Is really Liposuction a best alternative to lose weight ? I am annoyed with my fatty body, want to get rid of it. I am afraid of undergoing surgery. Some people says that surgical treatment alters body's natural metabolic activities,is it true? Please help !!!
This should not be construed as medical advice. I am a retired Board Certified Plastic Surgeon.
Welcome to our forum. I know the answer above has many links, and is long, but you will find quite a lot of information about the proof I collected over the years, that
liposuction is not an alternative to losing weight. That is what I told my patients. I could have done many more operations on those who still asked me to go ahead and they would still pay. But I said no.
Yes, there are a few articles in the literature about using liposuction "jump start" weight loss, but in my opinion, they were not adequately done, misleading, and other factors were at play. As a surgical sculptor I preferred to use a coarse tool first, the weight loss, then the refinement: Plastic Surgery. The articles seem to do some plastic surgery, lose weight, do some more plastic surgery, lose more weight, do some more. That just did not make much sense to me. There are risks, scars, and issues with each operation. I did see quite a few unhappy patients from surgeons done elsewhere for the liposuction before they were ready. They then lost weight and the loose skin, as predicted, became a problem needing to be tightened.
Check out the Global Fat Contour Issue section of our
Tummy Tuck Forum Basics.
Now if the skin was going to tighten after large volume liposuction or subsequent liposuction, then what was the advantage of the before weight loss liposuction? The problem with large volume liposuction is that not much is taken off at each session without putting the patient's life at danger. Something that the government had to step in to regulate the doctors who were taking off risky amounts of fat in their offices in some states.
After Weight Loss loose skin is typically a global issue. The degree varies, but one needs to verify just how loose the skin was before the solution and how good after. For this documentation I evolved my
Standard Pictures for Tummy Tuck and Evaluating the Stomach Contours and Loose Tissues. One or two still standing upright photos tells very little about the loose skin or how scarred the tissues are stuck from the operation. If the surgery is good, it should also look good living life, not just in a still photograph.
Standard Before and After Videos for Tummy Tuck were even better at showing how the loose skin hung with gravity, bending over, or how much a patient could grab, and how it moved with my ballet of moves a patient could repeat as part of the process of sequential documentation.
The bottom line is proof. Find someone who accurately records the problem to start with, global excess fat, and then the results with liposuction alone and shows what was done, how many operations, what the various weight and body fat percentages were. That is the missing facts that convinced me not to offer that option for my patients. Instead I spent a great deal of time explaining this position and methods other patients taught me that they used to achieve the wonderful weight loss.
How to Pick A Tummy Tuck Surgeon or in this case someone who claims they have a surgical technique to manage liposuction as an alternative to losing weight and have proof of skin tightening and acceptable scarring.
There were many patient stories like this
Patient from Virginia for Tummy Tuck who saw me, and after the discussion, decided to wait to loose the weight and stabilize the problem first before having the surgery. But that is why I became excited as we were learning about tools to help these individuals who could not stand their contours, but needed help learning the motivational tools that were available like the scales and awesome
Body Shaping Garments for Women much more powerful than normal girdles for holding the fat and loose skin steady as an interim contour option while losing weight. Women at least had been exposed to normal girdles, but not the surgical super powered ones. Almost all men had no idea until they tried on one of the vests in the office. It was neat, they did not want to take them off and bought them on the spot. That is why I put up a demonstration of their power online.
Body Shaping Compression Garments for Men, that has quite a few pages covering that topic.
Hope this helps,
Michael Bermant, MD
Retired Plastic Surgeon
Learn More About Liposuction Body Contouring
