Can a TENS unit break up fat or cellulite?

TENS and cellulite

• Does TENS do anything for cellulite, skin looseness or excess fat?

• Electrical treatments for cellulite reduction and skin tightening

• TENS for skin tightening and cellulite/fat reduction

• Why TENS doesn’t work for cellulite / fat / skin looseness

• Tens for stomach fat, local fat loss or weight loss even? That’s not how the body works.

• TENS is great for pain relief - and nothing else

Does TENS do anything for cellulite, skin looseness or excess fat?

• TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) is a very affordable technology that is used in physiotherapy for pain relief

• TENS blocks pain signals by emitting tiny electrical currents that overload local nerve nodes and thus provide pain relief

• Unfortunately those TINY currents have ZERO effect on cellulite, skin tightening, local fat, stomach fat or body weight

Full analysis follows below.

• Have a cellulite treatment in London with the cellulite specialists

• Book a 15’ Zoom consultation or a 30’ in-person consultation at the clinic

• Scan your skin and assess skin laxity, cellulite, post liposuction fibrosis and more

• Contact us

Electrical treatments for cellulite reduction and skin tightening

Different kinds of electrical treatments have been suggested the last few decades for skin firming and fat/cellulite reduction, with varying effectiveness.

Examples include radiofrequency, high frequency wand treatments, microcurrents, galvanic, HIFEM (electromagnetic muscle stimulation), EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) etc.

TENS for skin tightening and cellulite/fat reduction

TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), used in physiotherapy for pain relief, is not one of them, but that does not stop people from asking if TENS can be used to reduce cellulite and tighten skin.

TENS machines are very, very cheap, so it is tempting to think that: “If so many electrical treatments are used for cellulite, why not try a cheap solution such as a TENS machine”? After all it’s not going to break the bank…”

Why TENS doesn’t work for cellulite / fat / skin looseness

There are three answers to such a question:

• Although several electrical treatments have been proposed and used for cellulite and skin tightening, none of them works, bar one: radiofrequency. And even with radiofrequency, only a small subset of that technology works, namely deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency. Everything else is inefficient, i.e. it offers too slow-acting / too weak results.

• There is nothing in TENS technology that can reduce fat/cellulite or boost skin tightening. TENS is a type of EXTREMELY LOW POWER electrical nerve stimulation machine. It is much, much weaker than EMS, which doesn’t work anyway. So hoping that a cheap, weak relative of those much more powerful technologies will work is futile.

• Continuing from my second point, there is zero evidence that a TENS machine works for cellulite, fat reduction and skin tightening. And I don’t expect any such evidence to ever materialise, because the fundamentals are wrong: TENS is a very, very weak current that has no impact on the skin/fat.

Tens for stomach fat, local fat loss or weight loss even? That’s not how the body works.

For weight loss to occur you need to oxidise (burn) calories in muscles and other organs. It is impossible to burn calories with a TENS machine - or ANY machine for that matter. You can only burn calories with diet and exercise (or very strong stimulant medication - not recommended).

TENS does not even release local fat, such as thigh fat or stomach fat. In fact no machine is really efficient in reducing local fat (but that’s material for another article).

TENS is great for pain relief - and nothing else

So although TENS is very cheap and it won’t break the bank to try it for cellulite/fat reduction or for skin tightening, it is still a waste of time and money.

So use it where is works, is a good investment and is very useful: for pain relief.

• Have a cellulite treatment in London with the cellulite specialists

• Book a 15’ Zoom consultation or a 30’ in-person consultation at the clinic

• Scan your skin and assess skin laxity, cellulite, post liposuction fibrosis and more

• Contact us