subject: Why Liposuction Can't Replace Healthy Living [print this page] Liposuction is a big thing right now, and it seems to be growing more every day. Last year, over 300,000 people throughout the United States underwent surgical liposuction (also called suction lipectomy or lipoplasty). The procedure is equally popular in many other parts of the world, as well.
As with any popular thing, there are a lot of misconceptions about liposuction. One of these is that it serves as a replacement for healthy diet and regular exercise. People who propound this theory argue that liposuction is a fast and easy method of losing weight which requires less work and dedication than exhausting exercise and strict diets.
It would be awfully nice if all of this were true. Who doesn't want a quick fix? However, life is rarely so simple, and these people ignore a lot of the fundamental truths about liposuction.
Liposuction is a surgical procedure in which fat is removed from a certain part of the body through small hollow needles called cannulas. A typical lipoplasty will treat anywhere from one to a small handful of body areas which have been decided on before hand by the patient and surgeon. Lipoplasty is not intended for total body weight-loss. A total body procedure would be extremely taxing and difficult to recover from.
Liposuction is similarly limited in the amount of fat that it can remove. While different doctors disagree as to the exact amount of fat that can be safely removed from the body, most agree that it is unwise to go above 10 pounds at the upper limit. If a person is over 30% above their ideal body weight, they are typically not very well suited for liposuction.
Additionally, surgical lipectomy cannot provide the body with all of the benefits of healthy living. It cannot provide the heart with the cardiovascular benefits of workout, nor can it give the body the necessary vitamins consumed in a healthy diet.
Although it doesn't work as a weight-loss method, liposuction does have some spheres in which it functions very well. It is very good at targeting specific problem areas that store excess fat. Even the healthiest of individuals tend to have a little bit of unsightly fat deposited throughout their bodies.
These deposits can be extremely difficult to remove through exercise or diet, and they grow progressively more difficult as one ages. Liposuction can eliminate these problem areas to provide a more pleasing, smoother shape.
