Fat

Q. I’m a 35-year-old man and, although I go to the gym regularly, I can’t seem to get rid of my love handles completely. What do you advise me to do?

A. Fatty deposits occuring in specific areas of the body, such as the lumbar region and the waistline (the so-called love handles), can be successfully removed by liposuction or liposculpture.

Although body contouring surgery does not replace diet and physical exercise, liposuction and liposculpture allow the removal of the localized fatty deposits that cannot be removed otherwise.

Q. I’ve heard of a new drug which claims to dissolve excessive fat without resorting to surgery: is it true?

A. No. At present, there are no scientific documents proving the effectiveness of these kind of drugs.

Q. I’m 38 and I’ve always had problems with excess fat on my sides and with small breasts. Is there is an operation that could address both of these issues?

A. Fat stored in the sides, thighs and buttocks can be easily removed by a liposuction or liposculpture operation. The lipofilling technique, which consists of taking little quantities of fat through a thin needle or a cannula and injecting them into the area to be treated, can be useful for filling the lips or small wrinkles, but it does not allow for breast augmentation.

Breasts are mainly made up of fat and, partly, of mammary gland tissue and, to make up for the small size of the mammary gland, it is therefore necessary to implant a prosthesis. It is however possible to perform the two kinds of surgery - liposuction and breast augmentation - at the same time.

Q. I’m 45 and, after several attempts to loose weight I have now reached my ideal weight but the skin on my arms and thighs has “slackened” and now it looks flabby and loose. Is there surgery to solve my problem?

A. Yes. To remove the excess skin on the arms and the thighs, the upper and lower limb-lift would be ideal. In much the same way as the cervicofacial lift, the operation consists of removing the excess skin and stretching the tissues. The scars will remain in the internal part of the arms and the thighs and won’t be very visible.