Fat-Melting Topical Creams Hope Or Hype?

With the emergence of topical creams that promise to melt away your annoying fatty bits by simply slathering them on your skin, the big question is: do they work? Dr JAnine olivier looks at the science behind rubbing away regional fat.

- Dr Janine Olivier

In my experience, the bumpy road to slimming is strewn with expensive potholes: fake promises, gunky drops, scary injections and pills that make you (let’s face it) a little manic. Every year, endless quests to try a new wonder product end up with said patient staring down the bottom of an ice-cream tub in front of the telly. The myriad conflicting diet information fed to us in low-carb, no-carb, vegan, vegetarian and paleo servings drives me to ice cream and wine (fortunately for me, though, banting says wine is okay and my blood group is allowed dairy).

But what if you could use this telly time productively to actually slim down, simply by rubbing skin cream on your fatty bits? Not just any cream, however: a fat-busting cream that not only magically melts away those pesky centimetres, but also smoothes and tones skin. Now, while this may sound like a cheesy infomercial (*starring women with beautiful curves who probably gym six days a week and live off whey), there are indeed lipolytic lotions (i.e. fat-melting creams) on the market that promise just that. The main concern here though is: can a topically applied cream really reduce those spot centimetres and smooth over the hail damage?

Targeted fat reduction

It is certainly theoretically possible. Some chemical agents display fat-breakdown/burning (lipolytic) properties when applied to the skin of a specific area. The magic ingredients to be on the lookout for in your fat-busting creams include:

• caffeine

• aminophylline

• glycyrrhetinic acid

• norepinephrine

• synephrine

• bitter orange extract