Does Lipo Fat Really Return in Other Places?

The study released in the NY Times yesterday seems to indicate that there's a pretty good chance lipo fat will come back in other areas of the body after a year.

Have you seen results like this with your patients? Is this only if a patient is not actively maintaining their weight after lipo? - Makenzie @ RealSelf

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12 Doctor Answers | Asked by Makenzie in Seattle, WA

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For Best Results, One Needs To Lose Weight Aftter Liposuction

The patients in this study weighed on average 150 lbs. before liposuction and had 3000 cc (about 6 lbs.) of fat removed from the abdomen, flanks, and thighs. One year later they weighed on average 149 lbs. The patients’ measurements in the waist and thighs were improved, after the liposuction so they looked better. MRI analysis showed that there was increased fat in the deeper areas of the abdomen and other areas of the body. In other words they looked better in... more

Liposuction fat coing back somewhere else

Liposuction in one area generally does not make the fat come back in other areas. However if the patient gains weight, fat will go elsewhere. That means if 5 pounds were taken off in surgery, and you have gained 5 pounds since the surgery, you have actually gained 10 pounds since the surgery. If liposuction is aggressively done in one area, this tendency will be worse. So liposuction patients should maintain a healthy body and not gain weight after their surgery. more

Weight gain after liposuction

Liposuction permanently removes some, but not all, of the fat cells from the area in which the surgery is done. If one gains weight after surgery, the fat can go into the remaining cells to some degree, and is also distributed in other body areas in the remaining non-operated sites. It is not the procedure of having liposuction that makes one gain weight. If you adapt to your new body size, you should realize that you need less calories to support less of your fat now... more

Permanent Fat Removal?

Thank you for the 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.

Return of lipo fat after liposuction

When fat is removed from a specific area it typically does not return. Your fat cell increase and decrease in size with weight changes. That said if you gain weight significantly after liposuction you will typically gain it in other areas first. The ideal patient is one who eats healthy and exercises regularly to maintain or improve their result.

Fat redistribution after liposuction

Liposuction does NOT cause a redistribution of fat! Rather, if patients gain weight after liposuction, it may accumulate in other areas, especially since liposuction removes fat cells in the areas that are treated. Regardless, liposuction is not a weight loss procedure, but a contouring procedure. The goal is to maintain the investment you have made, watch what you eat, and exercise regularly after the procedure.

Returning fat after liposuction

The worry that the fat will come back some where else after liposuction is a common one and one that we believe is a well perpetuated myth. Liposuction will permanently shape and contour areas where body shape has been inherited and influenced by gender, much like sculpture of the fat layer. This is true. It is also true however that liposuction has a very poor record for controlling weight. In this sense fat can 'return' to other areas where fat cells remain to store the excess... more

Liposuction

If weight is gained after liposuction it will preferentially go to other location. If weight is maintained then it should not be an issue

Weight gain after liposuction

The areas of fat concentration tend to be abdominal in aging men, hips & thighs in aging women & buttocks in certain races as those individuals age. The age at which this occurs varies from person to person. Changes in metabolism & fat deposition can also occur more quickly such as after childbirth. It is easier to lose fat from areas in which your body tends to not concentrate fat. The fat doesn't go to one place & then another as in first, second etc.. It... more

"The Migrating Fat" theory of Liposuction Vindicated - NOT

As you know, through the centuries there were a LOT of "factual" books printed which were convinced the Earth was flat, that our arteries carried Air (hence the origin of their name) instead of blood, that applying searing hot irons cures some incurable diseases (according to The Father of Medicine - Hippocrates - "What drugs will not cure, the knife will; what the knife will not cure, the cautery will; what the cautery will not cure must be considered incurable"), that... more

Fat does not redistribute after liposuction unless you gain a lot of weight.

The link to the New York Times article is in the web reference below. The piece -- surprisingly for Ms Kolata -- lacks a balance of emphasis. First, fat "comes back" after liposuction only if the patient gains weight.. The study describes the inevitable redistribution of fat cells ( NOT fat volume) after liposuction. The number of fat cells in the body after adolescence is constant. Liposuction permanently removes fat cells from the thighs,... more

Fat redistribution

Although I have not read the full study, the conclusions are not entirely surprising as we know (even thoguh subject to overstatement), and I tell patients that fat re-distribution and re-accumulation can, and does, occur in certain patients. But it is difficult to quantify this process and to predict who it will or won't occur in. Many of our patients do not follow-up beyond a few months. Also, liposuction by itself is not the issue, it is the selection of the patients and the... more