We all know the benefits of losing weight: a healthier heart, less stress on the joints, and a boost in self-esteem. Who can argue with that? And when you’ve committed to being healthier and adapting your lifestyle to meet those goals, sometimes liposuction plays a role in fine tuning some of the details. But the question remains: After liposuction, does the fat come back? According to researchers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, not only is it possible, but it can do an about-face and negatively affect your cardiovascular health. Does this mean you scratch liposuction off of your self-improvement list? Absolutely not. The answer they found is simple: exercise.
Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, reported their findings in the paper “Liposuction Induces a Compensatory Increase of Visceral Fat Which Is Effectively Counteracted by Physical Activity: A Randomized Trial” published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
While liposuction effectively removes subcutaneous fat (the fat under the skin), it doesn’t account for the other types of fat you need to worry about, namely visceral fat (the fat around your abdominal organs), which is an indicator of cardiovascular risk. What’s important about this distinction? Research shows that the fat sometimes does come back after liposuction—not from where it was taken from, but as visceral fat. This is what inspired Benatti et al. to ask the question: Does regular exercise prevent the accumulation of visceral fat and thus cardiovascular risk in the liposuction patient?
“Liposuction is suggested to result in long-term body fat regain that could lead to increased cardiometabolic risk. We hypothesized that physical activity could prevent this effect.”
The authors recruited 36 female patients to participate in the study. Each underwent small-volume liposuction to the abdominal area. Two months post-procedure, the women were randomly divided into 2 groups: exercise or non-exercise. The exercise group engaged in physical activity for 4 month’s time. Body fat was measured at baseline, 2 months and 6 months using computed tomography. Researchers also evaluated fat metabolism, body composition, diet, and metabolic parameters.
Benatti et al. found that liposuction effectively removed subcutaneous fat from all study participants when they compared baseline measurements with those taken at the 2-month interval. But what they found at 6 months is that the non-exercise group experienced a 10% increase in visceral fat even with a lower-calorie diet than their exercise group counterparts.
Their conclusion? “Abdominal liposuction does not induce regrowth of fat, but it does trigger a compensatory increase of visceral fat, which is effectively counteracted by physical activity.”
In other words, liposuction isn’t a stand-alone solution for fat reduction. Instead, it’s only one of several available tools in the long-term pursuit of health, beauty and happiness. Maintaining an active lifestyle and a healthy diet will keep you on the right path.