By Brooke Seckel
All of us want to lose belly fat and have a flat stomach, but the amount of exercise and dieting required to have firm six pack abs is beyond what most of us can reasonably achieve. As we age, past 30, our body metabolism slows and it is much harder to lose belly fat. Those of us who have sedentary jobs which do not involve vigorous physical activity experience laxity of our abdominal muscles which normally hold our stomach contents tight to create a flat stomach. As we gain weight and our muscles get lax, we develop a protruding abdomen or pot belly.
Women who have had babies find it very difficult to lose belly fat and have a flat stomach. I have see hundreds of very fit, health conscious and physically active women in my office who have done everything right and just cannot lose belly fat caused by pregnancy. The tummy tuck or mini abdominoplsty has helped many people have a flat stomach, but many do not want surgery and the scars associated with surgery.
New laser liposuction technology enables me to offer patients who want to lose belly fat and have a flat stomach an effective, minimally invasive procedure which in many cases is as effective as a tummy tuck.
What Causes Belly Fat and Fat Stomach
There are several components that cause a fat stomach, pot belly, or loose tummy. Laser liposuction can remove belly fat from under the skin and achieve skin tightening of loose tummy skin. However laser liposuction cannot tighten your stomach muscles or abdominal muscles. To tighten the stomach muscles you will need to do stomach exercises or abdominal work outs.
Laser liposuction also cannot remove fat inside your abdomen-intra-abdominal fat, called mesenteric fat- which is wrapped around your intestine. If you are very overweight or obese, only significant dieting will help you lose belly fat that is inside your abdomen.
The several causes of belly fat or a fat tummy or pot belly are:
- Intra-abdominal Fat-Fat serves a very important survival function. Fat stores energy to provide nutrition during periods when we do not have adequate food intake. Thus fat is a survival mechanism during periods of starvation. Fat is stored inside the abdomen in a structure called the mesentery. The mesentery is wrapped around our intestines and supports the intestines. Huge amounts of fat can be present in the mesentery when we are overweight or obese. When there is excess intra-abdominal fat in the mesentery, the fat actually pushes out and stretches the muscles of our abdominal wall and creates a fat belly. Only dieting or caloric restriction can cause the intra-abdominal fat to be used for energy production and disappear.
- Abdominal Wall Laxity-The abdominal muscles (abdominal wall), called the abs, hold our intestines and abdominal contents in the abdomen. These muscles can become stretched and loose after extensive weight gain, pregnancy, and inactivity. When the abdominal muscles, or abdominal wall loses tone, becomes stretched or lax, the contents of the inside of the abdomen push the abdominal wall forward and create a fat tummy or pot belly. Tightening of the abdominal wall, that is restoring the tone of the abdominal or tummy muscles can only be achieved with ab exercises and conditioning of the tummy muscles or with abdominoplsty or tummy tuck surgery.
- Subcutaneous Fat beneath the Belly Skin- The fat directly beneath the skin on the belly also stores fat. This fat is called the subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat and is normally about 1/2 inch thick in most people. When we gain weight and have excess fat, this subcutaneous fat layer becomes thicker, sometimes up to 4 or 5 inches thick. Laser liposuction is a very effective technique to remove subcutaneous fat. The heat from the laser melts the fat into a thin liquid which is easily removed by suction through very small tubes called cannulas.
- Loose Belly Skin-Multiple pregnancies and repeated weight gain stretch the abdominal skin and create loose belly or tummy skin. The major breakthrough in laser liposuction is the ability of the laser to tighten stomach skin. Previous liposuction techniques removed fat but left loose belly or tummy skin after fat removal. With laser liposuction, the heat from the laser tightens the skin during the laser fat dissolving process.
Laser Liposuction to Lose Belly Fat and Flatten the Stomach
Because the laser liposuction fiber dissolves fat into a thin liquid, removal of fat is much easier. This allows the surgeon to use very tiny tubes or cannulas to suction the fat out of the tummy skin. As a result very tiny holes, usually placed inside the belly button, are all that is required. This means very tiny, almost invisible scars. In addition, in my experience, following laser liposuction the skin is left smooth without the lumps, bumps and contour deformities often seen with traditional liposuction.
Skin tightening following this new technique has been truly remarkable in my experience. In patients who are fit and not overweight, I have been able to do laser body sculpting to actually reveal the outline of the abdominal muscles after healing. In the words of one of my patients "I got my six pack back."
My patients seem to recover more quickly after this new procedure. Many say they fell fine the day after the procedure. However, I ask my patients not to return to vigorous or strenuous activity or work outs for at least two weeks.
If you are not obese or very over weight and want to improve the contour of your abdomen, then these new techniques may be what you are looking for.
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