Weight gain after tummy tuck and lipo?

Question

I had lipo of the abdomen, flanks and back along with a tummy tuck to fix diastasis recti and hernia removal after having twins. But I didn't expect the doctor to take off so much fat. I would like to gain some weight to those areas again. The doctor said that he didn't take all of the fat cells out. My question is if I gain weight will most of it go to those areas that had lipo?

Eugene Kim, MD · Answer

Congratulations on completing your surgery.  It is difficult to say where the fat will go
when you gain weight.  Once the fat cells
are removed, you never regrow new fat cells but the fat cells that are left behind
can get bigger.  This can give you an
appearance similar to what you had prior to liposuction, but just gaining
weight doesn’t necessarily mean that the fat will return in just those
areas.  I hope this helps.

Farhad Rafizadeh, MD · Answer

The answer is no. If you gain weight, the areas around the liposuction sites would normally gain more weight. If you have some areas of depression due to liposuction, those areas can be treated with fat grafting. As you know the fat cells don't multiply. Therefore the areas that are not treated by liposuction would have more tendency to gain weight.

Nicolas Villanustre, MD · Answer

Liposuction most often doesn't remove all the fat cells from a certain location. It removes most of it from the deep fat layer and some places also the superficial. Depends on the techniques used by your surgeon.If it happens that you gain weight, some of the remaining cells will get bigger, but usually following the new shape created by the surgeon

Jacqueline Anne Luong, MD · Answer

It is impossible to determine where fat will distribute after liposuction.  It may go to the areas that are concerning to you but it may also go to areas that were never treated.Dr. Luong

Weight gain after tummy tuck and lipo?

Answers (4)