Section

The devices

Cryolipolysis, radiofrequency, focused ultrasound, muscle stimulation, laser lipolysis, cavitation, cellulite devices and wraps: what each mechanism is, and what a mechanism of that kind can and cannot do.

8 articles· Reviewed 2026-08-01
Condensation and frost on a chilled steel plate. Cooling metal, no device and no clinic.
Condensation and frost on a chilled steel plate. Cooling metal, no device and no clinic.
01

Cryolipolysis: what controlled cooling can and cannot do to fat

Cooling a fixed area of tissue under an applicator. What the mechanism is, what a mechanism of that kind can plausibly do, who it is a poor fit for, and what the marketing image is doing that the treatment is not.

02

Radiofrequency body treatments: what heating tissue actually achieves

Radiofrequency heats tissue. That is a real mechanism with real effects and a very specific ceiling. What the heat does, what it does not do, and why the word tightening is doing more work in the advertising than in the tissue.

03

HIFU for the body: what focused ultrasound does and does not do

Focused ultrasound puts energy at a depth rather than on a surface. That is a genuinely different mechanism with a genuinely narrow application, and it is sold far more broadly than it works.

04

EMS muscle stimulation devices and what forced contraction can change

Electromagnetic and electrical muscle stimulation devices make muscles contract without you choosing to. The contraction is real. What follows from it is a much narrower question than the advertising suggests.

05

Laser lipolysis and low level laser body treatments examined

Two very different things share this name: a surgical technique performed under the skin, and a low level light treatment applied to the surface. Conflating them is the central problem in how this treatment is sold.

06

Ultrasound cavitation: the mechanism and the evidence in shape

Cavitation is a real physical phenomenon with a specific meaning. Whether it happens in fat tissue at the settings used in high street body treatments, and whether it changes anything if it does, is where this gets interesting.

07

Cellulite treatments: what cellulite is and why it resists devices

Cellulite is a structural feature of normal tissue, present in the large majority of adult women. Understanding what produces the appearance explains immediately why most treatments aimed at it do so little.

08

Body wraps, lymphatic drainage and what is being measured

These treatments do something real and short-lived: they move fluid. Understanding that explains both why the tape measure moves and why it moves back, and why they appear so often as part of a package.

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