Liposuction is NOT a Weight-Loss Procedure

It’s funny how often I hear people suggest that this celebrity or that politician underwent liposuction to lose a dramatic amount of weight, and that they would like to do the same. Understandable as such allegations may be, it is simply not the case.

Liposuction is a type of surgery that is designated for people who are already at a normal weight for their height and build but have a few stubborn areas or pads of fat that simply won’t go away no matter how hard they work out or how disciplined their diets may be. Rather than removing large masses of adipose tissue, liposuction is more of a fine-tuning technique that can effectively define the contour of one’s physique offering dramatic results in his or her overall appearance.

In a fast-paced world such as ours where instant gratification has defined our expectations, it would certainly be ideal if someone who is substantially overweight could just take a week off of work and have the obesity removed. However, there is no such quick fix and to remove a high volume of fat would be incredibly invasive and potentially catastrophic to the neighboring tissues and blood vessels.

The guidelines set forth by most regulating bodies including the American Society for Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) limit the amount of fat removed in a single liposuction procedure to 5 liters. Once that limit is exceeded, risk increases exponentially and the surgery becomes extremely dangerous. At an average of 2.2 pounds per liter, this means that 11 pounds would be the most weight one could safely expect to lose from undergoing liposuction. Again though, the focus should not be placed on weight-loss but rather removing the subtle bulges that obscure an otherwise fit body.

For those who are overweight and looking to achieve rapid weight-loss, Bariatric Surgery may be a more appropriate route, though even that process takes several months to fully attain the desired result (at which point Post-Bariatric Plastic Surgery can help with removing the excess skin that results from massive loss of weight). This type of surgery is intended for people struggling unsuccessfully with obesity, which is measured as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) that is greater than 30, but more typically 35 or above.

Liposuction, on the other hand, is suitable for people already at a healthy weight with a BMI in the low to mid-twenties, 28 at the very highest in rare cases.

Calculate your BMI here.

Sidenote: there is also an increasingly popular technique known as Microfat Grafting which injects the fat removed by liposuction into other areas of the body to add volume in a way that is aesthetically pleasing, such as in the Brazilian Butt Lift where the backside is given a perkier and often more rounded appearance. Rather than using implants, this allows for augmentation using one’s own bodily tissue, which is generally more appealing to patients.