Ten things you never wanted to know about FAT!
1. If you eat 110 calories and use 100 calories you gain weight. If you eat 100 calories and use 110 calories you lose weight.
2. Every time you gain a pound, you gain it on all the places you don’t want to gain it on. Every time you lose a pound, you lose it off all the places you don’t want to lose it from.
3. So you gradually attain a shape that you don’t like.
4. No exercise machine can target weight loss from a particular bit of the body. If you lose weight it comes off wherever your body wants to take it from.
5. It IS about diet and exercise but it isn’t JUST about diet and exercise.
6. It is much better to eat less AND do more!
7. Exercise is FAR more important than diet, yet diet is the first thing most people think about.
8. Eating FAT doesn’t necessarily make you fat. Eating more than you need of pretty much anything, makes you fat.
9. Even Super Models don’t actually look like that. Have you not heard of Photoshop?
10. Looking at food DOESN’T make you fat. Eating it might..
So we all know what we should be doing, so why aren’t we doing it? More importantly is there anything that can be done about the shape we’re in?
Well to reiterate No 5 It IS about diet and exercise but it isn’t JUST about diet and exercise.
For those unsympathetic souls who just yell ‘Eat less and do more exercise Fatty!’! I have to point out that many of my patients are not overweight and exercise very reasonably. So for many diet and exercise is not the complete answer.
Is there any way to target fat loss?
The good news is yes. The bad news is it does cost money and some ways are more uncomfortable than others. So let me tell you at least about a relatively new one which I think is the best compromise.
VASER Liposelection.
Vibration Amplification of Sound Energy at Resonance. Yep that’s what VASER stands for. What it means to you as a patient is that we can use ultrasound technology to selectively liquidise the fat in your problem areas whilst leaving blood vessels nerves and fibrous tissues intact. This means that most of the aspirate is fat with very little blood. This is why there is much less swelling and bruising with VASER than with traditional Liposuction. This allows us to perform the procedure under local anaesthetic.
We start by infusing the area concerned with local anaesthetic and medication which reduces the bruising and swelling. Next we use the ultrasound probes passed through very small 2-4 mm incisions to gently liquify the fat and make it easier to remove. This is followed by reduced pressure aspiration of the liquified fat. The amount removed depends on the amount present and the desired result. We always stay well within safe amounts of fat removal. One of the nice aspects of VASER treatment is you get to see exactly how much fat has been removed.
You still need to wear a compression garment for a couple of weeks afterwards but many people can return to work almost immediately or at least within a few days. The results can be seen very quickly sometimes even within a few days, but the final assessment is made between 3 and 6 months.
Now none of this changes the facts above, but what it does do is allow you to decide where the fat comes off, if you do your side of the deal properly.
People often ask me if the results of any fat removal treatments are permanent. I usually say that for some of them,like the one above, the results are technically permanent. What do I mean by this?
Well, I have no control over what you do once you leave the clinic. If you go home and eat Fish & Chips and Ice Cream then you will undoubtedly gain weight again and probably in exactly the same places as you always did. However once you have achieved the desired result, if you look after yourself properly with good diet and consistent exercise then it has no reason to come back.