Weight gain after liposuction- What?!

One of the dirty secrets of plastic surgery is that liposuction can contribute to ……..weight gain!

Wait! Before you cancel your surgery, take a moment to understand why this can happen, and appreciate how simple it is to avoid the extra pounds some people put on after liposuction.

Let’s say you don’t like the size of your thighs. They’ve always been too big, and the sight of them sends you to the gym 5 days a week and keeps you on your diet. Frustrated, you find a great surgeon, have liposuction, and three weeks later your thighs are looking great!

Now that you are happy with your appearance, diet and exercise lose their urgency, and you start to gain weight. Despite several pounds of weight gain your thighs still look great because the adipocytes that store fat are permanently gone from your thighs. Instead, that excess fat is being stored in less obvious (for now) areas of your body. Six months later, your thighs still look fine but now you have big hips and abdomen. And yes, you could now have liposuction on your hips and abdomen, but if you continue to ignore the scale, some other body area will become a problem.

How to avoid this spiral? Trust the scale more than the mirror. Even though you love your new silhouette, the scale will reveal whether you are gaining weight in new areas. Six weeks after liposuction, you should strive to weigh less than you did pre-op. True, you may have been limited in exercise after surgery, but most studies show that it is diet and not exercise that dictates our weight.

The lesson here is that liposuction is a fabulous way to permanently change your shape, but it is only successful as part of a healthy lifestyle.