Why Exercise? I had Liposuction!

So you’re looking in the mirror this morning and thinking  “All I need is a little liposuction.”   Your friends tell you “Once you have had liposuction to your tummy, it never comes back there.”  Sounds great, right?

A recent study may leave you thinking more deeply about this. 

Dr. Fabiana Braga Benatti at the University of Sao Paulo looked at the effects of liposuction on body fat distribution and the effects of physical activity. He and his colleagues studied 36 healthy, normal weight women in a six month randomized controlled trial in Brazil. They all underwent small volume abdominal liposuction. Then, two months after the surgery, they were randomized to either the “trained” group or “nontrained”.  They looked at body fat distribution by CT scan before intervention, at 2 months and at 6 months after surgery.  The results showed that despite all of them maintaining the loss of subcutaneous fat, the non-trained group showed a significant 10% increase in visceral fat.  Their conclusion was that although the area of liposuction (subcutaneous fat) did not regrow, it did trigger a ”compensatory increase of visceral fat, which is effectively counteracted by physical activity.”

So who cares about visceral fat (the fat deep inside around your organs)?  I do and you should too!

Tracey McLaughlin and colleagues at the Stanford University School of Medicine studied the relationship of visceral adipose tissue versus subcutaneous adipose tissue in 115 healthy, yet overweight, adults.  CT scans were once again used to measure fat mass.  They separated them into two groups based on the results of an insulin suppression test which shows if someone is either insulin resistant or sensitive to insulin. This is another way of saying whether someone can use their insulin effectively to clear sugar from their body or they are unable to do that.

The results showed that the group that had insulin resistance had much greater visceral fat. So, although you don’t really want excess fat anywhere, visceral fat is bad. Visceral fat has been linked to increased risks for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and the need for gall bladder surgery. Losing this type of fat, which is very responsive to exercise, plays a large role in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.

One other tidbit: Steen Pedersen at the Aarhus University in Denmark showed that normal estrogen levels shift the fat depot from intra-abdominal visceral fat to subcutaneous fat.  It can be deduced then that the loss of estrogen at the time of Peri-menopause and Menopause would cause a shift in the wrong direction toward more visceral fat.

The good news from Dr. Benatti in Brazil is that after you attain your gorgeous body from liposuction or liposculpture, make sure to start a significant and consistent exercise regimen to avoid the fat regain to the most unwanted area.  Along with Liposuction, I offer a nutritional assessment, hormonal assessment  and  bio-identical hormone replacement, exercise and diet recommendations for the ultimate results.

For information on a Wellness Consultation or to inquire about surgical procedures please contact:  Terese S. Harris, MD, 714-794-1818, or e-mail at www.tereseharrismd.com.