If you want to lose weight for health or appearance reasons, you may be wondering about surgery for weight loss. Bariatric surgery (also known as weight loss surgery) helps obese patients achieve and maintain healthy weights by restricting hunger, in addition to adding a healthy diet and exercise.
Liposuction, on the other hand, is a cosmetic surgery designed to change the shape of the human body by removing fat cells. Unlike bariatric surgery, it is not intended to treat patients who suffer from obesity.
These surgeries may seem to have similar aims, but they’re actually quite different regarding the types of patients who have them. Here’s a look at how bariatric surgery and liposuction compare.
Bariatric surgery restricts the amount of food a stomach can hold, decreasing hunger and food intake while causing malabsorption of nutrients. There are several types of bariatric surgeries, including gastric bypass surgery, Lap-Band surgery, gastric sleeve surgery and gastric balloon surgery.
Which bariatric surgery is right for you?
Liposuction is a procedure that slims and reshapes body areas by removing excess fat and improving body proportion. Liposuction is a cosmetic procedure, which means it is an elective surgery whose purpose is solely focused on improving the individual’s appearance.
Liposuction is a surgery that is appropriate for those who are in generally good health, who are not obese and who are within 30 percent of their ideal body weight. Potential liposuction patients have areas that have not responded to diet and exercise but that are still fatty or not aesthetically appealing to the patient. While fat cells are permanently removed from the body during liposuction, those fat cells that are left may grow bigger without proper diet and exercise after the surgery. Weight loss results may be more immediately noticeable with liposuction, but like bariatric surgery, proper maintenance is required to maintain the look.
Both bariatric surgery and liposuction are surgeries that require preparation, general anesthesia and recovery time. Scarring may occur at incision points, and several days off work or away from daily activities are usually required for recovery.
After bariatric surgery, the patient will adhere to a diet plan that gradually moves from a liquid diet to solid food. Patients will be aware of how much they should be eating so they don’t stretch out their stomach or damage the potential results from the surgery. Patients can expect to attend regular weight loss support groups with other patients who have undergone bariatric surgery.
For liposuction patients, it is up to the patient to maintain their ideal weight to make the results from liposuction permanent. Patients can expect swelling and inflammation for about four weeks after the surgery. Afterward, not maintaining a healthy diet and exercise routine may cause the patient to see new areas where excess fat appears. Many liposuction patients resort to “touch-ups” or repeat liposuction procedures, which increase a patient’s risk whenever they undergo another surgery.
If you are suffering from obesity and want a long-term solution for weight loss and want to transition to a healthier lifestyle, bariatric surgery makes more sense. If you are a relatively healthy weight and want to minimize a stubborn problem area that hasn’t responded to improvements in diet and exercise, you should consider liposuction an option.
If you suffer from obesity and have been unsuccessful in losing weight through diet and exercise alone, you may qualify and benefit from bariatric surgery. To schedule a free weight loss surgery consultation in the Los Angeles area, please contact Soma Weight Loss at (855) 766-2411 or online for weight loss surgery information.
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