What is the Straight dope on it. Has anyone known anyone who has ha it done? What is the general result? Good? Bad?
About what is the cost?
I know one woman who had it done. She said it was quite painful, and took several months to recover. (I believe she had her thighs done.) She’s a knock-out, so I’m not sure why she had the procedure, but she’s wealthy, too. I assume it was quite costly, however, will defer to someone else who knows more.
What if the hokey pokey is really what it’s all about?
Liposuction works, but if you pay the thousands of dollars for the procedure, then go back to your old sit-on-the-couch-and-pop-twinkies self, it’ll all come right back.
Yer pal,
Satan
Liposuction is being used for 2 different purposes at this time. It is being used for “spot” reduction - I’m happy with my overall weight, but these saddle bags are too much - and for large volume fat removal for weight loss.
Just about everyone agrees that spot reduction is safe & effective, but that it is a cosmetic, not medical, procedure, and thus not covered by insuance companies. Newer ultrasonic techniques are significantly “gentler” & do reduce recovery times.
Large volume fat removal is very controversial. It has the potential to remove up to about 20 pounds of fat, but causes massive fluid shifts, requires a long recovery time, even with ultrasonic techniques. There are high rates of complications, and even deaths associated with this procedure. The theory is actually fairly sound:
A person eats more calories than they burn, putting on a little weight (fat) every year. At age 40, they have 80 extra pounds. These extra pounds cause significant changes in the body’s metabolism, and require that the pancreas make 2-3 times as much insulin as normal to maintain normal blood sugars as the extra fat makes the body “resistant” to the sugar-lowering effects of insulin. In addition to reducing blood sugars, however, other actions of insulin are to increase appetite & stimulate fat deposition.
If a substantial amount of that fat can be removed somehow, the body needs less insulin to maintain normal blood sugar, & the metabolism improves somewhat, so that it will be easier for the individual to lose addtional weight, or at least maintain the weight lost from the liposuction. That’s the theory, anyway.
Costs vary from several hundred dollars for small spot reductions to several thousands (tens of thousands) for the large volume fat removal. You’re very much on your own for this; insurance companies almost never cover it.
Sue from El Paso
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I was under the impression that you are born with so many fat cells. Once these are removed they don’t come back.
My problem is I am have 4 pack abs and I cannot get the 6 pack no matter how hard I try.
I would be to chicken to undergo the procedure and I’m also too cheap If I had 10,000.00 I’d rather buy a car.
I had lipo using the tumescent technique done 6 weeks ago, on my stomach, back & sides. The first day it felt like someone had beat my stomach with a stick. After that, it felt like a bad sunburn for about two weeks (which would stop hurting once I had settled into a given position, unfortunately for me, I’m a rather restless person). Two weeks after the surgery, I attended a Dance Seminar(which I realy wasn’t supposed to do that much exercise for at least three weeks!) I had very minimal bruising.
My doctor did exclaim on the speed of my healing: I credit doing light exercise every day (5 minutes twice a day on the treadmill) starting the second or third day after surgery; also avoiding the pain medication.
Cost was approximately 5500 dollars. Note: I priced this 3 times - the first time, the doctor wanted $15,000; the second time, $10,000. The first doctor wanted to do a tummy tuck as well; the second doctor had his own surgery center & wanted to do the inner thigh as well as the stomach. The doctor I used did only what I wanted to do & used an outpatient surgery center (I actually felt better about that, because the people there spent all of their time doing surgery care, not just one or two days a week)
According to the web page I read, ultasonic is not easier on the patient. In addition, it reported that the lipo needles have been known to break apart in the patient from the ultrasonic waves. [shudder] I’ll grant the usual warnings about getting medical advice over the 'net; however, this particular page was not sensationalist & had the most in-depth information that I found.
Tumescent lipo, OTOH, involves injecting a liquid into the fatty tissue, which contains an anaesthetic & swells the tissue so bleeding is reduced. The anaesthetic also allows the procedure to be done with only local anaesthesia, which reduces the risk factors. If you really want to go through it wide awake. Which I wasn’t!
Am I happy with the results? So far, so good. Mainly I’ve changed my profile (from 75% waist to hip ratio to 65%) and removed the small but highly annoying fat rolls on my back, as well as reducing (but not eliminating) my tummy. I still need to lose about 40 pounds - I believe though that the incremental weight loss will be more immediately apparent. I felt like I was at about the top end of the scale of people who will really profit by it - If you are considering it, get the doctor to show you before and after pictures. Not only can you tell something about his/her experience, you will be able to guage whether you will benefit from it. In the pictures I saw, the really skinny people didn’t have much effect & the really really large people barely got their tummy “dunlap” removed.
If any of you do decide to do it, e-mail me & I will give you some helpful hints. The first of which is make sure your doctor does the tumescent technique!