Doctors believe that once the fat cells have been removed by liposuction, these same cells do not grow back. The patient's new, more balanced and pleasing silhouette should be long lasting or permanent following liposuction if proper diet and exercise are a continued part of the plan. Usually, if the patient does gain weight in the future, the change tends to be distributed proportionately over the entire body. The same applies to weight loss. Doctors believe that the total number of fat cells in the body of an adult, once established during adolescence, is fairly constant. The more fat cells there are in a specific location, the more difficult it is to reduce that area simply by dieting. Weight gain by fat formation in an adult is the actual enlargement of existing fat cells, not the creation of new ones.

However, consider the following example. When a surgeon sucks out a particular fat cell it is gone forever. A neighboring fat cell cannot divide to reproduce its neighbor in an adult human. But, unfortunately, individual fat cells, like few others in the human body, can grow to a tremendous size. This can more than make up for a missing neighbor cell that was removed by suction.

Another thing to beware of is that areas that are not treated with liposuction surrounding ones that have been treated can grow larger than the "liposuctioned" ones if "you let yourself go = do not eat properly or maintain exercise."

Dieting (when used in this website, means eating proper and balance meals for your age and activity level) usually reduces the size of all fat cells proportionately, leaving the basic silhouette unchanged, to a large degree. Again, remember, exercise and proper eating following surgery are extremely important, not only for your liposuction result but for the rest of your life. Failure of the patient to maintain weight following liposuction may necessitate further liposuction in and around the previously treated sites to keep a smooth appearance.