How Is Liposuction Different from Losing Weight Through Diet and Exercise?

How Is Liposuction Different from Losing Weight Through Diet and Exercise?

Both are ways to address obesity, but in terms of losing weight, the fundamental differences are as follows:

 

 

First, diet and exercise aim to reduce body weight, whereas liposuction reshapes the body contour.

In other words, weight management calls for diet and exercise, while liposuction is done for the cosmetic purpose of creating a beautiful body line.

Medicine can be broadly divided into internal medicine and surgery: some conditions require medical treatment, and some require surgical treatment. In fact, people whose degree of obesity is normal but whose body shape is not as attractive as they would like can be said to have localized fat deposits (Local Fat tissue Deposition). For these localized fat deposits (LFD), liposuction, a surgical treatment, is one of the most effective options. Even mini liposuction of a localized area alone can create attractive lines and a better body shape. For example, in lower-body obesity, the bulge on the outer thigh is called the "saddlebag," and mini liposuction of this area alone can produce an attractive thigh line. As a way to slim the thighs locally, thigh liposuction can be considered one of the most effective methods.

Liposuction is a type of cosmetic surgery and is the most frequently performed cosmetic procedure in Europe, the United States, and Latin America.

 

Second, liposuction is surgery that removes the fat cells themselves.

Weight loss through diet or exercise reduces the size of fat cells, which is how body weight goes down; liposuction, by contrast, is surgery that removes the fat cells themselves. Therefore, as long as you do not gain weight after liposuction, fat is less likely to return to the treated areas.

However, if you fail to manage your weight properly after surgery and your degree of obesity increases, the fat cells grow larger, so you may look as though you have put weight on again. Even so, because the treated areas have relatively fewer fat cells than untreated areas, a smaller amount of fat accumulates there. This is why some people are told that their breasts have become relatively larger after abdominal liposuction. This may partly be because the smaller waist makes the breasts look bigger, but it is also because, when weight increases, breast tissue, which contains relatively more fat, enlarges more. This phenomenon is called disharmonious obesity.

In short, if enough fat tissue has been removed, a yo-yo effect after liposuction is unlikely.

 

Third, liposuction addresses excess fat faster than diet and exercise.

As early as one week after surgery, many patients can see a clear difference in their figure in before-and-after photos, although results vary by individual. We often see people with severe obesity who struggle to climb the high mountain of dieting, only to become exhausted and give up in the end, after which a yo-yo effect sets in and their degree of obesity actually increases.

But if you could reach the top of the mountain of dieting easily by elevator, you would be able to come back down with physical and mental energy to spare; in the same way, you can manage your weight, and further weight loss may even follow. In fact, when we talk with people who have had liposuction at Venus Clinic, many tend, as their body shape improves, to regain the attachment to their figure that they had once given up on, become more interested in their health, recover their social confidence, become more active at work, and pay even closer attention to weight management.

The photos below are before-and-after photos of a patient with severe obesity who underwent large-volume liposuction at Venus Clinic, with a total aspirated volume of 10,000 cc.

 

 

Fourth, when circumstances make dieting difficult.

People consider liposuction for cosmetic reasons when they have worked hard at diet and exercise and resolved their obesity to some degree but still cannot get a satisfying body line; when they are young women who lack exercise; when, in middle age, the fat on the abdomen, arms, or thighs does not come down despite their best efforts because their basal metabolic rate has dropped; or when, even after a successful diet, they are left with loose skin.

 

Fifth, liposuction can remove fat from only the areas you want.

If you have localized fat deposits and go on a diet, fat is often lost first from the face, and the breasts become smaller as well. The figure may improve to some extent, but then you may end up looking somehow worn out by life (?). Liposuction surgically removes only the localized fat deposits, without this effect, so you can achieve a beautiful, balanced figure without changes in other areas.

One of the advantages of liposuction is that, unlike weight loss through dieting, it tends to cause less skin sagging: after surgery the loose skin contracts and re-adheres, so a smoother line can often be achieved without skin excision. Ironically, however, if you have dieted hard, your skin has already begun to sag, and little fat remains, the skin will contract less even after liposuction.

Therefore, to induce sufficient skin contraction for a smooth line, it may actually be better to have liposuction while you still carry more weight.

 

[Dr. Jung, Director, Venus Clinic]