Is Liposuction Permanent Fat Removal?

We all know liposuction is not intended to be a permanent replacement for healthy living and wise eating choices. We know we’re supposed to continue going to the gym every day and pass on those boxes of cookies. We know sitting on the couch all evening can’t be good for us. But we paid a lot of good money for this surgery. Is it possible that it could all go to waste? 

If you are considering elective cosmetic liposuction surgery, chances are you’ve already met with a plastic surgeon in your area and aired a few of your comments, concerns and questions. He or she has also probably told you that it is very important you understand that this type of procedure is not a replacement for healthy lifestyle choices. 

They may have also told you that it is possible for you to gain the weight back if you’re not careful.

What? Why do people spend thousands of dollars on an elective cosmetic surgical procedure that has a variety of risk factors and may, in the end, be only temporary weight removal? The answer to that is often complex and usually has to do with the expectations men and women bring to the operating room from their own personal experiences. Many people have unrealistic expectations of what plastic surgery can accomplish. This especially falls apart in the long-term as Botox wears off, breast implants sag, and those jowls return below the chin. It is inevitable that we will change as we age and continue to lose battles with gravity and loss of skin elasticity. But to gain back weight after having it surgically removed seems like a cruel joke. 

The New York Times recently published a study in which the University of Colorado reported that most of the women in their study had fat return after liposuction procedures. Within a year, the fat was back. How devastating. The strange thing with the study was that the fat did not tend to return to the site that it was harvested from. For example, if the women had fat removed from their thighs, it actually came back in their arms. This leads many to postulate that if the patients had fat removed from their abdomen, it might return to their legs or face. 

The underlying factor of this study emphasizes the importance of discussing your expectations with your elective cosmetic plastic surgeon before undergoing any procedure. Be sure that he or she knows what you are expecting so they can affirm you are being realistic or may give you an idea of what will really happen in the short- and long-term.