity. If you consume too much vitamin C you just pee out the excess, it would be great if sugar and fat was the same way. For thousands of years the supply of food was a limiting factor, at least in developed nations food is effectively infinite.

[SiliconWizard]

The things people try to do to get a quick fix to a long term problem.

It is annoying that the body never evolved a protection mechanism to stop storing fat once it has reached capacity. If you consume too much vitamin C you just pee out the excess, it would be great if sugar and fat was the same way. For thousands of years the supply of food was a limiting factor, at least in developed nations food is effectively infinite.

Well, getting over-abundant access to food is something way too recent for humankind to have possibly triggered any significant evolution.
We have rather been exposed to the exact opposite for an extremely long time (we're talking like a few decades vs. a few millions of years), so it's quite logical that the preferred mechanism was storing "fuel" (as fat) for later use and not even bother with throwing away excess "fuel". Evolution is a slow process, especially for mammals.

The vitamin parallel is interesting and there are precisely counter-examples. There are quite a few vitamins that we can't excrete if consumed in excess, such as vitamin D (and a bunch of others.) Most likely because it was NEVER in excess for millions of years (and it may just become so if we take too much supplement, which is again something very new), so there was no need. While vitamin C was relatively abundant in fruits and so we definitely *could* consume it in excess, especially back when we were consuming a lot more fruits than we do today.

[jpanhalt]

While those evolutionary theories may sound logical and are amusing to read, I am less sure there is strong evidence for them.  For example, if fats were scarce, then why is an enzyme needed for their absorption? (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/lipid-absorption#:~:text=Pancreatic%20triacylglycerol%20lipase%20is%20the,ingestion%20of%20a%20fatty%20meal).  On the other hand, iron is plentiful in the environment and there is no regulation of its uptake.  Iron overload is well known.  Vitamin B12 is absolutely essential for humans and is not that common in our foods (except meat), but we require a specific factor to absorb it (intrinsic factor).  Is that an error in evolution to have our life subject to a single-point failure.

Don't get me wrong, evolution is great.  I support it.  But, I am skeptical of fairy tales about its consequences and direction.