When a surgeon removes fat from your body during liposuction, that’s it—the fat is gone for good. Some people assume that this means their liposuction results will be permanent, no matter what choices they make after surgery.
While it is true that liposuction can provide permanent results and the fat removed won’t come back, liposuction isn’t magic. You can still gain weight and your remaining fat cells can get bigger, undoing all your efforts.
To get the best possible liposuction results, keep these tips in mind before and after your surgery.
What to Do Before Liposuction Surgery
Careful preparation before your liposuction surgery can have positive effects on your results. The following tips can help you achieve the best possible results from the surgery:
Work on Quitting Smoking
Ethical plastic surgeons will advise you to quit smoking a few weeks before your liposuction surgery. Doing so can help your blood vessels circulate blood more effectively throughout the body and aid oxygen delivery to healing tissues.
It is best to stay away from tobacco products for a long time after your surgery (and ideally, forever!) to keep nicotine from affecting the healing process. Nicotine can shrink your blood vessels and obstruct proper blood flow.
Maintain an Optimal Weight
Losing some excess fat manually before your surgery with exercise and healthy food habits can help improve liposuction results. Liposuction is surgery for stubborn fat removal. It is not a weight-loss procedure.
The surgery has minimal effects on body weight overall. It is best to maintain an optimal weight to ensure the best possible results. It will also help you get into healthy habits, which will allow you to maintain your results long-term.
Strengthen Your Muscles
Muscle-building workouts before surgery can help speed up your recovery. You can talk to a personal trainer to work on toning your muscles in the weeks leading up to your procedure.
What to Do After Liposuction for the Best Results?
After your liposuction surgery, it is crucial to listen to your surgeon’s advice to improve your post-surgical recovery. The following tips might come in handy to boost your recovery process:
Drink Enough Water
During liposuction surgery, your body usually loses a lot of water. It can lead to dehydration. After the operation, try to drink 10-12 glasses of water daily. You can also switch out some of your daily water intake with healthy beverages like diluted fruit juices and herbal tea.
Stay on Top of Any Discomfort
While the surgery is quick and easy, you might feel some mild pains for the next 48 hours. During this time, take your prescribed medicine and keep in touch with your surgeon. Treat the incision areas with care after your surgery.
Wear Loose-Fitting Clothing
Try to wear loose-fitting clothing during your recovery period. That way, you will put less pressure on the areas that are healing. Avoid clothing with zippers and buttons that could poke at your incisions.
Wear Your Compression Garment
After liposuction, your surgeon will have you wear a compression garment around the treated area. The garment might not look super stylish, but it is an important part of the healing process.
A compression garment helps to reshape the treated area, minimizing the development of wrinkles in the skin or any sagging. It also helps to reduce swelling, which can speed up the healing process and help you see results sooner. Since the garment puts pressure on the incisions, it can also help to make any scars even less noticeable.
Usually, it’s a good idea to wear the garment for as long as your surgeon recommends. Depending on the size of the treated area, that can be anywhere from one to three weeks after surgery.
Stick to a Healthy Diet
Usually, liposuction removes diet-resistant fat from the body. That doesn’t mean that you are able to eat whatever you want afterward and not see any fat or weight gain.
It’s important to stick to a healthy diet or to adopt one after your surgery. Following a healthy diet can help you avoid gaining weight, which can help you avoid having remaining fat cells enlarge.
What a healthy diet is can vary depending on who you ask, so it’s a good idea to discuss your options with your surgeon. Usually, following a healthy diet means not eating too many calories or too much fat. It can mean making sure that you get plenty of protein and fiber from sources such as lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Your surgeon will also most likely recommend avoiding certain processed foods and sugary snacks.
Start or Keep Exercising
Exercising after surgery can also help improve your liposuction results. When you exercise regularly, you help tone your muscles, which can improve your physique and appearance. You also burn fat, which can keep existing fat cells from enlarging or help you avoid packing on new ones.
Usually, it’s recommended that you avoid certain types of exercise for at least a week or two after surgery. While you don’t want to go for a long-distance run or play a contact sport right after liposuction, you also don’t want to be completely sedentary. Ask your surgeon when it will be OK to start up a light exercise routine, such as going for a brisk, short walk.
Don’t Lose or Gain a Lot of Weight
Obviously, gaining weight after liposuction will have a negative effect on your results. Following a healthy diet and sticking to an exercise routine should help you avoid significant weight gain.
It’s also true that losing a fair amount of weight can affect your results. While it’s not always possible to avoid weight loss or gain, doing what you can to maintain a steady weight will help you enjoy your liposuction results for as long as possible.
Wait Until You’re Ready for Liposuction
Here’s one last piece of advice for making the most of your liposuction results: wait until you’re ready to schedule the surgery. If you’ve still got 30 or so pounds to lose to reach your goal weight, it’s better to wait until you’ve lost those pounds than to have liposuction and hope for the best.
It’s also a good idea to wait until you’ve finished having children to schedule liposuction. Pregnancy can change your body in surprising ways. You don’t want to go through the surgery, only to end up with unexpected deposits of fat in new areas.
Schedule Your Consultation Today
If you’re ready to say goodbye to stubborn, unwanted fat, contact the Aesthetic Surgery Center to learn more about liposuction and other fat removal options and to book a consultation appointment. The surgeons at Aesthetic Surgery Center have been featured on many of the major news networks, including ABC, NBC, Wink TV, and FOX, as recognized experts on a variety of plastic surgery topics.
Our surgeons believe that educating and communicating with their patients are the keys to helping them achieve successful, natural-looking results. Schedule your liposuction consultation appointment at the Aesthetic Surgery Center, located at 1175 Creekside Parkway #100 in Naples, FL, by calling 239-420-8141.