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Does Liposuction in One Body Area Make Another Get Fatter?

asked 3 years ago by anon
Latest answer by Tom J. Pousti, MD
Question viewed 4,159 times
Tags: fat

The Mayo clinic posted the statement that "It's possible that if you remove fat cells from one area with liposuction, you may gain less weight in that area, but you'll gain more in another area of your body."

Have you seen this with your patients? Please explain!!

18 answers to Does Liposuction in One Body Area Make Another Get Fatter?

This concern has been voiced before

There have been many concerns raised about whether removing fat from one part of the body would cause there to be more gained elsewhere to compensate for the fat loss and maintain some sort of fat equilibrium. While one can make theoretical and biological arguments for this, in real practice for over 20 years I have never had a patient complain that this has happened.

Richard P. Rand, MD, FACS
Seattle Plastic Surgeon

Never personally seen this

In my consultations with patients, I often hear this concern; but in practice, I have never actually seen this occur. In general, if you maintain a healthy lifestyle and weight after your procedure, your results will endure; but if you gain a significant amount of weight, you will notice it has been gained proportionally throughout your body, even in the areas of liposuction.

Shahram Salemy, MD
Seattle Plastic Surgeon

www.drsalemy.com

Fat will find its way

If you have a stable weight, you should not gain weight in strange places after liposuction. If you gain weight, that fat has to go somewhere. If the patient gains a lot of weight, that fat will go literally everywhere, including even the areas that had liposuction. The areas that received liposuction will be relatively protected against small weight gains; it is usually the trouble spots that get the most attention at the time of surgery. Patients need to be just as vigilant about their... more

Brent Moelleken, MD
Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon

Liposuction does not make other body areas get fatter.

Hi. This is such a distortion that it upsets me. The bulges treated with liposuction are permanently corrected. If you put on weight afterwards, it does not go into your old bulges, but it has to go somewhere. So it is evenly distributed throughout your body. This obviously does not mean that liposuction CAUSED fat to go elsewhere.

George J. Beraka, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Liposuction is permanent targeted weight loss

Unlike many of the exercise infomercials you may see liposuction is targeted permanent fat loss. We can treat specific areas and permanently remove fat cells (fat cells do not have the capacity to grow back). The concept you are referring to has to do with the bodies distribution of stored calories into fat reserves. The concept of the non-treated areas becoming larger or the fat cells getting larger is one that makes sense from a biological standpoint - if you have a fixed number of fat... more

Steven H. Williams, MD
San Francisco Plastic Surgeon

www.trivalleyplasticsurgery.com

Even distribution is more likely

I personally did not see this in my own patients. Liposuction should decrease the fat load in certain areas of the body. If there is weight gain, the fat will be evenly distributed. Because of the previous liposuction other areas might appear large. I my own patients I have seen some patients presenting few years after liposuction with weight gain. It mainly manifested in an even distribution of fat.

Hisham Seify, MD, PhD
Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon

If you gain weight, you may feel it in new areas

When you get liposuction of a problem area, you are removing fat from an area that has disproportionate amounts of fat deposited . After liposuction, you no longer have that one area of extra fat - you just have the same amount of fat everywhere. If you do gain fat after liposuction, it will be evenly distributed. The problem here is two-fold. First problem: Before liposuction, gained weight would mostly go to your problem area and nowhere else. Now that your fat is evenly distributed,... more

Thomas T. Nguyen, MD
Orange County Plastic Surgeon

If your weight remains stable, you will not gain weight in other areas after liposuction.

Patients frequently ask this question, as it is a common concern raised in online chat rooms as well as cocktail hour paries. Liposuction removes fat cells from the area that is being treated. We have been in practice in the Santa Rosa, California area for 17 years and, in our experience, we have never seen fat accumulate elsewhere unless the patient puts on a significant amount of weight ( i.e., more than 10% of their nody weight). Liposuction remains safe and effective. We also offer... more

Francisco Canales, MD
Santa Rosa Plastic Surgeon

Permanent Fat Removal?

Thank you for the commonly asked question. Fat cells that are gone (for example removed with liposuction surgery) are gone forever. However, if a patient gains weight the fat cells that remain in the area treated with liposuction and in areas that were not treated will grow. Do your best to maintain a healthy weight after your procedure. I hope this helps.

Tom J. Pousti, MD
San Diego Plastic Surgeon

Liposuction permanently removes fat cells

Liposuction is permanent removal of fat cells -- but the fat cells that remain behind can increase their size by up to 16 times! Under normal circumstances the fat cells that are removed will never grow back. Your body is genetically programmed to store fat in certain areas and to absorb fat from certain areas when you need it for energy. Having liposuction may or may not change these areas of preferred storage and utilization. As long as you maintain your good diet and... more

Richard H. Fryer, MD
Salt Lake City Plastic Surgeon

Liposuction does not make other areas fatter

Liposuction is targeted, focal, permanent loss of fat cells in the areas treated. Liposuction improves the bodys contour and most importantly it helps create proper proportions. Example: If your body is model perfect except for "saddle bags" on the sides of your thighs, these saddle bags are out of proportion to the rest of your body. Liposuction will bring your thighs into proportion and even though some fat cells have been permanently removed from the... more

Jeffrey M. Darrow, MD
Boston Plastic Surgeon

Liposuction does not make other areas get fatter

Liposuction improves body contour. It is not intended for weight loss or generalized fat removal. The body contour changes can be long lasting, as long as the patient does their part maintaining their weight with a healthy diet and regular exercise. Weight gain negatively influences results. If you had liposuction from a particular area that you usually noticed weight gains, well, now there are less fat cells there. So with weight gain, you may tend to notice fullness in other areas in... more

Hayley Brown MD
Henderson Plastic Surgeon

Liposuction and weight gain

If liposuction is performed on one area and you gain weight, it certainly can accumulate in other areas. Yes, I have seen this. The key is to try to stay within a range of your goal weight.

Steven Wallach, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Liposuction won't make another area fat as long as you don't gain weight

People gain fat when they consume more calories than they burn. As long as you keep your weight stable after liposuction, you're body will not store extra fat. If you do gain weight, it may preferentially go to another problem area that wasn't treated by liposuction. However, more commonly, it seems to distribute relatively evenly to the remaining fat pockets in the body.

Lawrence A. Osman, MD
Woodland Hills Dermatologic Surgeon

How removing fat from one area the body affects another area

Liposuction is a safe, popular, and effective way to contour the body. Every individual has a specific way in which they deposit fat. We are all genetically designed to place fat in a particular part of our body first. Should we add more fat, this fat will then be added to the second area of our body. If you perform liposuction in the area of your body where you first gain fat and then gain additional weight, the fat will not go to the first area that will be added to the second area... more

B. Pat Pazmino, MD
Miami Plastic Surgeon

Balance of mass and energy

There is always a balance of mass and energy in the universe. If one has a stable weight, then the amount of fat on the body is supported by the number of calories consumed and the metabolic demand as well as exercise energy requirements. If the latter don't change and one loses fat via liposuction, then it is an inevitable consequence that if the calories eaten stay the same then the same amount of fat will be stored. As the liposuction sites have less fat cells than before surgery,... more

Ronald Shelton, MD
Manhattan Dermatologist

The quick answer is no!

This is one of the most common questions I hear from my lipo patients. As you gain weight, you will gain the weight as fat. The fat goes to fat cells, the number of which tends to be fixed. Therefore, if you gain weight, the fat will go to the areas that it usually goes to, but the area that was liposuctioned will have less fat cells. Therefore, it appears that the fat goes to "other areas".

Scott E. Kasden, MD
Dallas Plastic Surgeon

It is all proportional

Jillian, During liposuction, fat cells are removed. So, in the treated there will be less fat cells. Therefore, if you gain weight, a higher proportion of the weight gain will be in other areas. Liposuction is not an end-all. After your procedure, you need to start or continue a healthy lifestyle and maintain your weight. Also, liposuction should really been viewed as a contouring procedure, NOT a weight loss procedure. I hope this is helpful. David Shafer, MD Liposuction New York City more