If 6 liters of fat is removed, how many lbs of weight is that?

The aspirate removed during
liposuction consists of both fat and fluid. Initially it is mixed together. If
the aspirate is allowed to settle, it will separate into a fluid layer on the
bottom, and a fat layer on the top. The fluid layer consists mostly of some
portion of the wetting solution (saline i.v. fluid, lidocaine, and epinephrine)
that was injected, as well as a small amount of blood. The amount of fluid in
the aspirate may depend upon how much wetting solution was injected at the
beginning of the procedure. The more wetting solution injected, the more fluid
will likely be aspirated along with the fat. For me personally, I find that
about 10 to15% of the total volume of aspirate is fluid, and the rest is
aspirated fat.



What
ultimately matters is how much fat is removed. If your surgeon has communicated
the “total aspirate” as 6 L, then less than 6 L of fat has been removed. You
would need to know how much fluid was removed so you could calculate how much
fat was in the aspirate. If your surgeon was referring only to “aspirated fat”,
then it truly is 6 L.



The weight
of 6 L of pure fat aspirate, is --

The density of fat is 0.918 gm/cm3 (slightly less
than the density of water 1 gr/ cm3)

1 cm3
= 1 cc = 1 mL

6 L fat =
6000 cc fat

6000 cc
fat x
0.9 gm/cc = 5400 gr fat

5400 gr fat
= 5.4 kg fat

1 kg =
2.20462 pounds

5.4 kg
fat x
2.2 pounds/kg = 11.9 pounds



Liposuction
is a body contouring operation and not a weight loss operation. Although
patients always want to know how much fat was removed, and how much that fat
weighs, patients do not usually experience large changes in body weight
following liposuction.



Best
wishes.

1 liter of water is 2.2 pounds.  The calculation is different with fat... however, it also depends on how much tumescent fluid was also removed during the procedure.  So I generally average and tell my patients each liter is about 2 pounds of fat.  So, 6 liters of fat is probably around 12 pounds.  That is quite a lot!