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Pros & Cons of Liposuction Diets

Obesity rates are jumping across the United States, and the public's desire for a quick win in the battle of the belly bulge has created a cottage industry of get-thin-quick strategies. One of these, liposuction, has gained in popularity---but it is not a cure-all, and the procedure does carry medical risk.

  1. Liposuction

    • Liposuction is an outpatient medical procedure intended for body sculpting. A physician essentially replaces the body's fat tissue with fluid that, over a few weeks, will be re-absorbed into the body. Liposuction is intended to reduce problematic deposits of adipose (fat) tissue. Bariatric surgeons have historically been loath to remove more than five liters of fat in any one procedure because of the shock to the system, thus limiting the procedure's effectiveness for radical weight loss.

    Pros

    • The immediate advantage of a liposuction diet (that is, using the liposuction procedure as a weight-loss tool) is that you can lose a significant amount of weight from a targeted location during one straightforward procedure. Unlike normal dieting and exercising, which can leave residual fat tissue in unwelcome places, liposuction removes the fat directly from under the skin---leaving no unsightly bulges to mar your bikini line.

    Cons

    • The main disadvantage of a liposuction diet is that it comes with none of the extra health benefits of a regular diet-and-exercise program. Even if you lose 20 pounds overnight, your heart and circulatory system will remain unchanged, and important measures like blood cholesterol and blood sugars will not enjoy the positive changes that gradual weight loss brings. In addition, since diet behaviors are unlikely to change, the weight will simply be re-added later, undoing the expense and pain of the surgical procedure.

    Health Risks

    • Rapid weight loss through liposuction can provide extra stress on the circulatory system. Because the body shrinks rapidly and not naturally, your body will have more blood than normal and too many blood vessels to service fat deposits that have been suddenly removed. For this reason, physicians limit the amount of fat removed through liposuction.

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