‘Tailor’ your body, wear what you like!

Hollywood star Eddie Murphy who plays the role of an obese professor in the film Nutty Professor is shown losing his protruding paunch within seconds and developing a six-pack after drinking a formula created by him. After a while as the effect of the formula wears out he is back to his obese self.

Though not so dramatic but ‘body contouring’ is definitely changing the looks of people, the way they dress up and carry themselves.

Vijayawada-based plastic surgeon P. M. C. Naidu says mostly people talk about liposuction as a weight-reduction procedure. While it could be used for weight reduction it is primarily a procedure to change the contours of the body. It involves the removal of adipose tissue (cells in which fat is stored) from under the skin. Fat gets deposited at two different places on the torso -- under the skin and around the intestines. Only the fat under the skin can be removed using liposuction. It is not possible to remove fat around the intestines, Dr. Naidu points out. Body contouring is also done on the chest, arms, buttocks and thighs as well.

“I love wearing fashionable clothes. But with my big paunch I could never do so and was forced to wear baggy shirts and trousers to conceal my tummy,” says Rakash Kumar (name changed) a businessman. But after going in for body contouring, it is only colourful T-Shirts and slim-fit shirts for Rakash.

With an increase in fashion consciousness and better understanding of modern medicine several people are going in for such medical procedures, Dr. Naidu says. “But the process can reverse itself if people go back to their old lifestyle,” cautions Dr. Naidu.

Another procedure – abdominoplasty -- also called tummy tuck, is also done to get rid of loose skin. This is an elaborate procedure carried out under general anaesthesia and is done mostly for women after delivery. It involves tightening the muscles and connective tissue after making a long incision from one hip to the other.