Plano Liposuction doctors

Liposuction is a good way to lose isolated pockets of fat, but not as a way to lose weight.  For patients that are overweight in San Antonio, I often recommend a medically supervised weight loss program.

Some patients have found CoolSculpting a good non-invasive way to get things kick started.  With this technique you probably will not see a huge change, but it is easy enough to do and will take about 2 hours of your time (1 hour each thigh).

The decision on whether to do an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) vs. LIposuction is actually quite simple if you can just break it down to answer 3 questions

1. How thick is your "fat layer" ? is it too thick for your liking ? Can you grab it in your hand and feel excess fat ? If this is true, then you need to either lose weight by dieting or you may be a candidate  for liposuction to reduce the thickness of this layer
2. Do you have excess skin that is a significant issue for you ? Women are individuals and tolerate certain amount of lax skin differently, but if it is intolerable to you then skin tightening is mandatory. The gold standard for tightening skin is through an abdominoplasty in which the entire abdominal skin is elevated along with the fatty layer and the excess skin is removed. 
3. Is there abdominal wall / muscle laxity. This assessment often requires your surgeon's evaluation to be sure. However if you feel below the fat layer and can tell that not only is your abdomen bulging due to fat, but also due to a protuberant abdominal wall, then the muscle layer must be tightened. 

Tying these concepts together you would benefit from 

• Liposuction : if you only have fat excess only with minimal to no skin laxity accompanied by abdominal wall firmness. 
• Skin only abdominoplasty : if you have skin excess only with great abdominal tone and flat muscle layer. the recovery for this type of tummy tuck is much less painful with much less downside.
• Full abdominoplasty with muscle tightening : if you are a typical mom who has had her muscles and abdominal wall stretched out of position resulting in a lax abdomen and excess lax skin

A final question is what do I do if I have all 3 problems. Personally I will carefully in some patients perform both  liposuction and tummy tuck at the same time. With experience I feel it is possible to carefully perform such a combination with excellent and dramatic improvement. However if you have a significant amount of fat to be suctioned, I strongly recommend that you do the liposuction AFTER the tummy tuck. There is a common misconception that you should have the liposuction first. At first glance this makes sense, thinking that there would be greater skin laxity you could then tighten with a secondary follow up tummy tuck. However, 25 years of experience and teaching has proven to me that after liposuction you create stiff scar tissue in the fat. Fat is usually very very mobile which allows the skin to be stretched maximally. However I can never get all the excess skin out after liposuction due to the scar tissue contraction in the fat layer after liposuction. there is no question in my mind that the order should be tummy tuck first followed by liposuction. This combination yields dramatic results. 

I hope this helps. It is a very important and common question. 

You sound like a good lipo candidate.  Unfortuantely your skin tone isn't hte same as it was when you were in your twenties but it sounds like you've preserved it well.  Consider posting photos to this site for these questions, it'll get you much better feedback.