Should I wait for the usual weight gain before I have Liposuction done?

Your best results are achieved when you are at your "fighting weight".  However, 5 lbs either way will not change the contour that the doctor can achieve.  If you have liposuction now, with exercise starting about 4 weeks after surgery, you should have the shape you wanted by spring.  You will be able to shed those extra pounds and tighten the skin.

Don't use the liposuction as an excuse to eat more and gain extra weight.  This would destroy your results and feel as if you wasted your money.

It is best to remove fat at a time of stable weight or a small amount of weight gain (the fat cells are easier to remove when they are full, compared to after someone's lost weight, and the fat cells are "shrunken".) Although 5 pounds isn't much, if you know you're going to be gaining, better to wait and do the liposuction after the weight gain (and, then, lose it after the procedure for an even better contour!)

I hope that helps!

Ideally you should have a stable lifestyle with relatively stable weight. If your area in question does not appreciably change with your five pound weight fluctuations, you shouldn't worry too much. But do not gain or lose the weight just for the surgery because if the area in question does change enough for you to notice, then when your weight changes, so will your result.

It is always easier to remove fat in an area that has fat.

Liposuction is about changing contour. I like to describe it to my patients as beach ball removal.

Think of your fat as a bunch of small beach balls distributed throughout your body. With every pound of fat gained, every beach ball gets a little bigger. The areas on your body that show more of the weight gain are areas with more beach balls. The number of beach balls does not change during most of your life. The times when the number of fat cells increase is:

1. 0-3 years old
2. Puberty
3. Pregnancy
4. Morbid obesity

Liposuction removes beach balls so contour is changed, but does little to control weight gains or weight losses. The limiting step with regard to your weight and volume reduction, has to do with safety. Plastic surgeons will typically limit liposuction to 5 liters maximum removal. If your contour correction requires more than that amount then weight loss is advisable. In your case 5 pounds is very little and will not affect the outcome. Go for it!

Unless you are nautrally very thin, 5 lbs really won't make much of a difference in your final result, and you're probably ok to proceed with the procedure at your convenience.  Talk it over with your doc and see if he agrees, but it should not be a major issue.

Mimi,

Before you have any surgery it is very important that the surgeon examines you.  Most people have weight fluctuations, so do not worry about 5 pounds.  When doing liposuction, I concentrate on how much (actually how little) I leave behind.  How much I take off is just a product of what was necessary to achieve the desired results (shape, contour).

Enjoy your liposuction.