One of the common questions from potential liposuction patients is how much weight should they try to lose before surgery. Should they not try to loss any weight, loss some weight, or loss as much weight as they can before liposuction body contouring? The crossing of paths between surgical and non-surgical weight loss is frequent and there are no absolute answers that apply to everyone.
In the Monday March 1 2010 issue of USA TODAY in the Life section, a story was run on a common problem with those losing weight. Besides being hard to do, weight loss in those middle aged or older often runs into a brick wall. Once a certain amount of weight has occurred, usually 10 to 15 lbs, weight loss stalls. While weight may have come off easier with a few changes when one was younger, this does not occur so easily as one ages. According to the story, national obesity experts aren’t surprised by this common experience amongst older weight loss patients. They report that studies show that 5% to 10% of one’s starting weight comes off in the first 3 to 6 months. (10 to 20 lbs) After that, however, many people hit the weight loss wall and their weight refuses to budge much further. There are many reasons for this effect which include a combination of hormonal changes, genetic make-up, and a busy lifestyle which limits diet and exercise options.
This story speaks to the weight loss before liposuction issue. In my Indianapolis plastic surgery practice, I often speak to patients about what I refer to as one’s ‘physiologic weight’. This is the body weight that patients trying to loss pounds can get to with reasonable lifestyle changes. Doing what one can do with sustainable dietary reductions and an exercise program that one can follow consistently. While heroic efforts can be made to loss even greater amounts of weight, such results are usually not maintained. This is exactly what the USA article was discussing and what is a reasonable approach before liposuction surgery.
The best advice for weight loss before liposuction is to lose what you can. Make the best effort and establish lifestyle habits that will serve your surgery efforts afterwards. Try for a period of 6 months before surgery to see what you can do and delineate those areas that are truly non-responsive to your weight loss efforts. For some patients, this may mean just a few spot areas will need to be treated. For others, it will still be the treatment of a larger section such as the overall abdomen. But either way, the results of liposuction will be better both in short-term contour and long-term maintenance.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana