Can I get liposuction or noninvasive surgery to jump start my diet?

Liposuction for body contour improvement can certainly 'jump start' a healthy new lifestyle initiative that includes diet, exercise, smoking cessation and other positive lifestyle changes.

 Patients with a high BMI are not excellent candidate but often times find the improvements from liposuction trigger a positive effort towards further weight loss.

Unfortunately, liposuction is not the right approach to lose weight.  I would strongly recommend that you visit with a physician who is board certified in obesity medicine to set goals and put you on a path towards a healthier lifestyle.  Once you achieve your weight and lifestyle goals, liposuction or other body contouring procedures can help you further acheive your aesthetic body shape goals.

You are half way there if you really WANT to get control of your body.  It is the desire for a better quality of life that fosters adherence to any treatment plan. In my opinion, the first step, beyond the commitment to yourself you may have already made, is for a trained professional to learn more about you.  Dietary history, lifestyle assessment, understanding of what you can and cannot do, and other factors must be considered in formulating a plan that will succeed.  Your hormone levels may be contributing, and if they haven't been checked, perhaps they should be.  Your path to this circumstance should be analyzed, and weaknesses discussed.  It's all about the result.  A powerful plan is then formulated, and a pact entered, that there is no going back.  you are the only one who can do this for yourself, but get good help for the journey.

It's a good question. It's unlikely that liposuction would do anything to jumpstart your weight loss. Liposuction is a sculpting procedure, and not meant for any significant weight loss. I would consider getting plugged into a weight loss clinic, or weight loss surgery. This includes banding and gastric bypass procedures.

Yes liposuction can be used to jump start your new healthy lifestyle. Your surgeon must also balance that with the added risks of operating in the face of an increased BMI. You may want to consider one of the non-invasive methods such as coolsculpting.Best of luck,Dr K

The general mantra is that liposuction is not a treatment for obesity. In my experience of thousands of liposuction cases, I have found some obese patients to be excellent candidates with patient satisfaction afterwards.If the concern is the abdomen, hips and waist, then, first and foremost, the diagnosis has to be subcutaneous fat and not intra-abdominal fat.It is only the fat between the muscle and skin layers that can be removed with liposuction. I have had obese patients where high-volume liposuction has been done, giving patients a more normal body proportion.For some people, it's virtually impossible to fit into normal clothes because one area of the body is so much bigger than others.For people who are proportionately overweight, weight loss is usually a much better option if possible.Liposuction is a procedure that works well to change fat distribution and change people's proportions. In some ways, this is irrelevant to someone's overall weight or BMI.For patients who carry significant amounts of intra-abdominal fat, or gut fat, liposuction tends to give poor patient satisfaction. It's not a yes-or-no, all-or-none answer. You need to be personally assessed to see if you're a candidate based on what your expectations are and what can be delivered.I disagree with other surgeons that make blanket statements about not performing liposuction on obese patients.It simply is not that simple. Some patients cannot or will not lose weight. Is it unfair for these people to not have access to something that can change the shape of their body for the better?I have seen many patients who have gotten kickstarts from liposuction and lost significant amounts of weight after.However, I would not rely on the procedure to be the motivating factor for losing weight.I would like to share a few thoughts about weight loss with you. These come from personal experience.Several years ago, I also weighed 250 pounds, though I am 6'2".While liposuction is
generally not prescribed as a treatment for obesity, most patients who get
liposuction are somewhat overweight.



From having met thousands
of people interested in liposuction, I have had ample opportunity to talk to
many, many people about their struggle with weight.



A few repeating patterns
seem to emerge.



Perhaps the most common
one is people not eating frequently enough. Losing weight by not eating is a fallacy.
In reality, we tend to overeat after having gone hungry.



Another common
misunderstanding is the relationship between weight and exercise. Most patients
are not successful at losing weight by exercising without changes in diet.
Losing weight is 90% about diet. Exercise has to do with fitness. Think of diet
and exercise as two separate entities with two separate purposes.



That said, I encourage
everyone to exercise on a regular basis.



The majority of people
get hungry from working out and tend to overeat afterwards, sometimes feeling
justified to do so after a strenuous workout.



The number of calories
burned during a typical workout session is far less than people
believe. Any successful weight reduction program has to be based on permanent
change. Any temporary diet plan will ultimately fail if not followed by
permanent changes in behavior.



It is important to
understand the role that insulin plays in obesity and what causes surges in
insulin. If you read the late Dr. Atkins' book, you will learn that his
obsession was with controlling insulin much more so than with eliminating
carbohydrates.



It is also important to
learn about the glycemic index and glycemic loads. Avoid eating meals that
give a high glycemic load. This is somewhat similar to saying avoid eating
large carbohydrate-based meals, though understanding what foods constitute as
bad carbohydrate meals is critical. This will be learned after mastering the
concepts of the glycemic index and glycemic load.



Here are my rules to keep
weight under control: Never go hungry.Never eat a large
meal.Never, never, never eat a
large meal when you are hungry.Avoid large
carbohydrate-based meals.Don't expect exercise to
get your weight down and don't blame the lack of exercise for not being able to
maintain your weight.Step on the scale every
day after you get out of the shower in the morning.Accept weight
fluctuations. None of us stay at the same weight or continue to go down in
weight. Don't beat yourself up if you gain a few pounds. It's the
long-term, rest-of-your-life progress that matters.

I hope that is of some
help.



Best of luck,



Mats Hagstrom, M.D.

Thank you for your question and your BMI is 44 and you might be better off looking into Bariatric surgery rather then liposuctionDr Corbin