How Long Does Liposuction Last?

Liposuction is permanent in the sense that the procedure completely removes the fat cells from certain parts of your body. However, this does not mean that you can't gain weight after having liposuction. Body fat can also redistribute after liposuction, especially if you don't take steps to prevent it with your diet and exercise habits.

To ensure the best long-term results from a liposuction procedure, you will need to follow your healthcare provider's diet and exercise recommendations.

Long-Term Liposuction Results

The results of a liposuction procedure can remain obvious for life, provided you are able to manage your weight following the procedure. Since there will always be some fat cells left in the areas where liposuction was done, subsequent weight gain can make the remaining fat cells row larger.

Since there will be fewer fat cells left, however, they will tend to stay in better proportion to the rest of the body even if a few pounds are gained after liposuction. If there is excessive weight gain after liposuction, however, parts of the body that were not liposuctioned may suddenly appear disproportionately bigger than the rest because there are more fat cells there.

In short, while it can improve your body proportions, liposuction has limits. It is not an effective method of weight loss and certainly does not grant an all-you-can-eat lifestyle. If anything, weight gain after liposuction may be more problematic given that it makes certain body parts look larger than ever.

How Liposuction Works

The human body has only a certain number of fat cells. The fat cells grow larger or smaller as we gain or lose weight, respectively. The number and distribution of our fat cells are set before we even reach adulthood. This is why we may have some stubborn areas where fat won't seem to budge, even though we are losing weight in other areas.

When fat deposits are removed through liposuction, those fat cells are gone forever. After liposuction, the body's contour is improved, and ideally, the areas in question are now more in proportion to the rest of the body.

How Much Fat Can Be Removed?

Liposuction can remove a substantial amount of fat, up to 8 pounds or more in some cases. There are no firm guidelines about how much fat can be safely removed, but research suggests that removing more than 100 ml of fat per unit of body mass may be associated with an increased risk of complications.

How to Make Liposuction Results Last

The best way to keep your new proportions after liposuction is to exercise.

According to a 2012 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, normal-weight women who had 2.5 to 3 pounds of abdominal fat removed by liposuction and who exercised after surgery enjoyed their new shape six months afterward.

Of the 36 healthy but inactive women aged 20 to 35 that had liposuction, half had regained fat six months after the procedure. Most of the weight gain was not associated with subcutaneous fat, the fat situated beneath the surface of the skin, but visceral fat, the type that settles around the organs and increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

All told, the women with weight gain added 10% more visceral fat than they had prior to liposuction.

The other women didn't gain back the subcutaneous or visceral fat due to a structured, four-month training program consisting of aerobic and strength-training exercises delivered thrice weekly. Not surprisingly, the women ended up losing visceral fat compared to their values before they had liposuction.

Understanding Your Weight Set-Point After Liposuction

Scientists don't know why liposuction fat comes back as visceral fat. It could be because people tend to be sedentary after liposuction surgery rather than embarking on a progressive exercise plan.

At the same time, our bodies are finely tuned to defend their fat stores and may try to compensate when we lose fat quickly. Exercise appears to mitigate those efforts and recalibrate the body's weight set point.

The set point theory might explain why the women who exercised after liposuction avoided visceral weight gain by persistently pressing the body with exercise to reset itself.

That said, exercise is not always enough to prevent fat redistribution or gains.

A 2015 review of studies in Obesity Surgery found that for abdominal liposuction, changes in body fat and weight were usually transient. The reasons for this are unclear. Some theorize it is the result of metabolic overcompensation where the body redistributes fat that it believes is "supposed" to be there. Why this doesn't happen in other parts of the body remains a mystery.

Summary

Liposuction is a surgical procedure that removes fat from the body. Once the fat cells are removed from the body, they do not grow back. However, remaining fat cells can still grow larger over time, so liposuction results don't always last for the long term.

Exercise is the best way to ensure long-lasting post-liposuction body contours.