Genius cosmetic shortcut or ab-omination?
You no longer need to do a million crunches — or get an ab tattoo — to score cheese-grater abs. Soggy-stomached US men are increasingly turning to a novel plastic surgery operation to help them develop six-packs sans having to do a single sit-up.
“It is more like creating that six-pack and creating the ‘V lines,’ and giving somebody that more athletic, toned physique that traditional liposuction can’t really achieve,” Dr. Josef Hadeed, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in California and Florida, told Fox News.
He specializes in the “ab-etching” procedure known as high-definition liposuction, which essentially involves sculpting stomach muscles via surgery.
The way it works is that surgeons remove fat from the “vertical” and “horizontal lines” above the belly button to “create the illusion of someone having a six-pack,” Hadeed explained of the literal 6-minute ab procedure. Sometimes fat is even relocated to other places to help create a bulkier, more filled-in abdominal aesthetic — like literal human sculpting.
As the name suggests, high-definition lipo provides a degree of definition not offered by the traditional procedure, which removes fat and volume but doesn’t deal with the underlying “anatomy.”
Patients have been over the moon about their insta-abs.
“I bought this belly,” Brazil’s Junior Carvalho, 52, who obtained this literal “cut” stomach operation in 2022 after hours of exercise failed to yield the desired results, told the Washington Post. “When I see people looking at me, the sensation is incredible.”
Following the op, the divorcee was dating someone16 years his junior and was unafraid to walk down the beach shirtless.
While the procedure has been a fixture in plastic surgery-obsessed Brazil for some time, there’s recently been an uptick of men in the US clamoring to cosmetically slow their rolls.
“I’m definitely seeing an increase in high-definition liposuction requests for men,” Dr. Joubin Gabbay, MD, the medical director at Gabbay Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills, California, told Fox News. “They are coming in with specific requests for a defined, chiseled contour.”
Dr. Finny George, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon and partner at New York Plastic Surgical Group, who’s seen an uptick in requests for this cosmetic chiseling, has attributed the phenomenon, in part, to the fact that it’s “becoming more socially acceptable for men to have plastic surgery.”
According to a 2022 report by the American Society Of Plastic Surgeons, total cosmetic operations among men have skyrocketed by 207% since 2019, according to the 2022 ASPS report.
They claim that many men are seeking a more youthful appearance to “maintain career vitality,” — despite many womens’ apparent love “dad bods.”
Coincidentally, Arizona sales trainer Andy Elliott was ripped online after controversially claiming that he won’t hire anyone who doesn’t possess washboard abs.
While certainly appealing, high-definition liposuction does have some caveats. For one, those undergoing the knife shouldn’t expect to look like a fitness model, just a more “refined version of themself” warned Hadeed, adding that losing or gaining a ton of weight post-op can impact the results.
In fact, surgeons warn that abdominal enhancement is not a quick-six solution but actually requires a lot of effort to maintain, much like its crunch-induced equivalent.
“I think the treatment is certainly effective at helping many achieve the six-pack look, but it requires work and maintenance to maintain,” declared Gabbay. “It is important to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle and avoid major weight fluctuations after the procedure.”
Paradoxically, patients with a sedentary, snack-laden lifestyle can be deemed ineligible for the op due to this very reason.