With the clocks having gone back, the dark and increasingly cold nights will leave many people reaching for their comfort food. But that will have some significant consequences for the waistline.
As is traditional, November starts with toffee apples, parkin and bonfire toffee, the last offering a practical means of tooth removal for those who can’t find a dentist. But, year after year, no sooner have the embers of the fires gone out than the Christmas lights will be on, the festive markets will appear and millions will be trying various samples at stalls before buying something sweet.
All this is before Christmas itself arrives with its avalanche of calories – and more to come in the following days as the leftovers are grazed. On top of this are the Christmas parties with all their food and booze, not to mention all the seasonal comfort food with its sugar and stodge.
With this overconsumption happening at a time when getting outdoors to exercise in the rain, cold and maybe even snow is not most people’s idea of fun, it is small wonder so many will enter the New Year with a resolution to get fit and join a gym.
To some people, vaser liposuction may offer an alternative approach, using surgery to shift some inches off the waistline. This is not a matter of laziness, for there are some people who find losing weight hard, just as there are people who appear able to eat what they like and remain thin.
Liposuction concentrates on taking fat from the buttocks, hips, thighs and belly, which is where fat does tend to accumulate and is hard to shift. The process of an operation takes hours and the recovery last days, so while it is invasive it is not a procedure that with a long recovery time.
In deciding whether this is the solution for your excess fat levels, it is worth considering a few issues, not least whether past experience has shown that if you do put some pounds on over the winter, you can lose them with some exercise and healthier food in the spring.
Indeed, liposuction is not a panacea that can overcome bad diet and a lack of exercise, or protect against the health consequences of putting on too much weight.
It is also worth noting that liposuction is not always a safe procedure, with those aged over 45 or obese at risk. You do need to be relatively healthy to consider it.
Where it can be useful is precisely when you have tried everything else to get fit and yet some stubborn areas of persistent fat remain no matter how many salads or sessions on the treadmill you have. That’s when it really can be a great idea.
The overall answer to the question of whether winter waistline expansion alone is enough reason to get liposuction is, therefore, no. It is always important for your health to eat well and get lots of exercise. What liposuction can do, however, is ensure that if you still have some unsightly flab even when you have worked hard to lose the lard, it can be removed to enhance your appearance.
