Losing weight is great. Reaching your goal weight is even better. Unfortunately, we can't dictate what parts of our body we lose fat from. That's where the body sculpting experts at Advanced Clinics in Oklahoma City, OK come in. Today, we highlight one of our most popular body contouring procedures, liposuction, and reveal everything you need to know about what results to expect.
What Is Liposuction?
First, we would like to provide a short overview of what this procedure is. Liposuction, also known as lipolysis, is a fat removal procedure that is FDA-approved to safely and effectively remove fat from virtually any trouble spot on your body. These include the:
Thighs
Arms
Chin
Abdomen
Back
Flanks
Lower buttocks
There are several considerations that affect how well lipolysis will suit your needs. These include the volume of fat, measured in cubic centimeters (cc), the desired fat removal region and the technique used.
Which Lipo Technique Is Right for Me?
There are four primary liposuction techniques, and they each have their own unique advantages. These are tumescent lipo, super-wet lipo, UAL and LAL.
Tumescent Lipo
Tumescent lipo has been around for decades and is still the most commonly performed technique. It involves injecting a solution featuring three components into the fat removal site. The first component is lidocaine, a local anesthetic. Depending on the location of the fat removal site, the volume of fat to be removed and if lipo will be a stand-alone procedure, this may be the only anesthetic you receive.
The second component is epinephrine. This affects the activity of your blood vessels and ensures your safety and comfort both during and after the procedure.
Super-Wet Lipo
Super-wet lipo is a lipolysis technique similar to tumescent lipo. The injection is the same. The differences are the volume of the injections and the speed of the procedure. Super-wet lipo involves injecting a solution three times the volume of the fat to be removed. Remember, the saline helps to speed the procedure process. Thus, it logically follows that your procedure will be completed faster than if you had used tumescent lipo.
UAL
UAL is an acronym for ultrasound-assisted lipo. Using precisely focused sound waves, the walls of your fat cells are destroyed and liquified. This method is not as fast as super-wet lipo but faster than tumescent lipolysis. It is best suited for larger areas, such as the abdomen, back or sides.
LAL
LAL is an acronym for laser-assisted lipo. Like UAL, this method destroys the walls of your fat cells. The difference is this technique uses heat from finely tuned and completely customized laser light energy. Like UAL, this method is faster than the most commonly used method, tumescent lipo. This technique is ideal for locations away from the face (chin, chest, underarms). During this treatment, you will be given special sunglasses to protect your eyes. However, it is still advisable to use this technique to remove fat from areas away from your face, such as your thighs or lower buttocks.
How Soon After Lipo Will I See the Results?
The results of lipo are present immediately after the procedure. The procedure suctions the fat away. However, it will be between one and three weeks before you start to see the results of the procedure. How long it takes depends primarily on the technique used and if you follow all post-op instructions.
Technique
While tumescent lipo takes the longest to perform (two to three hours compared to one to two), one of the reasons this technique is so popular is because you see results up to three times faster. You will start to see the results of tumescent lipo after only a week, and you will see the final results after only a month.
Dissimilarly, super-wet lipo takes only an hour, depending on the size of the area being treated. However, three times the volume of solution is injected with this technique. It takes around three weeks to start seeing the fat removal results and three months to realize the final results of the procedure.
How Can I See My Results Faster?
The only way to see your results is to be patient. However, you will see your results the soonest if you wear your compression garment as instructed and take arnica supplements as instructed. Arnica supplements may come in gel or capsule form and should be taken three times a day at the dosage recommended on the bottle.
A cup of fresh pineapple is also a great way to speed along the results of your procedure. However, if you find pineapple to be too acidic, a cup of fresh pineapple juice per day will help. Moreover, you should stay hydrated enough for your urine to be clear or extremely pale, and you should walk regularly starting the day after your procedure.
What Results Can I Realistically Expect?
Depending on your body mass index, you can only have between eight and 11 pounds of fat removed from your body safely in one session. To help you visualize this, 11 pounds of fat equates to approximately five liters of volume. There are 1,000 cubic centimeters (cc) in a liter. Therefore, if you removed 11 pounds of fat from your back, you would lose 5,000 cc of fat volume.
But how do you visualize 5,000 cubic centimeters? An ounce of rice is approximately 30 cubic centimeters by volume. A cup of rice is roughly 236 cc. If you want to know what 5,000 cubic centimeters looks like, put 21 cups of rice into three one-gallon Ziploc bags. Seal the bags. When you do the math, there are roughly 21.19 cups of rice in 5,000 cc. However, 21 cups is close enough for this exercise. Try to imagine the rice is excess adipose tissue in your back. Then imagine what your back would look like if that much fat was gone.
So I Can Only Lose Up to 11 Pounds?
You can lose more than 11 pounds with lipolysis. However, we can only recommend removing eight to 11 pounds of fat at a time for your health and safety. During lipolysis, a lot of fluid is sucked out along with the excess adipose tissue. We want you to remain hydrated throughout the entire procedure.
According to the latest research, between 20 and 30 pounds of body fat can be removed safely. Make a list of all the regions of your body you wish to sculpt. Then, consider that five pounds of fat is 2,273 cc, roughly. Knowing that a cup of rice is roughly 236 cc, you know there are approximately 9.6 cups of rice in five pounds of fat.
Try to visualize the uncooked rice in the different trouble spots on your body. Do you have five pounds of fat that can be removed from your thighs, arms, chest, stomach, back and sides? You can sculpt the ideal version of yourself in just three lipo sessions, removing 10 total pounds of fat from two trouble regions during each procedure.
Am I a Good Candidate for Lipo?
During your initial consultation, we will help you decide if lipo is right for you. One of the most important determinations is how much fat there is to be removed. While you may think you have too much fat in your pubic region or under your arms, there might not actually be enough fat for us to remove with this fat removal technique.
A good rule of thumb is you can treat "at least an inch of pinchable fat". The operative word is fat. Just because you can pinch your skin and lift it an inch from your body does not mean that we can treat a given trouble region.
You're Close to Your Goal Weight
This is important for several reasons. Our ultimate goal is to safely and effectively help you achieve the body of your dreams. But you won't be satisfied with the results if you don't understand that lipo is a fat removal procedure rather than a weight loss procedure. It is not intended to remove the 50 or 100 pounds you've gained. It is intended to remove pockets of fat that are resistant to a healthy diet and regular exercise.
This fat removal technique can only remove between 20 and 30 pounds of fat safely in total. Thus, if you are within 20 to 30 pounds of your goal weight, you will find yourself completely satisfied by the results of your procedure.
More importantly, being within 10 to 30 pounds of your ideal weight, especially if you had to lose weight to get there, means you know how to lose weight. This requires an understanding of your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).
You've Maintained Your Goal Weight for a Year
Another indicator that you are a good candidate for this procedure is reaching your ideal weight and maintaining it for six to 12 months. This requires a healthy lifestyle and a thorough understanding of your TDEE. If you don't have a basic understanding of how many calories your body needs to maintain its weight, how many calories you consume and how many calories you burn, you won't maintain your weight for a full year.
Knowing how to maintain your weight is important. The results of lipolysis are considered permanent. This is because, once removed, the destroyed fat cells are gone permanently. As adults, our bodies can't grow new fat cells to take their place. There is just a permanent reduction in the number of fat cells in your treated areas. However, if you gain weight after your procedure, the remaining fat cells in the treated area can fill up with fat and expand.
You Have Decent Muscle Tone
The best candidates for lipolysis have decent muscle tone beneath their fatty tissue deposits. Once the fat is removed, the muscle underneath the layers of fat becomes visible. However, you may not be completely satisfied with the results of this procedure if you have inadequate muscle tone beneath the fat deposits.
If you haven't lifted weights or done cycling since you were in school, liposculpture may be a better fat removal procedure for you. Liposculpture is similar to lipolysis in that it removes excess fat deposits. The primary difference is it removes smaller amounts of fat. The rest of the fat is repositioned to sculpt your muscles, giving you better definition.