Laser or Traditional Liposuction + Fat Transfer 126lbs - should I lose weight first? (photos)

Vaser and tumescent liposuction can both give outstanding results. What matters is the experience and quality of the surgeon. I have 40 years experience with liposuction which is my most common procedure. Also do a lot of fat transfers. I use tumescent technique but many surgeons are great at vaser. There are also some not so good surgeons that use each technique. If you were having brain surgery you would want to pick a great neurosurgeon and you should not care what brand of instruments he uses. Pick a board certified plastic surgeon with plenty of experience and great before and after photos. Good luck.

You need a formal evaluation by an expert in body shaping and contouring to determine what is best. The best in body contouring not only removes fat with energy devices like VASER ultrasound but also internally heats the skin with radiofrequency devices such as Renuvion (J-Plasma), InMode BodyTite, and ThermiRF to heat the undersurface of the skin and tighten it at the same time as fat removal. These combinations are called 4D HI-DEF VASER Liposuction and can only be done by a well-trained body contouring specialist. At the same time, fat should be harvested and purified, with PRP and stem cells added, and then injected into muscles, indentations and cellulite to get body shaping and contouring. For a Brazilian butt lift (BBL), we inject the fat into the buttock for contouring and lifting, but fat can also be used in areas such as the chest/breast, arms/shoulders, calves and face. Cellulite should also be treated with a combination of QWO or Cellfina, subcision, and/or fillers such as Bellafill, Renuva synthetic fat, or Sculptra. If skin is very loose before surgery, then it will need to be removed: tummy tuck/abdominoplasty for lower abdominal skin; breast lift for excess breast skin; and/or a brachioplasty for loose arm skin.

Overall, you need a full assessment, but simple liposuction alone will not tighten skin and needs a combination of various methods -- fat removal, skin tightening, defining, fat grafting, skin removal -- to get the best in body contouring and body sculpting. See an expert. Best, Dr. Emer.

Dear Honest898704,
based on your photos, you look like a good candidate for a BBL. Liposuction of your abdomen, back and flanks should give you more curves and hourglass shape and fat transfer to buttocks should give you more projection. I would suggest you to consult a board-certified plastic surgeon because only after a thorough examination you will get more information and recommendations.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

I would not suggest losing too much weight before doing lipo. Your BMI is not too much. I always prefer maintaining a healthy lifestyle and not focusing on losing or gaining weight. Vaser lipo is the best way to move forward because it will emulsify the fat cells with ultrasound energy and does not kill the fat cells without damaging the surrounding tissues. The quality of fat cells and BBL results are absolutely amazing. The benefits of vaser are short recovery, less pain, less bruising, and more. The laser kills the fat cells so you can not do laser lipolysis when you are doing the fat transfer. The doctor can use a laser after the liposuction for skin tightening. I have done thousands of lipo and the best choice for you is to go with vaser lipo and fat transfer. You need to find an experienced, board-certified physician with an excellent track record because lipo 360 is an art. I hope I have answered your question. Good luck.

In reality all forms of Liposuction still use the same small stainless steel cannula connected to source a vacuum. Ultrasound assisted Liposuction a.k.a. VASER simply pre-treats the fat with an ultrasound probe.

Laser assisted Liposuction such as smart Lipo pre-treats the fat with a laser fiber.

I think most experienced plastic surgeons have found that laser treatments have virtually no impact on the outcome of Liposuction and the device has significantly lost favor in the plastic surgery community. This is evident by secondhand devices selling for pennies on the dollars on websites like eBay.

VASER maintains solid support by those who have invested in the equipment and this device is still fairly expensive to buy secondhand.

VASER can potentially help the surgeon remove more fat and less time but in doing so has the potential of leaving patients with greater deformities and disfigurement if the surgeon doesn’t have the skill and experience necessary.

There is no advantage to anyone technology or equipment.

Plastic surgeons have the tools they need to do their job correctly if they have the skill and experience.

When it comes to Liposuction and fat transfer there are only two variables that determine the outcome and they are patient candidacy combined with skill and experience of the surgeon.

These are the only variables that matter and the only variables I suggest you focus on.

You didn’t include pictures so we can’t make any type of assessment in regards to potential outcomes.

Delivering consistent high-quality liposuction and fat transfer result it’s more difficult than most people think.

This is true for both consumers and providers.

For that reason I recommend all patients focus a substantial amount of effort in finding the most talented and experienced provider. this is much more important than selecting a provider based on what equipment they use.

Proper vetting of plastic surgeons requires in person consultations at which time patients should ask providers to show their entire collection of before and after pictures for the procedure or areas of interest.

For a fat transfer make sure after pictures are always taken at least three months after the procedure. Early postoperative fat transfer pictures can look very impressive but are not at all representative a final results.

Sing a select few representative before and after pictures that are in fact the best outcomes of the providers career is insufficient to get an understanding of what average results look like.

For this reason patients should push the provider to show their entire collection up before and after pictures.

This should include ideal outcomes, average outcomes and outcomes that were less than. A confident experienced provider should have no difficulty showing these type of pictures.

I also recommend patients read all reviews on all various physician review websites avoiding providers for the new significant number of justified negative reviews.

In my opinion the absence of justified negative reviews is far more important and more telling than an abundance of positive reviews.

Justified negative reviews tend to be organic and the same cannot be said for positive reviews.


When in doubt slow down and schedule more consultations.

Making an accurate assessment and delivering consistent results with fat transfer requires a lot of experience.

The amount of host tissue available to graft into is probably the biggest valuable followed by using good grafting techniques.

The results of both Liposuction and fat transfer are permanent and to some degree irreversible.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD

Hi and welcome to our forum!
Although low energy Vaser liposuction will yield viable fatty tissue, traditional liposuction will provide a higher volume of viable fat cells for transplantation.
In our practice, we feel it is best to be as close to your desired comfortable body weight at the time of surgery as crash diets will not provide long term weight loss success.
Best wishes...

Great Question!
Your best results would be to use both the Vaser liposculpting and water assisted Tumescent technologies, and fat transfer all at the same procedure. I do this combination for my patients very frequently because the results are so good, in my hands. Your BMI is perfect for higher definition results, if you lost more weight you will have less fat to transfer.
Best. DrBrecht
Seattle, Wa