Liposuction leaves your stomach flatter, with less fat around the midsection, while an abdominoplasty creates a more toned and firm abdomen. If you're looking to get rid of sagging skin and fat, while making your abdominal wall stronger, a tummy tuck is right for you.
Tummy tucks are more intensive procedures than liposuction. While lipo only removes excess fat, a tummy tuck reconstructs the muscles of the abdomen and removes excess skin.
Liposuction is particularly effective at removing fat in the legs, abdomen, back, arms, face, and neck. It provides more dramatic results than other noninvasive fat reduction procedures, however, it has a longer recovery period (up to six weeks) and typically costs more than its nonsurgical counterparts.
Liposuction can remove pockets of subcutaneous fat that make up love handles, back rolls, and belly fat. If, on the other hand, you have excess skin and weak abdominal muscles from childbirth or extreme weight loss that you want to tighten up, liposuction is likely not necessary.
The answer is that liposuction is indeed permanent, but in the future, you can still gain weight in the treated areas if you do not take care to modify your eating habits. Understanding how fat develops in the body should clarify this question for you. Your body only has a certain amount of fat cells.
If you are losing weight, you may not need liposuction. If you gain weight afterwards you may not see much of a result. Side effects of liposuction can include infection, bleeding, bruising, temporary lumpiness, and sometimes too little or too much fat may be removed, which may require further surgery.
When it comes to the operation, the answer is no. You'll be under local anaesthetic and blissfully oblivious to pain – though you will feel sensations of movement and pressure. But in the immediate aftermath of the procedure, and for the period of recovery, you will feel some discomfort.
Liposuction surgery itself is not painful. As long as anesthesia medications are used and the operation is performed in an accredited surgical facility by a board certified plastic surgeon, liposuction should be a relatively pain-free experience.
Tummy Tuck Cost
A tummy tuck's average cost is somewhere between $6,000 and $13,000, while liposuction's average cost is between $4,500 and $10,000. Keep in mind that the only way to get an accurate cost estimate for any cosmetic surgery procedure is to schedule a consultation with a plastic surgeon.
While you will have to wait a while to enjoy all the benefits of a tummy tuck, the good news is the results are very long-lasting if you maintain a similar weight. The vast majority of patients are thrilled with their decision to undergo the procedure—tummy tuck has a 95% “Worth It” rating on RealSelf.
There will be some discomfort after a tummy tuck, with the worst discomfort experienced within the first week. On a scale of 1 – 10, pain is often estimated at around a 6-7 for the the first few days to a week, reducing to around a 3 – 4 in the second week. This would, of course, depend on the individual.
Skin After Liposuction
Removing fat with liposuction will not cause the skin to shrink. The skin elasticity of a liposuction patient is evaluated before the surgery is performed to predict the ability of the skin to reshape itself following the surgery.
Depending on how much fat is removed, you can expect to see final results between 1-3 months after the procedure.
The answer to this is easy: No. Lemons do not have special fat-burning qualities, explains Czerwony. A squeeze of the fruit's pucker-inducing juice won't help you squeeze into a smaller pair of jeans. “That mechanism of action is just not there,” says Czerwony.
Liposuction can reduce belly fat and slim your stomach better than any other procedure available (and better than any “one quick tip,” wrap, or waist trainer). Incorporate diet and exercise to take your results even further.
Once the fat is removed from an area, it does not grow back. The fat cells that remain can get bigger with weight gain. Because there are fewer fat cells in the treated area (as compared to before the procedure), other areas of your body which were not treated may appear to increase in size.
Liposuction scars can occur, but they are usually minimal. One of the main benefits of this fat removal surgery is that the incisions are tiny, making liposuction scars relatively small. However, the degree of scarring depends on the patient's inherited scarring tendency and the surgeon's technique.
CoolSculpting – A Fat-Freezing Liposuction Alternative
Among liposuction alternatives, this is the only one that uses cryolipolysis, a fat-freezing procedure that crystallizes your targeted fat cells until they break apart painlessly.
There is no specific weight you need to achieve before getting liposuction. However, a key liposuction prep tip is to reach your target weight, or at least get close to it, several months before your surgery. Remember that reaching your goal weight is different from achieving your ideal body.
Fat will not return (and ideal results will remain intact) if the patient maintains their "post-lipo weight." For example, if a patient weighed 130 pounds prior liposuction and had a total of 6 pounds removed through the procedure, fat will stay away if the patient maintains their weight at or below 124 pounds.