Who are the best candidates for liposuction?

Liposuction is an invasive cosmetic procedure performed under general anaesthesia. It is not a weight loss tool and has no proven medical benefits.

Therefore, suitable patients must be able to tolerate general anaesthesia safely. They shouldn’t have heart problems, their blood pressure must be under control and they should be generally well.

The best candidates for liposuction are people who have a stable weight, who exercise regularly, but for some reason can’t get rid of a stubborn area of fat.

Doing liposuction well doesn’t mean taking out the most amount of fat. A well done procedure should leave you with a more pleasing shape, in males that may mean defining a six-pack, in females that may mean giving a nicer waist but preserving other curves.

From your description, you sound like an ideal candidate for liposuction.

Based on your description, you sound like the ideal candidate for liposuction:

• Stable weight
• Good exercise regime
• No medical problems or medical problems that are well controlled
• Localized areas of fat that won't go away despite your best efforts

The only thing I might want to hear is that you have a good dietary plan. I believe is a greater determinant of body weight than exercise

The people I turn away for liposuction are those who have not been looking after themselves as well as you have:

• Yo-yo-ing weight pattern are worse than increasing weight
• Poor dietary and lifestyle habits
• Multiple medical problems or medical problems that are poorly controlled
• Patients who want to use liposuction as a quick and easy way of losing weight and fat.

The reason why I am quite strict about the above is that you can put on fat again if the above factors are not looked after and I consider that treatment failure. And I have quite a nasty allergy to treatment failure 😒

The best candidates for liposuction are those who still have good skin tone, presents with no stretch marks and skin that still have the capacity to contract a bit, it means good skin elasticity.

The best candidate should also be not overweight and have wrong fat distribution (some fat localized in some areas that do not go away with diet).

Based on what you have described yourself, it looks like you are a good candidate as you are not overweight but have some fat localized in your tummy.

However there are a few questions that I would suggest you think about and discuss with your doctor:

• Do you have any flabby skin around your abdomen?
• Did you used to be much fatter than now?
• When you do a sit up, do you have a bulge in the middle of the abdomen?

If you do have over-redundant skin (excess skin) and muscle abdominal diastasis (gap in the midline), you might have to consider a tummy tuck rather than liposuction on the abdomen.