I am 288 pounds; how much weight do I have to lose in order to have liposuction on stomach, inner thighs, and arms?

You must understand that safety must be our first priority and your BMI should be 30 or below in order to have a safe procedure.You must know that there is a limit for liposuction because the fat which is obtained by liposuction comes together with blood, electrolytes, protein, etc so removing more than 5-6 litters of fat will put your life at risk and if you have 80, 90 or 100 lbs overweight then 10-12 lbs of liposuction will NOT make any difference on your body added to the fact, that because you have a risky degree of obesity, the surgery itself becomes very risky as well.Try a Nutritionist or a Bariatric surgeon. Losing weight will be the best option.Dr. Cardenas

At 288 pounds you most likely are more than 100 pounds over your ideal body weight. That means that by definition you are what we refer to as "morbidly" obese. That term is used because whenever a person gets to be over 100 pounds above their ideal body weight then "morbid" things start to happen such as diabetes, bone and joint disorders, heart and blood vessel disease, and so forth. It is therefore imperative that you lose the weight ASAP but in a healthy fashion and liposuction is not a weight loss surgery. In my practice I have found it is most helpful to the patients who present with morbid obesity to refer them to have a gastric sleeve operation which will cause them to lose over 100 pounds in a year. At that point you will be much healthier and will still be about 30 to 50 pounds above ideal body weight . That is the time when body contouring through liposuction and/or resectional skin surgery should be addressed.