Eating for maintenance of fat transfer

After any surgical procedure, it is important to consume adequate protein and maintain overall caloric intake. Your body is going through a recovery process from trauma. This is not the time for caloric restriction, “skinny shots” unless under supervised weight loss by a physician, or fad diets.

Fat grafts, to my knowledge, do not have unique or specific dietary requirements distinct from the rest of your healing body.

Hello,
Scientific studies actually support this theory in mice. (Xingtang Niu et al. Front Cell Dev Bio 2022; Xingtang Niu et al. Aesthetic Surg 2022). These studies showed that preoperative high carbohydrate diets and high fat diets promote overall fat survival and reduction in oil cysts (fat death). While it isn't human studies and there aren't many of them, I do believe and recommend to my patients to focus on a fully rounded diet with more healthy fats than usual to promote survival. These include avocados, olive oils, nuts, flaxseeds, nut butters, full fat dairy, hummus, tahini, healthy carbohydrates etc. The drawback is that if you go overboard, or focus on unhealthy fats, your fat in other areas will also absorb this and you could develop metabolic disorders. Additionally, if you lose weight in the future, your transferred fat will also shrink. It is a healthy balance. But yes, eating a diet high in healthy fats and carbs for the first 3 months post op can help with fat survival, just don't over do it!