Does Liposuction in One Body Area Make Another Get Fatter?

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 weight after undergoing liposuction.

Thank you for your question. While there are definitely safety concerns with respect to weight and liposuction there are several considerations:1) Are you goals for the surgery achievable with liposuction? E.g. Liposuction is not a weight loss procedure, even though you will lose a few pounds. It is more to contour areas of the body.2) Is your weight stable? i.e. does it fluctuate upwards or downwards more than 10lbs?  Weight gain after liposuction will diminish your body contouring results as the remaining fat cells enlarge to store more energy.  In addition, you may that other parts of the body that were not liposuctioned may enlarge disproportionately compared to pre-liposuction weight gain. If your weight is stable, your results will also be stable.3) There are increase risks with liposuction if your BMI is greater than 30.I would recommend that you visit with a board certified plastic surgeon who can work with you to discuss your goals and discuss whether liposuction is the right procedure for you. In our practice, we offer a pre-surgical and post-surgical weight management program to balance our patient's weight and body contouring goals.

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 exercise habits after liposuction you should not have a problem.
 

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 treated area, not all fat cells have been removed from that area.  So in the future if you gain weight, all areas of your body will increase in size in proportion and if you lose weight the same is true.  Your best results will occur if you use liposuction as a contouring procedure and not a weight loss method and maintain a healthy diet and a good excercise regiment.

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 addition to the area previously treated. So bottom line is, your results will be stable if your weight is stable.

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 cells and you have removed cells from one region... if you gain weight the other fat cells must compensate.
In our San Francisco area practice we have not seen this in our post liposuction patients.
I hope this helps.