If you are thinking about having liposuction, it is important to keep these factors in mind:

1. Liposuction is not a way to lose weight or to kick off a weight-loss program. You will not lose more than four or five pounds. In fact, for some people, there is no weight loss after the procedure.
2. Liposuction will not remove cellulite. In fact, if an inexperienced physician takes fat from too close to the skin, he may create a dimpled and uneven texture that looks like cellulite.
3. Liposuction may not be covered by insurance unless there is a medical need, such as the removal of sweat glands underneath the arm in someone who sweats profusely or the removal of liposomes-fatty deposits on a nerve or blood vessel.
4. Some areas of your body will respond better than others. Breasts, inner thighs and upper arms are the areas least likely to achieve smooth, symmetrical results.
5. You can gain weight after liposuction. Even though the area that was suctioned will not get fatter (fat cells rarely multiply), if you overeat you will gain weight in other areas. Some women say they are pleasantly surprised to gain weight in their breasts. Others say excess weight shows up in less desirable locations – on the back. Shoulders or upper arms, for example.
6. If you want to liposuction areas all over your body at the same time – your stomach, thighs, upper arms, neck and calves – you do not need liposuction, you need a diet.
7. Find a doctor who has done the procedure several hundred times before. Ask to see before and after photographs of his patients. If he does not have any or will not show you, find another doctor.

A historical note: The surgical removal of fat was inaugurated in the late 1960s in Paris. Excess fat was literally scraped from the skin using a scalpel-like tool. The procedure left a lot of dimpling and scarring on the skin, and it caused tremendous blood loss in some. One of the fist cases had tragic results – a ballerina who was having her calves reduced lost her leg because of infection.

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