Is 1 liter of fat removed too little for flanks, entire stomach, inner thighs and upper back (bra roll)?

Question

I had lipo done about a week ago and had my flanks redone (they grew back after 5 yrs), my entire stomach, inner thighs and upper back bra rolls. The entire process took a little over an hour and the nurse said they removed about a liter of fat. Will I see a significant difference since soo little was taken from 4 parts of my body? Should more have been taken out?

Jason Emer, MD · Answer

If you are thin already, 1 L can be a lot.  If you are not, it may be very little removed.  Its all subjective to your starting point.  VASER HI DEF gives much larger amounts of removal and contouring.  Best, Dr. Emer.

Stephen T. Greenberg, MD, FACS · Answer

Thank you for your question.  It is important to remember that liposuction is not a weight loss procedure and that the goal of liposuction is to change the body contour or body proportions in the areas treated.  Because the goal of a liposuction procedure is to sculpt the body, the amount of fat removed at the time of a liposuction procedure depends on the pre-operative size of the patient and exactly what areas and how many areas are being treated.  There is no universal standard or 'acceptable' or 'recommended' amount of fat that should be removed at the time of a liposuction procedure.  For a petite individual with little body fat 500cc-1000cc (1L) can make a huge difference, whereas a larger individual may require much more fat removal in order to see a noticeable difference.  I would recommend waiting until you are further along in the healing process (at least 3-6 months) to start judging the results of your procedure.  Right now you are probably experiencing some swelling and this swelling can definitely mask your liposuction results.  Best of luck on your recovery!

Nikesh K. Patel, MD · Answer

Liposuction is meant to change the contours of the body and not to change someones weight.  So, the amount that is taken out of you can be different than the amount taken out of someone else, but it is all relative to the size that you are to begin with.  A small person with little fat could make a significant change with less than a liter of fat removed while in a larger person, a liter may not even show a difference.  If you do see a difference after surgery then you had a good amount of volume removed and now all you have to do is wait till things finish changing and enjoy the summer in your new body!

Nelson Castillo, MD · Answer

Thank you for your question and congratulations on your surgery.  Liposuction works best to remove isolated areas of diet and exercise resistant fat.  The total amount of fat removed is not as important as your ultimate results as 1L of fat removed from one person may be a rather large amount while not as much from another.  Allow your results time to mature.  Once healed assess your shape and contour and review your preoperative surgical plan with your surgeon.  You may be very happy with your results.  Hang in there!

Steven Wallach, MD · Answer

It really depends upon where you started to begin with. If you were very thin to begin with then a liter of fat may be enough. If you were heavy, then it is not much at atll

Frederick K. Park, MD · Answer

Thank you for your question.In body contouring, we sometimes measure the amount of tissue that is removed. Surgeons regularly do this for liposuction and breast reductions. For me, this is mostly used as a gauge for symmetry as I have an idea prior to surgery regarding if I need to take more from one area compared with another.I think that the important thing to remember here is that your shape is determined by what is left, not what is removed. Without knowing your preoperative shape, size and goals, it isn't possible to determine if any specific amount of fat removed is likely to be adequate to achieve your goals.Hopefully, you have an experienced surgeon who was well aware of your goals and removed the fat that was necessary to achieve them. He/she would have been less worried about the total removed compared with the shape that was created.A liter of liposuction as a total in all of those areas would represent fairly conservative removal in terms of average removals, but that may have been just what you needed. Discuss your concerns with your surgeon. Your new results won't be visible for a while because of swelling.I hope this helps.Good luck!

Is 1 liter of fat removed too little for flanks, entire stomach, inner thighs and upper back (bra roll)?

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