Skinny BBL for low body fat % (Photo)

Estimating how much fat can be removed with liposuction and low BMI patients as one of the most challenging parts of my practice. To put things in perspective I’ve been a board-certified plastic surgeon for 20 years. The last 10 years of practice has been divided exclusively to only liposuction and fat to transfer procedures. I performed over 7000 liposuction procedures in my career. Still to this date my estimate on how much fat can be removed on low BMI patients can be off bye half. Making an assessment based on pictures is far less accurate then an in person consultation. For example, yesterday I met a patient who wants a fat transfer procedure who is 5 foot six and weighs 130 pounds. Initially I thought she would not have enough fat but after examining her abdomen I’m quite certain I’ll be able to harvest around 900 mL a fat from her torso. I think at a minimum to justify a BBL the surgeon needs to be able to graft 400 mL per side or a total of 800 mL of fat. Less than that probably doesn’t justify the procedure. On patients who are lean like yourself I typically recommend adding more areas to be treated with Liposuction until we get a sufficient amount of fat and do not recommend patients gain weight for fat transfer procedures. The most common approach on most patients is to start by treating the entire torso as one unit. Technically a full torso includes upper abdomen, lower abdomen, love handles, waist, full back and under arm area. It is in fact the entire torso with the exception of the breast. Typically the next area to be treated his arms which tends to deliver high patient satisfaction and quality results. after that I consider thighs. Patients who already have thin arms may have their thighs treated as the second go to area. It’s pretty rare that treating the entire torso and one set of extremities is not enough fat to give a good fat transfer results. An assessment for someone like you without question requires in person assessment with in person consultations. Signing up for a BBL through virtual consultation with uncertain ideas of what can or cannot be achieved would be a mistake in my opinion. In the end it’s a matter of what you’re trying to achieve and willing to go through. Is it OK to have liposuction of your entire body to get gluteal augmentation? Patients with fair skin typically don’t have issues with visible scars from liposuction and well done liposuction has a secondary gain of giving muscle definition and very nice results. On the other hand if the surgeon isn’t particularly talented at Liposuction then this can leave the body disfigured or having areas with contour irregularities. I cannot stress enough the importance of physician selection when it comes to this procedure. Practice makes perfect and for someone like yourself there isn’t much room for error. The following are some general recommendations for those seeking cosmetic surgery to get the best outcomes and have an overall positive experience. I recommend patients avoid traveling long distances for elective surgical procedures. There are of course instances where there is a lack of local talent and traveling to some degree is inevitable. If traveling for the procedure patients should be ready to travel to have the consultation, post operative appointments and follow up should there be issues or complications. Patients sometimes do not appreciate the importance of in person consultations, that complications do happen or the number of people who have issues with their results or need revisions. Schedule multiple consultations with different providers in your area who seem to have a good reputation for the procedure you’re interested in. Starting with at least five consultations seems like a reasonable number to me. Whenever possible schedule in person consultations. During in person consultations ask each plastic surgeon to show all of their before and after pictures for the procedure you’re interested in. The goal is not to see the best results of their career but to get an idea of what average results look like and get some type of confirmation of how many of these procedures that provider has performed. Ask to see results that were not as good as the doctor would’ve hoped for and talk about the differences in outcomes. Honest and experienced providers should have no problems presenting this type of information. A highly experienced plastic surgeon should have hundreds of before and after pictures for the procedure you’re interested in. At a minimum at least 20+. Read all the reviews on various physician review websites paying close attention and avoiding providers with any significant number of justified negative reviews. Providers with an abundance of reviews often have aggressive marketing campaigns. The plastic surgeons I respect most all have the single variable of not having justified negative reviews on their online profiles. In my opinion justified negative reviews are far more telling than an abundance of positive reviews. Avoid scheduling for surgery or making a deposit on the day of the consultation. Give yourself some time to think about the decision and make sure you finished all scheduled consultations before committing to having surgery that will permanently and irreversibly change your body. When in doubt slow down and schedule more consultations. Choosing the right plastic surgeon is the single most important variable to having a positive experience. Don’t go chasing after technology or names of certain equipment. Instead focus all your efforts on finding the most experienced and talented board-certified plastic surgeon. Best, Mats Hagstrom MD