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.

How a device claim is assessed here

Every page in this section is written the same way, and knowing the order helps in a consultation as much as it does here. We start with the mechanism, which is the physical thing the device is said to do to tissue: cool it, heat it, vibrate it, contract it, injure it in a controlled way. We then ask what a mechanism of that kind could plausibly achieve at best, which is a question about physics and tissue rather than about any particular machine. Only then do we look at what has been measured, in how many people, over how long, against what comparison, and whether whoever judged the result knew which group they were looking at.

Three rules follow from that and they explain most of what this section does and does not say. We assess mechanisms and claims, never machines: a brand name tells you who made a device and nothing about what it does, and two platforms using one mechanism can differ in output while sharing all of its limits. We do not repeat the sector’s figures, because a percentage detached from the study that produced it is the single most travelled unsupported number in this category, which is why we publish where fat reduction percentages come from instead of the percentages. And we state who each treatment is a poor fit for, because a mechanism that suits one person is the wrong answer for another and the sales conversation is the least equipped moment to ask.

What this section is not is a ranking. There is no best device here, no score, no star, no badge and no comparison table of brands, because the evidence that would support one does not exist in public and a table built without it would rank marketing. Where the regulatory position matters, and for a device it usually does, it is set out in how body contouring devices are regulated in the UK; the method for reading the claim itself is in reading the claim, and what a course of any of this actually costs is in the cost arithmetic.

On commercial listings, and this section

There is no advertising in this section and none is accepted. We take no advertising from device manufacturers at all, at any price. The publication does sell one thing, an alphabetical listing of verifiable provider facts containing no opinion, and its terms are published in full on the provider listings page. No listing appears in this section, inside an article, beside a claim panel or in any position that could suggest an editorial connection, and if any further commercial format is ever introduced it will be labelled as commercial, placed outside the editorial sections, and will carry no influence over any assessment on this page or any other. What money cannot buy here is published rather than promised.

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.

45

Radiofrequency Devices: Reading Tightening Claims Against CAP

What radiofrequency devices for tightening and contouring do to tissue, how to read the claims against CAP and ASA rules, and what to ask before paying.

No commercial links on this page

This article contains no commercial links of any kind. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements, and no links to any clinic, practitioner, device manufacturer, brand or retailer. Nobody paid for it, nobody previewed it and nobody outside the editorial team saw it before publication.

This publication does not name, rank, rate or review any clinic or practitioner, because it has assessed none of them. Our funding is set out in full on the about page and on the provider listings page, including what we refuse to sell at any price.

Nothing here is medical advice. Speak to a qualified clinician about your own circumstances.

When the rules change, we will tell you

One email when a regulatory position shifts in a way that alters what you should check, when a published advertising ruling changes what this sector may claim, and when a new article goes up. No treatment offers, no discounts and no clinic suggestions, because we do not make any.

Sponsor lineThe newsletter may carry one clearly labelled sponsor line, placed after the editorial content. Sponsors see it when you do, and no payment of any kind can influence a claim verdict on this site. The rate is published on the provider listings page.