Tummy wars: Why maintaining one's weight after a procedure is important

Liposuction can only do so much to reduce the bulge. Photo: AFP

Despite undergoing liposuction (and with pleasing results), the writer’s roly-poly tummy returned with a vengeance six months later!

In my previous article, I wrote about how I exercised regularly, hired a personal trainer-cum-slave master, and took the oral weight-loss pill phentermine, in my quest to lose my bulging tummy.

Working my butt off and supplementing with appetite-suppressant drugs did make me lose weight, but the localised areas of fat on the abdomen (my very own love handles), back and chest did not want to bid goodbye to me.

No matter how hard one exercises or diets, there are areas of fats that are very stubborn and refuse to part ways with their owner.

For men, it’s usually the tummy and love handles. For the fairer sex, it’s the inner thighs and buttocks.

These stubborn areas of adipose tissue are genetically predetermined; we are just born that way.

Luckily for me, I own a number of aesthetic machines in my clinic, including the newest devices for slimming.

I tried several sessions of radiofrequency treatments. Painless radiofrequency waves are delivered via a handpiece for approximately half an hour per area each time, whilst I relax and flip through a magazine.

The sessions can be repeated in a week or two. Several sessions are necessary for optimal results.

There did seem to be some degree of fat loss at the treated areas, which was my tummy, love handles and back, but for me, it seemed more of a skin tightening and lifting result rather than fat loss per se.

While I had some clients with good, noticeable results, the results do differ from person to person. Wanting instant gratification, I decided the fastest way to go about this was by undergoing a liposuction procedure.

The surgery was performed on me by a well-known plastic surgeon friend at his centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

It was my first time undergoing an operation under general anaesthesia, whereby I’d be fully asleep during the entire two-hour procedure.

I’ve heard of cases of people who were fully aware and still able to feel pain during general anaesthesia, but unable to move, talk or cry out for help due to the temporary paralytic action of anaesthetic drugs on their muscles.

I felt slightly nervous, wondering if I’d have this traumatic experience. But no, the moment the anaesthetist asked me to breathe in deeply into the oxygen mask, I must have been totally unconscious, as the next time I opened my eyes, I was in a dimly-lit recovery room with a mild discomfort in my tummy, meaning the surgery had been completed.

After a while, a nurse came in to check on me, followed by the surgeon, who gleefully showed me a huge plastic bottle, three-quarters of which was filled with a yellowish gooey liquid, mixed with traces of red.

It was the 800 millilitres of fat with some blood suctioned out of my love handles, back, chest and tummy. The next two months after the liposuction surgery was sheer agony.

I had to wear an uncomfortably tight and warm compression garment at all times to help reduce swelling and promote recovery.

Whilst Victorian ladies would look astounding in corsets, me in a compression garment resembled Frankenstein trying too hard to blend in during Fashion Week.

The pain over the first two weeks was awful and I was continuously on painkillers. What made it worse was the swelling due to pooling of lymphatic fluid over the operation site.

I had difficulty taking full breaths due to the combination of discomfort and tissue swelling.

To ease the severity of the swelling, I attended regular physiotherapy sessions, three to four times a week for nearly a month and a half.

The therapist performed lymphatic drainage massage to shift the fluids from the superficial tissues to the deeper lymphatic system, where hopefully, my body would clear off the excess fluids.

After two months, boy, was I glad that I was finally well enough to hit the gym.

I was feeling uneasy because I gained a few kilos from inactivity during the recovery period.

After the swelling subsided, I was quite pleased with the results. My tummy no longer looked like the volleyball it used to.

Finally, my friends would stop asking me how many months pregnant I was. The love handles were not as obtrusive as before.

After getting pleasing results, I started to slack off, did not exercise as intensively, and ate whatever I wanted.

Six months post-liposuction, the fats that were eliminated came back with a vengeance. The unsightly tummy returned. My love handles resembled those belonging to the Michelin tyre man.

I thought, why not just go for another round of “lipo” then?

So I underwent a second similar procedure with the good doctor. Needless to say, I had to endure the same surgical side effects.

The worst thing was the results didn’t last long again this time, due to my lack of discipline.

The lesson I learned was that the results of any fat or weight-loss procedure is only temporary if one does not take steps to maintain it.

Liposuction does help a lot, but it does not give you the license to take it easy with exercise or gobble down whatever your heart desires.

In my final part of this series in a fortnight’s time, I’ll let you know how I finally managed to get acceptable results with a fat-freezing procedure called cryolipolysis and the latest selective field radiofrequency, and most importantly, by exercising intensively and regularly.

¦ Dr Chen Tai Ho is an experienced aesthetic doctor who chills by the pool sipping espresso latte when he’s not attending to his patients. The information provided is for educational and communication purposes only and it should not be construed as personal medical advice. Information published in this article is not intended to replace, supplant or augment a consultation with a health professional regarding the reader’s own medical care. The Star disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.