MY HAPPY ME {com}

By: Liliya Vafina

While at the gym last week, I overheard two young women talk about liposuction. They were mostly discussing its benefits mentioning that liposuction had permanent results. Being a firm believer in healthy diet and hard work as the winning combination in any weight loss battle, I added a few notches to my treadmill speed anxious to get back home and write this article about liposuction and body fat facts. 

• Liposuction is a reshaping technique, first and foremost. It is not to be used as a weight loss technique. It can alter some areas of your body where fat tends to accumulate due to genetic factors. Liposuction cannot be used to remove fat from all areas of your body. So, essentially, it alters your “problem” areas by removing fat from those areas only. It is said that liposuction is permanent based on the belief that the number of fat cells in a body becomes fixed early in life and new cells are not created after that point. Liposuction does remove entire fat cells, however it does not remove all fat cells and the ones that remain are able to swell up to 3 times their normal size if your lifestyle does not change and you consume more energy (calories) than you burn. In addition, current research shows that this increase in size of fat cells CAN initiate formation of new fat cells to accommodate your body’s energy storage needs. 

• Consequently, no matter which theory you choose to believe, the secret to looking and feeling your best is a lifestyle change that can be maintained. If you are considering liposuction, I suggest take the money and splurge on a personal trainer and a nutrition consultant who will be able to motivate you to lose any excess weight as well as to give you tools and education on how to make really lasting lifestyle changes.