Can Liposuction Help to Get Rid of Stubborn Fat Pockets When I’m Close to my Goal Weight?
No one has the
“perfect” body, and beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. However, there’s also
no harm in having a cosmetic treatment like liposuction. From
Los Angeles to
Palm Desert, everyone wants to feel more confident and comfortable in their own
skin. Although there’s a common misconception that surgical fat reduction is
meant for fatter people, this strategy isn’t designed as some kind of magic
bullet for weight loss, nor as an easy way for patients who are very overweight
or obese to lose a significant amount of overall body weight. In fact,
liposuction is ideal for those people who have already hit a healthy weight for
their height—and have managed to stably maintain their weight at or close to
their goal. Continue reading to learn how liposuction can fine-tune your body
shape in this situation.
Liposuction works the
same for thin, athletic patients like runners and weightlifters as it does for
patients who are slightly heavier. So if you’re average weight-wise but just
have a few flabby areas of excess fat that you’ve been unable to tone up—like
belly fat, double chin, or thigh fat—you may be an ideal candidate for the
surgery.
This procedure alters
your body’s proportions and silhouette by removing some of the soft, grabbable
fat from below the skin so that the surface contracts around your newly slimmer
contours. Are you one of those people who always has thicker thighs even after
losing weight from elsewhere, or a rounded stomach even when you are at your
slimmest? When you’re restricting your calorie intake and working out
frequently, your body might get sculpted in some areas, but you also might not
be able to attain the figure you want because of genetics, hormones, or
age-related weight gain.
Liposuction is the ideal
technique for getting rid of this fat, even if you only have a modest amount of
it that needs to be taken out. If you have a thinner frame and are thinking of
having liposuction, it’s better to go to an experienced surgeon who knows the
right techniques to lower the risk of contour irregularities.
Cosmetic Surgery
Institute also offers Renuvion
laser for skin tightening in combination with liposuction.
Ready to plan your
liposuction with the physicians at Cosmetic Surgery Institute? For
more information on surgical procedures, call us at (760) 837-0364 or send us your
info via contact form to request an appointment.
What Are the Benefits of Combining Your Tummy Tuck with Liposuction?
Although the abdominal area is a common place for people to
store excess weight when they put on a few pounds, belly fat isn’t always
linked to being overweight. You can be very slim but still have some resistant
flab around this area—flab that refuses to budge despite dieting and exercise. Some
people simply have a body type that makes them prone to being heavier in this
area. Others experience fullness in this area because their muscles and skin
have been stretched due to aging, weight loss, or pregnancy. If you’re planning
on a tummy
tuck in Palm Desert to tighten and flatten your abdominal area,
adding liposuction to the treatment can give you enhanced results.
Although both tummy tuck surgery and liposuction are highly
effective on their own as standalone procedures for reshaping the abdominal
area, the Cosmetic Surgery Institute team believes that having them done at the
same time can produce optimal results for certain patients. While the terms are
sometimes used interchangeably by patients who don’t know the difference, tummy
tucks and liposuction accomplish very different things. In this post, we
explore some of the advantages of combining the two.
1. Removing
Fat While Tightening Skin and Muscle
Liposuction allows you to have some of your subcutaneous fat
suctioned away from specific areas. A tummy tuck can also involve some fat removal,
but the procedure focuses on removing excess skin, tightening the remaining
skin, and repairing muscles to improve your mid-body contours. By having these
procedures done together, you’ll be able to remove a larger amount of diet-resistant
fat while addressing skin and muscle laxity at the same time.
2. Addressing
Transition Areas
As opposed to a tummy tuck, which is solely focused on the
abdomen, liposuction can be used to reduce fat in other areas surrounding or
near the stomach, including the hips, thighs, flanks, and back. This improves
your overall contours and emphasizes the results of the tuck.
3. Less
Recovery Time and Discomfort
By having both surgeries done at the same time, you’ll only
have to schedule a single appointment for the procedures. That also means you
will go through just one recovery period instead of two. Studies have shown
that this strategy has a low complication rate, which is very appealing for
patients.
For more information on what’s involved in liposuction and a
tummy tuck from Palm Desert’s Cosmetic Surgery Institute, as well as other body contouring
procedures, get in touch with our team today. Call us at (760) 837-0364 or send us your info via contact form
to request an appointment.
Weight Loss Basics: Which Areas Do We Lose Body Fat from First?
Although it’s not a weight loss tool, liposuction from our
Palm Desert Cosmetic Surgery Institute allows you to do
something that exercise, and dieting can’t accomplish: remove targeted pockets
of fat from isolated spots. Understanding the basics of fat loss—and why it’s
so difficult to “spot reduce” unwanted bulk in certain areas—can help anyone wondering
why their daily exercise routines and low-carb lunches aren’t touching a pesky
double chin or love handles.
Unfortunately, although your overall body fat percentage may
be lower after weeks or months of working out and reducing your calorie intake,
you may be frustrated when you notice that the areas you want to lose weight
from don’t seem to ever grow any slimmer. Additionally, many people get to a
point where exercise isn’t enough for them to get to the point where they have achieved
their body contouring goals.
A balanced diet and getting enough routine physical activity
certainly keep you healthy. However, if you’ve reached a weight-loss plateau—meaning
you’re still following your exercise and diet closely, but are temporarily unable
to lose any more weight—cosmetic procedures may be the best option for helping
you attain the shape you want.
Body fat or adipose is a connective tissue that has many
important health benefits, including temperature regulation, balancing hormone
levels, improving reproductive health, and serving as an energy reserve to use
for fueling our activities.
You may notice that whenever you gain weight, it usually
goes to one or two areas. For some people, it’s the belly. For others, it’s the
thighs and buttocks. Ideally, we could simply do exercises that focused on
specific areas to make them thinner. For example, wouldn’t it be great if running
and squats would automatically give someone smaller thighs? Sadly, fat doesn’t
work that way.
The way that our bodies distribute fat and the “order” in
which it is lost is mostly determined by genetics, gender, metabolism, and body
shape. Women typically store more fat in their hips and thighs because it is
essential for childbearing, so these may be the last areas to reduce in volume.
Men tend to have more at in the abdominal area.
Also, the most recent area where you gained weight is likely
where you lose it from first.
Generally, you’re likely to retain your same basic body
shape—but in a smaller size—after weight loss. Liposuction, however, can help with
all of these challenges by targeting specific pockets of fat no matter when
they first appeared, as well as improving proportions after you’ve reached a
stable weight. Think of it as customizable body contouring.
Interested in having liposuction in Palm Desert? To request
a consultation with Cosmetic Surgery
Institute, give us a call at (760) 837-0364 or fill out a contact form.
How Can a Tummy Tuck and Liposuction Work Together?
If your
midsection is a “problem zone” for you, you probably already know how difficult
it is to maintain a lean look. You may do everything right—including eating
well and exercising—but a flat abdomen seems to stay out of your reach. The Cosmetic
Surgery Institute team explains that while lifestyle-based efforts can give you
a healthier body overall, and are ideal for reducing fat, diets can’t be used
to target specific areas. Sit-ups can build muscle, but the results may remain
hidden under a thick layer—or the muscles may be separated from being stretched
out.
To address a
range of cosmetic belly problems, there’s no substitute for an abdominoplasty, available at our Palm Springs-area practice. For the procedure better
known as a tummy tuck, we make strategic incisions that allow us to tighten
muscles, fascia, and skin, as well as to excise any redundant skin. A traditional,
full tummy tuck is limited to the area that extends below the chest to the
pelvis.
But what about
stubborn, resistant rolls that often surround the belly area? For additional
fine-tuning, there’s always liposuction. Our approach involves using surgical
fat removal to optimize results, in addition to standard surgical techniques.
Performing two
procedures (a tummy tuck and liposuction) at the same time proves to be more
efficient, effective, and less expensive than performing them separately—not to
mention patients won’t have to go through two surgeries and recovery periods. Also
with this approach, the risk of complications associated with standalone tummy
tucks, such as seromas, is reduced, and combining procedures has been shown to
improve patient satisfaction. This combination is sometimes referred to as
“lipoabdominoplasty” or “liposuction-assisted abdominoplasty.”
Liposuction is a
commonly performed body contouring procedure that allows patients to remove
resistant, subcutaneous fat deposits from most areas of the body, using a
hollow cannula to break up and extract fat cells. In addition to the belly it
also allows for shaping features that border the belly area, like the hips,
flanks, waist, and back, for more definitive contouring. Slimming down these
other areas also accentuates a flatter abdomen. This improves your overall body
contours for a more streamlined and balanced appearance.
Patients from
Palm Springs and surrounding areas can plan an abdominoplasty with liposuction
at Cosmetic
Surgery Institute. Call (760)
837-0364 or send a message online to get more information or arrange a
consultation.
The Negative Effects of Smoking on Liposuction Results
Liposuction
continues to be an ideal surgical technique for dramatic body-contouring
results. It produces new contours faster than non-invasive alternatives can, is
generally low risk, doesn’t require a long recovery time, and only causes small
scars. The procedure can be a useful tool for body contouring—also referred to
as body sculpting, a term referring to a range of procedures intended for
altering the contours of the body by modifying fat, skin or muscle. While it is
great for removing fat from almost any area of the body, doctors at Cosmetic
Surgery Institute explain to patients in the Los Angeles basin area that liposuction for body contouring's success hinges on them avoiding nicotine
before and after surgery.
You may have
noticed in your research before the big day that cigarette smoking is
emphasized on just about every list of things to avoid before going in for
plastic surgery. Some surgeons recommend staying away from cigarettes for a few
weeks or up to a month before the operation and for a long time afterward as
well. But why exactly is smoking so bad for you—in this specific case?
In short, smoking
makes you much more likely to develop post-operative complications after
liposuction surgery. If you’re a regular or heavy smoker, surgeons understand
that giving up the habit can be difficult, but they can also help you find support
during this time.
A chemical
called nicotine, which is contained in cigarettes—and such cigarette
substitutes as gum, patches, chewing tobacco, pipes, cigars, etc.—is the source
of the problem. When you have plastic surgery, some of the blood vessels are
severed, and it’s up to the remaining intact vessels to supply the oxygen and
nutrients needed by the rest of your body. This includes the incision sites and
tissues in the surgical site that need to heal. Poor healing can lead to poor
results. Scars may be more pronounced and visible, since nicotine restricts
blood flow and inhibits oxygen supply to cells.
If you still
continue smoking, your surgeon may not want to administer liposuction. Complications
from pre-op and post-op smoking may include infections, fat necrosis, blood
clots, increased pain, and thick scars.
Are you ready
for a new you? Get started on your plastic surgery journey today with help from
the Cosmetic
Surgery Institute team. To
schedule a consult regarding liposuction for body contouring in the Los Angeles
basin area, connect with us by phoning (760) 837-0364 or sending a message.