Liposuction: to lose weight on your own or to have an operation?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you think that you can go to a plastic surgeon and leave 10-20 extra pounds in the clinic, it's time for you to reconsider your beliefs. The life hacker figured out what to expect from liposuction and who will it help.

What is liposuction?

Liposuction is a cosmetic surgery that removes excess adipose tissue from a specific area of the human body.

Liposuction is used to destroy fat that diet or exercise cannot remove. Usually this is needed to make the body more proportional, improve its appearance and correct its shape.

In rare cases, liposuction is used for severe obesity, when it is necessary to reduce the amount of fat as soon as possible and by any means, because excess weight poses a threat to the patient's life. Lipomas are also removed using liposuction.

Does liposuction help you lose weight?

This is not entirely true. Liposuction helps to get rid of excess fat in certain areas of the body. Typically, patients choose the hips, knees, abdomen, chest, arms, chin area. But this is a local effect, which in general will not change anything in the body.

After one operation, you cannot immediately lose weight everywhere and turn into a slender person.

As a rule, it makes sense to do liposuction if you have already lost weight, learned to maintain the desired weight, but you are not satisfied with the accumulated fat in one place, which refuses to disappear, despite your efforts.

Liposuction does not help cure obesity, cellulite or stretch marks.

How many kilograms can you lose after surgery?

In one operation, as a rule, no more than 2.5 liters of fat are pumped out. One liter weighs about 900 grams. That is, there will be no global weight loss.

How is the operation going?

There are several techniques that are slightly different from each other. The general principle is to insert tubes into the body, with the help of which excess fat can be pumped out from under the skin.

First, the patient is prepared for surgery, which takes place under general anesthesia (sometimes an epidural can be used if fat is to be pumped out of the lower half of the body). Then the area where the liposuction will be performed is treated with special medications.

Then you need to prepare the adipose tissue: break up the cells using ultrasound, laser or the introduction of a special solution. The broken fat is sucked out of the body using tubes.

After the operation, the tubes are removed, sutures are applied and bandages and special underwear are put on the patient.

The operation takes 1-3 hours, depending on the extent of fat removal.

Which technique is best?

The most gentle technique is tumescent liposuction. This is a procedure for which local anesthesia may be sufficient. A large number of medicines are injected into the area where the operation is performed: lidocaine, vasoconstrictors and saline solution, which helps to remove fat.

For small areas on the face, laser liposuction is often used: the fat removal tubes are smaller in diameter than other methods.

What should be done before liposuction?

First, make sure that you need this operation. If you are obese, liposuction will not help - you need to bring your weight back to normal using non-surgical methods.

Then you need to understand that you can keep your weight within normal limits, that is, spend at least six months at a stable weight. If you still want to have surgery, it makes sense to prepare yourself psychologically, perhaps even visit a psychologist.

After all, surgery is a complex procedure that only removes some of the fat, but does not change the rest of your life and does not help you become more active and better.

After that, you need to choose a clinic and follow all the surgeon's recommendations, stock up on compression underwear and tune in for the recovery period.

How long will it take to recover?

It depends on the method of operation you choose. Some hurt more, some less. After some methods, recovery takes up to three months. More modern operations require two weeks of recovery, but you can return to work in a few days (if the work does not involve a lot of physical exertion).

After the operation, you will need to wear special underwear and bandages to prevent swelling and bruising. They may also give antibiotics to prevent infections, and pain relievers while damaged tissues heal.

For several days after the operation, you should not drive, you need to forget about bad habits for the entire healing period. The doctor will tell you more about how long you have to give up training and exertion.

Is it true that the weight will return later?

It is possible. In one session, a small amount of fat is specially removed so that the effect of a fast diet does not appear, when the body is gaining its usual supply of fat at a high rate.

Otherwise, a lot depends on the individual: are you inclined to be overweight, do you follow a diet and try to maintain weight. In any case, it is customary to talk about a good effect from the operation not earlier than six months after the intervention, although the results are noticeable immediately after the inevitable edema has passed.

Who should not have liposuction?

Like any surgical intervention, liposuction has contraindications:

• Diabetes.
• Diseases of the blood, clotting disorders.
• Oncological diseases.
• Diseases of the kidneys and liver.
• Thrombophlebitis, varicose veins.
• Diseases of the cardiovascular system.

In general, you must definitely show your card from the clinic to a plastic surgeon and consult if this operation can be done.

What are the complications and side effects of liposuction?

There is a risk of unpleasant consequences, as with any other surgical intervention. It depends on many factors: from the skill of the surgeons to the characteristics of the patient's body.

The most unpleasant consequences are:

• Blockage of blood vessels with blood clots or fat.
• Hematomas and edema. Most dissolve in a few weeks or months.
• Inflammation.
• Numbness in the liposuction area that lasts for several months.
• Discoloration of the skin in the area of the operation.
• The washboard effect. When the fat is unevenly pumped out, bumps and irregularities are formed, so that the part of the body after liposuction resembles a washboard.
• Asymmetry. If the operation is unsuccessful, the adipose tissue is distributed unevenly and the imbalances in the figure are visible.

Will the scars remain?

Small ones. The operation leaves scars where the tubes were inserted under the skin. Scars can be almost invisible.

To do or not to do?

Only you can answer this question.

Liposuction is usually a cosmetic procedure. If you are not going to use it to lose weight, become healthier, improve your personal life or solve all problems in an instant, but at the same time you are sure that the operation will help you feel better, consult with specialists and make a decision.