Dubbed ‘sport leisure wear’, the latest fashion trend is being blamed for an increase in women demanding body contouring surgery procedures such as the tummy tuck and liposuction.
Entering the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2016, the definition of athleisure is ‘casual clothing designed to be worn both for exercising and for general use’ and it’s being embraced by retailers and fashion brands across the board. Previously, items you’d only have worn in the gym – whether a bra top or skin-tight leggings – are now deemed acceptable to wear in the supermarket or your local pub.
And, according to the most recent figures released by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), one of the UK’s leading independent plastic surgery organisation, the fashion for wearing body-revealing sportwear is now prompting women to explore surgical options to achieve the perfect body shape.
The shape of cosmetic surgery in the UK
Every year, BAAPS releases its annual cosmetic surgery figures, gathered from their plastic surgeon members. The figures released last week showed that there had been a small increase overall since the previous year. As always, women are the key demographic for cosmetic surgery and the most popular procedures for women were breast augmentations, breast reduction and the eyelid lift.
Male cosmetic surgery saw a slight dip but for both men and women there was a sharp rise of 9% for liposuction. The abdominoplasty procedure also saw growth, with a 5% increase for women and a significant increase of 18% for men, one of the few male cosmetic surgery procedures that increased in popularity.
Why liposuction is the gold standard for fat reduction
As well as the fashion for athleisure wear, another possible reason for this increased demand for fat reduction surgery is the popularity of reality TV programmes such as Love Island. The current series of this UK TV phenomenon has just launched, and it has already been criticised for its lack of body diversity.
Cosmetic surgery can be a hugely positive experience and procedures like liposuction and the tummy tuck can transform body areas which are resistant to diet and exercise alone. As Mr Alex Karidis explains: “If you have a certain predisposition to fatty deposits in the saddlebag area, flanks or the inner thighs, then those fat cells will remain the same in amount – they can increase or decrease in size but the numbers are set, so if you lose weight you just become a smaller version of the same shape and you aren’t necessarily altering the thing you want to change.
“The gold standard of removing fat cells from any area is liposuction,” Mr Karidis continues. “If you felt that you didn’t want to go down the surgical route for any reason, there are non-surgical options that can help. And that’s the key word, they can ‘help’. They will never be as effective as liposuction for removing the amount of fat cells we have decided to remove from a certain area.”
If you want expert, unbiased advice on whether you’re suitable for a liposuction or an abdominoplasty, call 0203 553 3299 to arrange a consultation with Mr Alex Karidis at the Karidis Clinic.
