Every person, whether male or female, has a certain number of fat cells, scientifically called “adipocytes.” These are cells whose sole purpose is to absorb a drop of fat and keep it trapped for as long as possible. When a person gains or loses weight, it means that these same containers fill up or empty out, but their number stabilizes after puberty. You will understand why certain parts of the body do not change when one gains or loses weight, because they contain few or none of these containers, such as the ears, nose, and eyelids.
Why do some individuals have more or fewer of these adipocytes or fat cells? Well, this is predetermined by heredity. This explains why some people, even when they lose weight, keep large thighs, large buttocks, a big belly, or saddlebags. If you look at the whole family, you are surprised to see that all its members often bear the same signature, if you will allow me the expression. The same goes if you look at the parents and grandparents. When these people lose weight and sometimes reach their ideal weight, certain body sites are particularly resistant to slimming.
For these people who realize that certain areas of their anatomy are truly problem sites, such as the thighs, buttocks, abdomen, or chin, liposuction represents a real hope, often the only one.
I would like to add here two important truths about weight loss that guide me in my daily work. The first is that, even if weight loss makes fat disappear in a very acceptable way, experience has taught us that this new silhouette obtained through dieting has only a one in twenty chance of remaining, and that the fat cells, whose purpose, as we mentioned earlier, is to accumulate fat, will quickly resume their “job” in the months and years that follow, despite all the efforts and good will of the patient.
Secondly, and I will have the opportunity to remind you of this later, it is not good to lose weight before liposuction, because the work will be more difficult and the results could be less interesting. Many surgeons do not seem to be aware of this logic by recommending their patients to lose weight before liposuction. In my opinion, this is a mistake.
Let me explain: at the end of a diet, the skin has very often sagged and presents less good tone.
Moreover, the cells, now emptied of their fat, have all remained in place; this mass of empty cells creates a very fibrous terrain that makes the work difficult, longer, and tedious, and could result in a less interesting outcome with skin that retracts poorly, made more flabby and devitalized by weight loss. This fibrous terrain sometimes gives the surgeon the impression of working in steel wool, which requires many more cannula strokes for a less interesting fat harvest, causing more trauma, a longer recovery, and lesser results.
Perhaps you are wondering why, when you lose weight, the result is not permanent, whereas it is with liposuction. The answer is very simple: with weight loss, the fat cells only empty their content and remain in place, more aggressive than ever, whereas with liposuction, these fat cells are completely aspirated, meaning both the content and the container, and the fat cells are destroyed forever. And we know that after puberty, no new fat cells are created (Björntorp’s theory). So if they are removed, they do not come back. This is a proven fact that I will have the opportunity to revisit later. Indeed, the immense popularity of liposuction largely depends on this assertion.
So, after liposuction, when a person gains weight, for whatever reason, age or poor diet, the areas that have been liposculpted will not gain weight (or very little, because of the fat layer that had to be left). Of course, the fat can distribute elsewhere, where the fat cells are intact.
This does not mean that the person will become disproportionate, because the areas that have not been liposculpted cannot take more fat than their cells can contain. The non-liposculpted areas will take the same amount of fat as they would have without liposuction, no more and no less.
Sometimes, patients, during their evaluation for liposuction, tell us to leave a certain area alone, that they will make it disappear through dieting. And that is possible, of course. But dieting is the story of a lifetime, while liposuction is the story of an hour.
Liposuction also has other advantages compared to a weight-loss diet. Liposuction does not reduce muscles, a diet: yes. Liposuction does not lead to a yo-yo effect, a diet: yes. Moreover, the yo-yo brings back fat, but not muscle. A diet often produces flabby skin, liposuction, very little thanks to the superficial method already described.
And finally, liposuction is a great source of motivation to lose weight if the person needs it.
Source: LIPOSUCTION | Everything you need to know before, during, and after – Dr. André Dupuy
