How Effective is Liposuction on the Love Handles?

Love handles are usually straight forward to treat with liposuction but your mid flanks are full too and they are pushing down on the love handles.  So in your case, you will see a shelf of fat hanging down over the area of the love handles once the swelling of the surgery goes away and there is maximum retraction of the tissues.  There may be a slighlty greater risk during the surgery when a tummy tuck and liposuction are both done together, and this may increase if the upper back/flank areas are done too.  You can have each procedure done separately if you wish, but make sure you understand the risks by speaking with your surgeon.
 

Liposuction is usually extremely effective for contouring the flanks or “love handles”. If your plastic surgeon recommended a beltplasty procedure, you may have too much excess or loose skin in the flank region to obtain an ideal result with liposuction alone. Just as with contouring the abdomen, contouring the back and flanks may involve a lift procedure, liposuction alone, or a combination of the two.  The back and flanks are probably more likely to be successfully treated with liposuction alone, but sometimes a lift procedure is the best option. If this is more surgery than you are ready to undergo or more than you want to spend at this time, you should consider having the liposuction only with the abdominoplasty. There is really nothing to lose and you will most likely realize a significant improvement in the contour of the flanks, which may be completely satisfactory to you. If there is too much excess skin following this procedure, then you could have completion of the beltplasty at a later date. These procedures are sometimes planned to be performed in stages anyway. If the surgeon with whom you consulted did not consider this a reasonable option, then you may want to seek a second opinion to see if another surgeon would.