Perhaps one of the most frustrating concepts about attempting to lose weight, particularly when it comes to burning off fat, is that your body doesn't only collect fat in one particular area. In other words, all of your excess fat will not just be deposited around your abdomen or your buttocks. This can be very frustrating because you may not lose that fat equally once you start on a regular routine of exercise and a low-fat diet. For example, many people may first notice a reduction in excess fat on their upper arms, but reduction in abdominal fat takes much longer.

Like many other people, you may be considering undergoing liposuction as a means to remove those stubborn pockets of excess fat. Since this fat is distributed in various locations throughout the body, you may be concerned about having fat removed from more than one location at the same time. This is one of the more common questions that prospective liposuction patients ask Dr. Pin. Much of this has to do with a combination of genetics and the type of fat you have developed in certain areas.

Genetics and Fat Distribution

Similar to how genetics will determine our hair or eye colors, it also has an important role in how our bodies collect and store excess fat. For example, if your mother was pear-shaped (meaning that she tended to store excess fat around her hips and buttocks), you may have the same tendency toward that particular distribution of excess fat. On the other hand, you may find that if your father was apple-shaped (a more even distribution of excess fat throughout the torso, giving it a rounded appearance), you are likely to have a similar body shape. These genetic patterns for how you gain excess fat will also determine the areas from which you will first start to lose fat.

Total Fat Volume versus Multiple Sites

Now that we understand a bit more about how and why your body will deposit excess fat in more than one area on your body, we can now move on to look at whether or not you can have fat removed from your body during one liposuction procedure. The answer depends more upon your total volume of excess fat than how many locations in which it is stored.

If you have an overall slight build, but with many areas of excess fat that each only has a small amount, you are an excellent candidate for multiple treatment areas during one liposuction session. On the other hand, if you have a somewhat larger frame with only a few areas of excess fat deposits, but each area has a large amount of fat, it may be better to remove the fat over the course of several sessions.

Liposuction is a very individualized procedure, in that Dr. Pin must take into account not only each patient's goals, but also his or her body frame and the areas of the body where the excess fat has been deposited. When determining areas to target for fat removal, it is more important to consider the total volume of fat being removed during one procedure than the number of areas being targeted. Doing so means that you will ultimately be more satisfied with the final outcome from your liposuction.