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Weight Gain After Lipo: Fat Happens

Even if you stick to a healthy, low sugar, low carb diet and exercise regularly, weight gain can eventually happen as your metabolism drops with age or with hormonal fluctuations. And no, you don't have to like it.

As we discussed in the "Does Fat Grow Back?" section, new fat cells do not form from simple and average weight gain - the remaining cells just expand. And expand they will if you continue to eat the wrong foods or the wrong combination of foods. Eating more calories than you are burning off will cause you to gain weight, and not the good kind of weight either. Remember that it takes approximately 3,500 extra calories to gain a lb. of fat. So if you take in 2,500 calories a day but only burn 2,000 on average per day, you have an excess of 500 calories a day that is stored as fat. Within 7 days you will gain a pound. If you continue to eat this way, that is 4 lb. in 1 month and if you still continue eating like this that's a whopping 52 lb. (approximately) in one year.

So what to do? Well, you can't just continue to get liposuction every time you gain 10 lb. However it is common to get a touch up once or twice more over the years in patients who do not consistently adhere to a strict or normal diet and exercise regimen. Balance is key, but as I've mentioned hormones and metabolism, as well as medications, can play a major role.

During recovery you may weigh more than you did when you went in, please know that much of this can be from fluid retention and to drink plenty of water to balance your fluids and flush out medications. Watch your sodium as well. If you had large volume liposuction you may only notice a pound or two - give it time. But remember liposuction is not a means to lose weight.

If you do gain real weight - don't get depressed and think you've ruined your results. Get back on track and determine what the the problem is. Before you make another appointment, take note of your eating habits and activity levels. Are you eating things you shouldn't in excess? Are you sitting at a desk all day like me? Try to alter these factors and take note of any weight fluctuations or mass loss (take measurements). Because diet and exercise are not for just the vain - it is for health!