Q: Can you get an idea of the results you’re going to get by looking at your friends who have had the liposuction procedure?
A: Only sometimes. Everyone is different I’ve had different patients who have had similar body types in terms of where their fat deposits are located, but whose results and liposuction recovery times were not the same. For instance, some people have more fibrous fat, some have wider bones, or some have more protruding muscles in the belly. All these things can affect the results.
So you can look at the many liposuction before and after photos, or your friends or relatives and get some idea of what liposuction can do, but your own results might not turn out the same way. You can also look at photographs in the doctor’s office to get an idea of what’s possible, but you can’t point to one and say, “Doctor, that’s the one I want.” In other words, you can get a general idea of what results you may get, but no one, including the surgeon, can know for certain until you actually have the procedure and start healing.
Q: Why can’t diet and exercise achieve the same results?
A: Fat cells function differently in different parts of the body. The role of some is mainly to supply energy and metabolism. Other fat cells store energy for long-term starvation situations, and as a result, you will lose fat in your face before you lose fat around your love handles, lower belly, or outer thighs. Fat in these areas is more resistant, more stubborn. When you gain weight, it often goes there, and when you lose weight, it comes off of other areas. There is a real biochemical difference in the fat in different areas of the body.
In women, for example, it has been shown that the fat cells in the outer thighs are so resistant to diet and exercise that even a woman who is almost starving could put fat on in those areas in order to have reserves in case she should become pregnant or need to breast-feed.
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fat cells,
liposuction before and after photos,
liposuction procedures,
outer thighs