Health: With Liposuction, the Belly Finds What the Thighs Lose

... researchers randomly assigned nonobese women to have liposuction on their protuberant thighs and lower abdomen or to refrain from having the procedure, serving as controls. As compensation, the women who were control subjects were told that when the study was over, after they learned the results, they could get liposuction if they still wanted it. For them, the price would also be reduced from the going rate.

The result, published in the latest issue of Obesity, was that fat came back after it was suctioned out. It took a year, but it all returned. But it did not reappear in the women's thighs. Instead, Dr. Eckel said, it was redistributed upstairs, mostly in the upper abdomen, but also around the shoulders and triceps of the arms.

As for the women in the control group, when the study ended and they knew the results, more than half still chose to have liposuction.

For more, see With Liposuction, the Belly Finds What the Thighs Lose by Gina Kolata, April 30, 2011 at NYTimes.com.