What if liposuction proves to be foolhardy AND dangerous? What if the study below applies to mankind, too? What if the fat you suck out of one part of your body to look (and feel) better sets up a natural response that lays more fat down to protect some of the muscles nearby?
And what if the fat that was removed actually sets up a metabolic boomerang that could lead to diabetes? As the authors write, removing the subcutaneous fat that covers muscles and lies under the skin – versus the visceral fat that lines the inner organs and is associated with heart and metabolic diseases – does not ony cause such a ‘redistribution’; it also causes a “decline in glucose tolerance and increased insulin resistance”.
Let’s give a quick synopsis on fat in your body. Subcutaneous fat – under the skin – is what most of us are concerned about because we see it. It jiggles, it dimples, it expands our clothing sizes and even fills up the clothing itself. For some, it is a source of shame, self-hatred, and too often a trigger to unhealthy habits including over-eating or undereating/dieting. Nonetheless, it is not by itself a source of disease.
Visceral fat, the stuff that wraps around the intestines and heart, is related to disease. Subcutaneous fat is more metabolically active, available for fueling the body even as it insulates the tissues beneath it. Visceral fat is also metabolically active but not in a way you’d like; it triggers other responses that may lead to or at least are correlated with metabolic disease like diabetes and heart disease. Thus, both are piled on or in the more your caloric balance is positive, i.e. you consume more calories than your burn off. Some folks, at least early in life, deposit more under the skin; others deeper in the belly. Their message is similar: you’re not using as many calories as you’re eating. But their effects differ.
Based on this study, and anecdotal feedback from those who’ve gone the surgical route of removing excess subcutaneous fat, once you take it from one area, it will come to another area nearby to protect that area. And it will diminish your body’s ability to process blood sugar, which could portend diabetes if you regain fat.
We don’t know this for sure, at least not in humans, but it is worth repeating: the way to lean down, trim down, and lose body fat is through healthy eating and enough physical activity to use the calories you consume, and require that the body uses the fat that is stored. That’s why you should contact a personal trainer at STEPS to learn the safest ways of creaing a healthy lifestyle:
All body fat isn’t created equal, Colorado Sate University research shows
