In a world where people seem to be getting bigger and bigger due in no small part to convenience foods and a more sedentary lifestyle, many people are wondering if large volume liposuction might be an effective treatment for their obesity. Certainly there have been great leaps and strides in cosmetic surgery in the recent past that might make this option tempting. But there are concerns that need to be addressed about this apparently appealing way to lose the fat.

The truth is - liposuction was never designed to be a weight loss solution, or a treatment for obesity. For one thing, the extraction of more than about 2.5 litres of fat can simply be too much for the body to handle, leading to serious medical complications

Additionally, taking out vast amounts of fat without losing as much weight as possible beforehand can lead to some less than satisfactory results. Skin sagging, lumps and hollows can all be the result of too much fat being taken away.

After all, liposuction cannot rid the body of dangerously large fatty deposits around internal organs - these would have to be taken care of by simple, old-fashioned weight loss. Liposuction really is a body contouring surgery rather than a weight loss procedure.

People who are obese have much higher risk factors than those whose weight is more in proportion. Anesthesia is calculated on a person's weight, so the larger the person, the more anesthetic will be required, and of course this increases the risks widely documented with anaesthesia. An obese person has a higher risk of heart failure and sudden, unexpected blood loss.

.Most surgeons won't consider liposuction as an obesity treatment, as the risks are too great, and the results desired are better achieved using other treatments. Other surgical alternatives can be as gastric banding or gastric ballooning. The patient would need to be fully assessed by a surgeon (usually a bariatric surgeon) to see if they were suitable for these types of surgeries.

Of course, once the majority of the excess weight has been lost, there is no reason why you can't have a cosmetic procedure to remove stubborn fat deposits left over from weight loss as well as excess skin. Vaser lipo combined with a tummy tuck is just one example of a popular liposuction procedure. So, as you can see, liposuction is not an effective treatment for obesity, and should not be considered a weight loss treatment at all, as it is for body contouring.