After having arm lipo, it’s important to allow your body time to heal. Since liposuction removes excess fat from your body, you must take extra care after treatment. A key element of your recovery process must involve eating a healthy diet. This will help to promote healing so you can get back to normal as quickly as possible.
However, you shouldn’t only follow a short-term healthy eating plan after your surgery. Without adopting a long-term healthy lifestyle, you could easily gain weight. This could negate the effect of your procedure and lead to further weight gain. As a result, you could end up with excess fat developing again. This may either be on your arms or elsewhere on your body. Nevertheless, it could end up causing you to require another procedure to remove the fat cells that have expanded.
It’s important to choose a good diet to preserve the slim arms you achieved during your lipo procedure. So, what should you be eating? And, more importantly, what should you not be eating? Some experts have suggested a sugar-free diet is the best option after having liposuction. So, is it the right choice for you?
Sugar During Recovery
Immediately after your liposuction surgery, your surgeon may advise you to avoid sugary drinks and foods. This is because sugar may have negative effects on your immune system. It may also upset the mineral balance of your body and harm your blood sugar level.
Furthermore, immediately after surgery, it’s likely you’ll feel fatigued and have a reduced appetite. While this is normal, it’s still essential to eat so you can speed up your healing. Although it can be tempting to reach for unhealthy snacks, that isn’t advisable. Eating small, healthy meals regularly throughout the day is the best solution. With their very low level of nutrients and vitamins, sugary snacks offer no benefits to your body’s healing process.
When you’re going through recovery, you should avoid eating all types of junk food. This particularly includes anything with high sugar content. This will help to speed your recovery and help you achieve the result you desire.
Adopting a Long-Term Diet
There is no single post-liposuction diet that experts recommend to patients following surgery. However, surgeons agree that maintaining a healthy diet packed with highly nutritious foods is the best way forward. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains is highly recommended in the long term.
It’s also important, though, to be aware of the foods you shouldn’t eat in the long run after your treatment. You should avoid fatty foods, except on an occasional basis. The same holds for sugary foods. Sugar is full of empty calories, which often leads to weight gain. This is, of course, something you’ll want to avoid after having your excess fat removed. Not only that, but foods high in sugar may cause swelling, as well as blood sugar spikes. This, too, can cause undesirable weight increases.
Sugar can also cause other health issues that can be damaging for anyone, especially someone who has been through surgery. A study has proven this. It showed people who consume sugar-sweetened drinks every day for three weeks experienced increased cholesterol, inflammation, and insulin resistance. This is something you should avoid, particularly after having liposuction.
If you have any questions about your long-term diet after having arm lipo, don’t hesitate to ask our team. You can rely on us to give you informative advice to maintain the results of your surgery.
Dr. Thomas Su, is the owner and cosmetic surgeon of Artistic Lipo. He has led our full-time clinic specializing in awake-only liposuction since 2007. Dr. Su began his medical career in internal medicine, practicing that until 2005, when he began to provide a full spectrum of non-invasive cosmetic procedures.
