How long will results last after a course of skin tightening / cellulite treatments? What about maintenance treatments?

“TL;DR: With an 100% healthy lifestyle cellulite can be prevented for years after a course of cellulite treatments.

With an average lifestyle, top-up sessions every two months are recommended. And with poor lifestyle monthly or fortnightly maintenance sessions make sense.”

Cellulite treatment results: how long do they last?

• How long do cellulite treatment results last?

• Most cellulite treatments do not work - but luckily some do

• Do not fall for the instant miracles. Miracles do not exist.

• Cellulite elimination does not exist

• And do not fall for “permanent” results either. Nothing is permanent on the human body.

• How long should I expect treatment results to last?

• Maintenance treatments after cellulite removal / skin tightening

• Why do cellulite removal results get reversed quickly if you are not careful?

• Maintenance treatments for skin tightness

• How long do results last and how often should I have maintenance treatments: a summary

• Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts

How long do cellulite treatment results last?

This is a common question at the clinic: you got some nice results after a course of an effective cellulite / skin tightening treatment (very rare, but they do exist). How long should you expect those results to last? Would you need maintenance treatments?

To answer these questions and provide context for my answers, I feel obliged to first clarify the myths of instant / permanent cellulite reduction or skin tightening.

So here goes…

Most cellulite treatments do not work - but luckily some do

Firstly let’s make it clear that most cellulite / skin tightening treatments do not work. But some (such as deep-acting, high-power radio frequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation), do work, if provided properly.

Do not fall for the instant miracles. Miracles do not exist.

Secondly the body doesn’t change with one session. It needs repeated stimulation (i.e. multiple treatments) relatively close together (around once a week is optimal). Treatments once a month do NOT work.

So those wildly expensive “you only need 1 session” treatments are pointless. Cellulite reduction and skin tightening is one area where one cannot get immediate gratification, regardless how many billions one has in the bank.

Biology doesn’t care about billions, so those £3,000-a-pop, “one-off”, rip-off treatments are just that: a rip-off and a waste of money - and quite often, quite dangerous too.

Even with the best treatment in the world, the body needs anything between 6-12 sessions for good long-lasting results (and up to 24 in the more severe cases - sorry, that’s the truth).

Cellulite elimination does not exist

Thirdly, in most cases you cannot “get rid of all” your cellulite/ skin laxity completely. Not even with surgery (especially NOT with surgery).

It’s all about cellulite reduction, not cellulite elimination.

And do not fall for “permanent” results either. Nothing is permanent on the human body.

Fourthly, you cannot get rid of cellulite or stay firm forever. There is nothing permanent in this universe and that’s especially true for human biology - and even truer for fat, cellulite and skin firmness.

in summary, don’t believe the endless marketing lies about “one-session”, “complete” or “permanent” cellulite/skin looseness elimination.

Having cleared that up, let’s move on to the main topic of this article: after a course of 6-12 EFFECTIVE skin tightening/cellulite treatments, how long will the results last?

How long should I expect treatment results to last?

Ok, let’s say you have found an effective cellulite reduction / skin tightening treatment, had a course of 6-12 sessions and you are happy with the results.

How long should these results last?

In regard to cellulite, and with a perfect lifestyle (exercise, healthy nutrition, no smoking, little drinking, no contraceptive pill), results should last for 2-5 years, max.

Of course results don’t just disappear overnight after 2, 3 or 5 years. There is a slow deterioration with age, for which we cannot do anything about.

And obviously, there is more deterioration with the accumulated excesses (food, alcohol, smoking, inactivity etc) that we all indulge into from time to time - some more, some less.

Maintenance treatments after cellulite removal / skin tightening

So for those who lead a perfectly healthy lifestyle. mentioned above, maintenance treatments are not really needed much.

However, those very disciplined people who don’t need maintenance are actually those who end up having maintenance treatments more than anyone else, because they care and because they are focused.

Of course, the majority of us are not as perfectly disciplined with regard to healthy nutrition, drinking or exercising. Plus some women do need to take hormonal contraception (which is a major cause of cellulite).

But we do see clients at the clinic who are indeed very disciplined (perhaps 1% of our clients) and in those cases results indeed have lasted for several years.

So for the averagely disciplined person, results should last for about two years, gradually and slowly declining over the months (again, not disappearing all at once on month 24), always taking into account individual variances from person to person.

For these cases, maintenance sessions every two months will maintain results, more or less continuously, with individual variances from person to person. Some of our clients have a top-up course of 3-6 sessions every year, instead of regular sessions every two months.

With an unhealthy / quite sedentary lifestyle, monthly maintenance sessions are definitely recommended, otherwise results will probably gradually fade off in about a year, always with individual variances from person to person.

And with a very unhealthy / very sedentary lifestyle maintenance treatments every two weeks are essential, otherwise results will probably fade off in just a few months - even weeks (always with individual variances from person to person).

This is the reality on the ground, seen in real life over two decades, as opposed to marketing blurb and so-called “information” from glossy magazines and the equivalent websites.

Why do cellulite removal results get reversed quickly if you are not careful?

Simple. Fat cells can refill very quickly, if too many calories are ingested and/or too few calories are expended. Unavoidably, some of those refilled fat cells will be cellulite fat cells.

Furthermore, new fat cells can easily be created out of stem cells to replace the ones eliminated by the cellulite treatment. Yes, fat cells can be replaced or born, it would seem, out of thin air (in reality born out of stem cells).

Forget what you read in the glossy magazine / shallow website: new fat cells are created all the time in your body. Basic 21st century biology (it is sad that many so-called “experts”, even doctors, are still stuck in the 1970s).

Maintenance treatments for skin tightness

In regard to skin tightening, things are a lot more positive.

Skin tightening results last longer and do not get reversed as easily as cellulite reduction results - and in most cases they last about twice as long. But these results can still get reversed.

The main causes for this reversal are:

• Extreme inactivity (less mechanical stimulation of collagen synthesis)

• Extreme dieting (less protein available for collagen synthesis)

So stay active, have enough protein in your diet and generally eat healthily and you skin will stay firmer for a very long time, without any maintenance treatments.

If you do those two things (protein, physical activity) perhaps you would like to have a course of 3-6x treatments every two years.

How long do results last and how often should I have maintenance treatments: a summary

• There is no permanent cellulite removal or permanent skin tightening - nothing in life or in the human body is permanent

• After a good course of cellulite / skin tightening treatments, results will last anything from a few months to a few years, depending on lifestyle

• Maintenance treatments every 1-2 months make sense for most people

• The healthier your lifestyle, the less you need maintenance treatments

• To make the most of your course of treatments, change your lifestyle to a healthier one as soon as you start the treatments and maintain that for life. Your skin - and liver and heart and blood vessels and brain and other organs - will thank you. This is because the exact things that cause cellulite, cause the majority of degenerative “Western” civilisation diseases too.

Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts

At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.

This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.

As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.

Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.

Our radiofrequency/ultrasound treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, microneedling-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.

And our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.

We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.

Learn more or check prices and book an expert treatment at our London clinic (49 Marylebone High Street, W1)

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