How Much Weight Can You Lose From Liposuction?

Looking your best comes with many benefits, both physical and mental. Not only does a healthy weight reduce your chances of contracting a life-threatening disease, but it also improves the way you feel about yourself and therefore changes your outlook on life. Here at Sule Plastic Surgery Clinic in Dallas, TX, we offer liposuction to our patients who are struggling to achieve their ideal body shape.

This procedure, also called body contouring, can help you to lose weight more quickly and get rid of stubborn pockets of fat that don’t respond well to diet and exercise. Although it is an effective method of shaping your body, you will need to support it with a healthy lifestyle and holistic weight loss measures. Let’s have a closer look at how this surgery affects your body weight and what other benefits it has.

How Much Weight Can You Lose With Liposuction?

Although body image is a constant topic in the news, around two-thirds of Americans are currently struggling with their weight. While some are simply overweight, over 30% of the population is obese, which means that they have a Body Mass Index of over 30. This affects their self-confidence as well as their health and can even shorten their life.

To make sure you don’t develop serious medical issues, you should address your weight problems sooner rather than later. Your doctor will most likely recommend you get started with diet and exercise, but they might consider body contouring surgery later on. It is especially effective for people who are close to their ideal body weight and simply need some excess tissue removed. During surgery, you can expect to lose one to ten pounds of fat.

Getting the Process Started

Body contouring by itself isn’t designed as a weight loss program, and you need to do some work before you will be eligible for surgery. When you first come to the clinic and speak to your plastic surgeon, they will ask you what measures you have already taken to improve your situation. If you haven’t started losing weight, we always suggest that you alter your diet and exercise plan first and try a more holistic program.

In some cases, we may refer you to a weight loss expert, who can provide you with accountability as well as some more advanced solutions such as a gastric band. Surgically taking out too much fat at once can be dangerous to your health, so we generally only accept patients who are within 30% of their target weight. Such people have done considerable work already and are now ready to take their journey to the next level.

Improving Your Appearance After Weight Loss

Once you’ve addressed the acute problem and started losing a significant amount of weight, you can come to the clinic and start planning your surgery. By this point, you have changed your lifestyle and adopted healthier habits. This is an important consideration for us because surgery works best when your weight is already stable. If you put it back on after the procedure, you may lose some of your hard-earned results.

People who have significantly reduced their body weight often find that it’s very hard to achieve their desired look. While the majority of their tissue melts away, some areas are more difficult to target than others. This is where liposuction comes in. It can help you lose those stubborn pockets of fat that can’t be shifted by the traditional weight loss measures.

Submental Contouring

A particularly popular type of surgery here at the clinic is submental contouring, which involves removing the fat from under your chin. A double chin often occurs in people who are overweight, so we will always suggest weight loss first. However, it can also be a genetic problem, in which case no amount of dieting or exercising will help you get rid of it.

Your plastic surgeon can effectively target and reshape the extra tissue under your chin, so you can achieve the profile you’ve always dreamed of. The best thing about this kind of surgery is that the results are permanent. Fat cells don’t grow back after puberty, so the ones we remove during the procedure will never return.

What Happens During Body Contouring?

As discussed, body contouring removes a small to moderate amount of fat from the target area, and it’s mainly designed to alter your body shape once you’re close to your target weight. The procedure will help to make all your hard work visible, so you can fully enjoy the benefits of your new, healthy weight. But what exactly happens during the surgery?

Your Consultation

Prior to your operation, you will get in touch with us at the clinic and book an initial consultation. You should bring all records of your medical history to this appointment, so we can see whether you are a good candidate. Since this treatment is surgical, we will carefully check your previous conditions and the medications you take to guarantee that we aren’t putting your health at risk.

The doctor will also speak to you about your weight loss journey so far. Most patients have some excess tissue in several areas of their body, so we will examine them and come up with a plan. If we find that you are a good candidate for body contouring, we can then explain the process to you and book you in for surgery.

The Surgery

On the day of your procedure, your surgeon will mark the spots where you will be operated on and then get you ready for surgery. The pre-operation checks might include measuring your blood pressure and oxygen levels. Once you’re ready to go, we will administer a general anesthetic, which means that you will be unconscious during the whole treatment.

Depending on the area and the extent of the surgery, it might take one or several hours. Your plastic surgeon will make very small incisions in your skin, then insert small metal tubes that will remove the fat from your body. To avoid visible scarring, the incisions will be placed in skin creases wherever possible. When the process is complete, the surgeon closes the incisions, and you will wake up naturally once the anesthesia wears off.

Recovery and Results

Some patients need to stay in hospital overnight, but others can leave the clinic several hours after their surgery is over. You won’t be able to go home on your own, so you should plan to have a family member or friend pick you up and stay with you for a few days. We will give you a compression garment for the affected area, which assists the healing process.

If you have a desk job, you can return to work two to three days after your operation. However, you should avoid strenuous physical exercise for several weeks. In many cases, we will ask you to come to the clinic for a follow-up appointment around four weeks after the surgery. At this point, the majority of your results should be visible.

Keeping Your Body Healthy After Contouring

Liposuction is designed as a permanent solution for removing the excess tissue from various parts of your body. The fat cells that are taken out won’t grow back again, so it will be harder for you to gain weight afterward. However, we don’t take out all your fat tissue, and it is therefore possible for your Body Mass Index to climb back up.

You can prevent such an outcome by maintaining the diet and exercise routine you have built up during your weight loss journey. If it’s helpful, you can keep working with a nutritionist or a personal trainer who keeps you accountable and makes sure you don’t relapse.

Achieve Your Perfect Body Shape Now

Although it’s not designed as a replacement for a healthy lifestyle, liposuction can be an effective way to boost your weight loss journey and help you achieve your desired body shape. Many people find that there are areas of the body that don’t respond well to dieting and exercising. Even though they are doing everything right, they still don’t look the way they would like. In such cases, body contouring is the perfect option.

You will lose between one and ten pounds of fat during the procedure, depending on what body part is being treated and how much excess tissue there is. Before you can get started, you have to attend an initial consultation with your plastic surgeon to find out whether you’re eligible and to plan your procedure. Call us today at Sule Plastic Surgery Clinic in Dallas, TX to book your appointment with us and get the process started.