Want to lose weight with liposuction? Get out of these misconceptions first!

The bulging abdomen, fat hips, and thick arms and thighs make people at a loss. Although diet and exercise can make the fat cell volume change from large to small, they do not harm its quantity and make it easy to regain weight; various kinds of diet pills and secret diet recipes disturb the internal balance of the body to different degrees and produce various side effects. Fat aspiration, a medical means of weight loss, jumped into people's view many years ago. It can draw fat away from under the skin, and reduce the number of fat cells, so that the excess fat has nowhere to accumulate, and the body shape can be improved without hard work.

Advertisements have been sparing no effort in recommending the benefits of this "gospel for the obese", and even wiping out its risks so that beauty seeker will be tempted. So, have you fallen into these misconceptions?

Before liposuction ......

Liposuction is most suitable for those whose weight is relatively normal, but who are locally obese and disproportionate, and also for those who are moderately obese and heavily obese with sagging skin, and fat extraction is also feasible along with sagging skin excision to achieve better cosmetic results. There are many areas where liposuction can be performed, including the abdomen, iliac waist, buttocks, chest (including male breast enlargement), back, thighs, upper arms, back of the calves and jaws, etc.

Myth 1: Liposuction can help you lose weight and shape in one fell swoop.

Liposuction can only remove localized fat, not whole body fat; and the proportion of fat is small. Therefore, liposuction is indeed more effective in changing local body shape, but it does not necessarily have a great impact on overall weight. Candidates should have reasonable expectations and should not expect it to result in significant weight loss.

Myth 2: Autologous fat is sucked out and transplanted for good cosmetic effect?

After the fat is aspirated, it can be injected into other parts of the body as a filler for deformity repair or body sculpting. Since fat is its tissue, no rejection reaction will occur, so fat injection is safe and reliable and can be used for breast augmentation, lip augmentation, temple augmentation, or sunken deformities in certain parts of the body. However, since not all of the transplanted fat cells are necessarily viable and nearly 60% will be absorbed by the body, multiple injections are required to achieve the desired results, with the interval between procedures generally being about two months. Beauty seekers must specifically weigh the pros and cons if they have such a need.

Myth 3: Can liposuction be performed at any time?

You should not operate during your menstrual period, otherwise, there will be more bleeding. Since the perineum will be edematous after lower abdominal liposuction, strenuous exercise or prolonged bed rest should not be performed. The liposuction area must be bandaged with pressure for 5 to 7 days, and after that, elastic tights must be worn for 1 to 3 months. The liposuction area may become hard, uneven, deepen in color and feel abnormal in the short term after the surgery, and it will take about 3 months to recover. Before surgery, consider whether you can ensure that the above matters do not delay your work and life.

Myth 4: Liposuction can prevent and treat diseases caused by obesity?

Some advertisements say: obese people are often prone to or have suffered from diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and other diseases, and fat suction, especially after a large amount of abdominal fat is sucked out, the sensitivity of insulin increases and blood sugar and blood lipids are reduced, so it can prevent and help treat these diseases. However, this claim is controversial: some scholars have shown through animal experiments that liposuction only removes subcutaneous fat, while it is the fat accumulated in the internal organs that is harmful to health. Therefore, candidates should not expect that a single procedure will bring health to the whole body.

During the surgery ......

Liposuction is the application of surgical techniques to remove excess subcutaneous fat to reshape the body. The commonly used methods are negative pressure suction (including electric negative pressure suction and syringe method suction), ultrasonic liposuction, and electronic liposuction. Regardless of the method, the subcutaneous fat is extracted through a metal tube that enters the skin with a very small skin incision (a few millimeters) or is extracted by oscillation.

Myth: With the development of technology, negative pressure suction has greatly reduced the damage caused to the body and is a safer way of cosmetic surgery.

There are many more risks associated with liposuction that are not well known.

Embolism: During surgery, when fat enters the bloodstream through a ruptured blood vessel, chunks of fat can block the vessel or move with the bloodstream and eventually embolize in the lungs or brain. In case of pulmonary embolism, breathing and the mortality rate will be difficult will be high even if resuscitation is performed immediately; brain embolism can cause disability.

Visceral perforation and organ damage: During liposuction, the physician cannot see the exact location of the catheter and probe, and if he or she is not careful, it can cause internal organ damage or perforation. If the organs are pierced by the metal tube or bleed more than once after the injury, they will have to be treated with open surgery, which can be equally fatal in severe cases.

Burns: The ultrasound probe is very hot and has the potential to burn the skin.

Anesthesia side effects: Lidocaine is the most commonly used local anesthetic for liposuction. An overdose of lidocaine may be injected during liposuction, resulting in dizziness, palpitations, drowsiness, ringing in the ears, slurred speech, metallic taste in the mouth, numbness of the lips and tongue, trembling, muscle twitching, etc. Its toxicity can even cause cardiac arrest.

Death: Liposuction is a kind of surgery, which can also lead to death due to various complications and accidents, but there is no authoritative data on its mortality rate so far. Some studies point out that the mortality rate of liposuction is less than 3 per 100,000, while some show between 20 per 100,000 and 100 per 100,000; in comparison, the mortality rate of car accidents is 16 per 100,000.

After liposuction ......

Liposuction surgery does not take long, usually tens of minutes to an hour to complete, and you can leave after treating the wound and the liposuction area. The most common postoperative complications are local unevenness, asymmetry on both sides, and under-aspiration, which are related to the skill of the physician and the degree of recovery. Other complications are: infection, hematoma, sagging skin, skin color change, pain, and difficulty walking.

Myth 1: Post-operative complications of liposuction are generally not too serious?

Although the chance of post-operative complications after liposuction is not very high, it can still be troublesome in case of occurrence.

Infection: Infection can occur after any surgery. Some candidates have post-operative skin color changes, and flaking, followed by large areas of skin necrosis, due to bacterial or microbial infections. Some infections may develop into infectious shock, which can be life-threatening.

Hematoma and fluid accumulation: Blood or plasma may leak out into the missing tissue, forming a hematoma or fluid accumulation.

Abnormal sensation: abnormal sensation may occur at the liposuction site, such as inexplicable pain, sensory numbness, difficulty walking, etc., which may be caused by nerve damage during surgery. If these abnormalities persist for more than three months, then they may be permanently accompanied.

Swelling: Local edema (swelling) may occur and in some cases last for several months.

Electrolyte disturbances: fatty tissue contains a lot of fluid, and liposuction removes this fluid at the same time; the surgeon injects the patient with a lot of fluid during and after the operation, and this may result in electrolyte disturbances in the blood. Electrolyte disorders can lead to heart problems, pulmonary edema, acute renal insufficiency, etc. If they occur after leaving the hospital or clinic and are not diagnosed and treated in time, they can have serious consequences.

Myth 2: You won't regain weight after liposuction, so you don't need to control your diet and exercise?

According to biological theory, the number of fat cells in the human body is roughly fixed in adulthood, and the weight change of adults mainly depends on the ratio of fat

However, although the fat increase in the liposuction area is small, the weight can still be increased significantly. Therefore, it is still necessary to control the diet and strengthen physical exercise after liposuction for the body contouring effect to be permanent.

Similar to other medical procedures, there are many risks associated with liposuction. Before liposuction, you should understand them in detail and measure them according to your situation. At the same time, liposuction is a cosmetic procedure, not a medical necessity, and it is not necessary to make a hasty decision and not believe that complications "only happen to other people".