One of the most common questions that liposuction patients ask is…how much weight will I use after surgery? It is well known that plastic surgeons do not consider liposuction and weight loss in the same sentence. It is not a weight loss technique and we don’t want any patient to use that as a motivation for undergoing the procedure.
But there is no question that some patients will lose weight after liposuction. It is inevitable that the removal of fat (with blood and other liquid material) causes that effect. This creates some amount of immediate weight loss but secondary weight loss can also occur weeks later due to a metabolic effect. Liposuction creates a lot of internal surface area which must heal. To do so it requires calories and energy expenditure . Given that most liposuction patients have low hunger for some time after surgery, one is in negative caloric balance…and weight loss ensues. This is not apparent for three to four weeks after surgery.
Both immediate and secondary liposuction weight loss can be somewhat quantified. Immediate weight loss is what is aspirated during the procedure and it is always measured. (in ccs or mls) While the aspirated amount is not entirely fat (blood and tumescent fluid make up a portion), about 70 to 80% can be counted as weight (fat) lost. Given that a gallon of water weighs approximately 8 lbs (or 2.2 liters), a liter of fat aspirate can be conservatively estimated to account for about 2 lbs of weight loss. That will not be seen for several weeks after surgery until retained fluids and swelling have been excreted.
Secondary metabolic weight loss is much more subjective. I estimate that it will result in at least half again of what has been removed by liposuction. This will be seen four to six weeks after surgery at about the time when one resumes an anabolic state.
Using these estimates, one can answer the weight loss question as seen in the following examples. If 2,000 ccs of liposuction aspirate is obtained (4 lbs), one’s weight will be done about 6 lbs a month after surgery. If 3,500 ccs of aspirate is removed (6.25 lbs), then an estimated 10 lb weight loss will have resulted a month later.
As one can see from these numbers, weight loss after liposuction does exist but is not as much as many people expect. Some liposuction providers tout large numbers in the twenty to thirty lb. range but this is not a realistic or typical weight loss amount for most patients. One should think more in the three to seven pound range for short-term surgical weight loss.
The most important consideration in whatever amount of weight loss that does occur after liposuction…is it sustained? Will the weight still be off one or two years later? Unless one has initiated and maintained diet and exercise improvements, the return of fat and the weight may be inevitable for some patients.
Barry L. Eppley, M.D., D.M.D.
Indianapolis, Indiana