BBL stands for Brazilian butt lift. It is primarily a gluteal augmentation procedure. In order to fat transfer liposuction is required and most commonly fat is harvested from the torso. Fat can be harvested from any area so BBL by itself does not mean that you’re going to have abdominal liposuction. It is often the case, though. What you are really asking for your candidacy for Liposuction not for BBL? Let’s start with the front of your abdomen, then work our way towards your waist. The two are sometimes somewhat related. In regards to the front of your abdomen there are four tissue variables that determine what it looks like. Two of these are pregnancy related. Those are abdominal skin laxity and abdominal muscle separation. Skin laxity is often perceived as being fat. If you grab a bunch of loose skin, the fat feels much thicker than it actually is. To determine how thick your subcutaneous fat layer is pull your skin tight first. That gives you a much more accurate assessment regarding how thick your subcutaneous fat layer is. The other two variables are the thickness of subcutaneous, fat and potential visceral fat. From your pictures, you have classic pregnancy related changes, which is primarily skin laxity and muscle separation. The correct treatment for this is a full tummy tuck not liposuction. Pregnancies do not change your fat distribution. Pregnancies only change skill, laxity, and muscle separation. Skin Laxity is the number one reason patient failed to be good candidates for Liposuction. That doesn’t mean you can’t have Liposuction. It just means it’s not going to give you the best result in comparison to what a tummy tuck would or what Liposuction could do on the person who is young and doesn’t have pregnancy related skin laxity. The perfect candidate for Liposuction is usually young, has tight skin and is pudgy with thick layers of subcutaneous fat. These are the patients who are going to get the best liposuction results. The opposite is also true. With age, we lose skin elasticity, and this in conjunction with other variables that are not subcutaneous fat related the chance of quality liposuction results is reduced. Generally, speaking older patients are lesser candidates for Liposuction compared to young people. There’s no absolute for this. It is an ongoing continuum. Do you understand the impact of Lipo succulent, simply assess how thick your subcutaneous fat layer is. Do this by pulling the skin slightly snug, then gently pressing down against your skin with one finger until you feel the underlying muscle wall. It requires a very light touch to do this. You can practice over your rib cage and get a general sense of how thick your subcutaneous fat areas. The thickness of your subcutaneous fat layer is probably similar in your waist. It Tends to be a little thicker Around the belly button and slightly thin along the sides of the abdomen were oblique muscles are. You can anticipate that Liposuction will remove 75% of the subcutaneous fat. In other words, if your subcutaneous fat layer is 1 inch thick then you were waist can come in by 3/4 of an inch. If you have skin laxity (you do) , then you may see less of result because skin laxity can contribute significantly to contour. Do you understand what the procedure can or cannot accomplish look for before and after pictures of previous patients who look just like you in the before pictures Have pictures of yourself whenever you reviewing before and after pictures to make sure you’re looking at people who had the same candidacy for the procedure this is especially true in person consultations. Always bring pictures of yourself to use as reference and do not rely on memory of what your body looks like when reviewing before and after pictures. To get a quality assessment and help find the right provider. I suggest scheduling multiple in person consultations with plastic surgeons in your community. During each consultation, ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection before and after pictures of previous patient who had similar body characteristics to your own, Highly experienced plastic surgeons should have access to hundreds of before, and after pictures to choose from and finding images of patients who had similar bodies, should not be too difficult. Failure to demonstrate an impressive collection of before, and after pictures is probably the number one reason to not go with any certain provider. Finally, the ability to deliver Deliver consistent quality Liposuction results is more difficult than most people realize. The number of plastic surgeons who approach mastery of Liposuction is in reality quite small. Being talented at Liposuction includes the ability to make an accurate assessment and predict outcomes correctly. Plastic surgeons are really good at suction will understand exactly what your results will look like and there will be no guessing game. Finding the right plastic surgeon is inherently, difficult and more difficult than most people realize. Most patients do a terrible job at selecting a provider. I don’t mean to cynical patient I only had one consultation before scheduling surgery. Having only one consultation before scheduling surgery more or less eliminates the ability to choose a better provider. Exceptional results only come from exceptional providers. The great majority of plastic servants are merely average. Average plastic surgery results don’t typically look that great. The results you see online or displayed on providers websites almost exclusively represent the top 5% of results or less. Nobody is going to show their dirty laundry. Because patient candidacy is critically important to getting good outcomes. If you don’t understand your own candidacy for the procedure, you can never really understand what your potential outcome is going to look like. In the end, patient candidacy and provider selection of to most important variables and then the end they are probably equally as important. Because you can’t do much about your candidacy for plastic surgery the only very bullet you really have controlled over is provider selection so if you want to maximize the chance of long-term satisfaction, you should put all your efforts in provider selection. Skill regarding fat transfer is also similar to Liposuction. The number of plastic surgeons who approach mastery of fat transfer is also small. If these procedures are not done, well, patients can be left permanently disfigured with all kinds of complications that need revision surgery, and even with that results are never going to be great if it wasn’t done correctly, the first time. You only get one shot of these procedures. There’s no correct number of consultations to schedule to find the right provider. Most patients simply aren’t good at the process so having more consultations will make you a more qualified consumer understanding the variables involved, and what to look for. You’ll start to begin to understand Which providers are detail oriented, and which ones are going to convey all the important variables that need to be discussed during thorough in person consultation. In reality there’s a lot to review. More than anything else is the providers ability to show an impressive collection of before and after pictures and that they don’t simply show you their best results but show your average results of people who look just like you. If you want a good looking midsection than a tummy tuck is by far a better procedure for you than Liposuction. Nobody wants to have a tummy tuck. I understand that, and all plastic surgeons do. Women are willing to have a full tummy tuck because it is the only procedure that will properly address, skin laxity, and muscle separation and restore a pre-pregnancy body as much as possible. Almost all women with pregnancy related changes are apprehensive about having a full tummy tuck and look for easier softer solutions which often lead to disappointment at a high cost. You have a BBL, but you should recognize that the procedure is more likely to be oriented, especially if you’re not a great candidate for Liposuction. If you want the best outcome with gluteal enhancement, then a tummy tuck with a BBL is probably the way to go. These might be better done as separate procedures and this is something each provider will have their own view on As I mentioned that there is a lot of information to go over. Good luck, Mats Hagstrom MD