The Lipo Center: Benefits and Limitations

Many men and women every year go to a lipo center with the hopes of recovering a body they might once have known. Years of weight gain, pregnancy, and simply aging may have left them with a body they don’t quite recognize, or at least one they can’t be particularly proud of. Liposuction has been effective in helping millions of people return to a state where they are proud to look in the mirror, wear that bathing suit, or simply feel better about themselves. But it isn’t a miracle surgery. To know whether or not the procedure is for you, you have to understand both the limitations and benefits of liposuction.

Contrary to what many people in the media seem to believe, liposuction is not designed to make a “fat person” skinny. It is not supposed to act as a substitute for diet and exercise. It doesn’t really act as a shortcut. In fact, many a lipo center has sent patients away if they have the wrong idea about the surgery or if they come in far too overweight. Such a facility is equipped to deal with patients who understand the procedure (whether this is through a consultation with their doctors or simply having come in having done their research ahead of time) and have realistic expectations regarding what they will get out of the surgery.

The actual benefits of a lipo center are, indeed, quite remarkable. To understand how liposuction does what nothing else can do, we need to understand what happens when a person gains and loses weight. First of all, people gain weight in different ways. Some people hold most of their fat in their abdominal area, while others tend to fill out evenly. Some others hold it in their thighs or their buttocks. When an individual gains weight, fat cells in their body both multiply and grow. However, when they lose that weight, the fat cells only shrink. They don’t disappear. As you can see, this creates an imbalance.

This imbalance leads to someone who has gained a great deal of weight never being able to fully retrieve their old body, regardless of how much dieting and exercising they do. The fat cells shrink, but they never fully disappear. If enough new ones were created, it could be impossible to achieve a tight, firm body, even if heavy cardio, strict dieting, and weight lifting are incorporated. Certainly, there is no such thing as “spot reduction”, but even an overall loss of weight and firming of muscles may not lead to the desired results.

It is at this point where a lipo center really has the chance to shine. By targeting specific areas of fat, it can remove excess adipose tissue, getting rid of it forever. Of course, this doesn’t mean that a person can’t gain weight again after the surgery, but—for as long as the individual can retain a strict lifestyle—they should be able to enjoy their new body for years to come.