American Society of Plastic SurgeonsI’m sure many of us would love a six pack, but things like pizza, burgers, ice cream and life in general often get in the way.
However, instead of spending hours at the gym and cutting out your favourite foods in order to sculpt some rock hard abs, surgeons have come up with a way to give you that definition without a sit-up in sight.
The solution is a new procedure called abdominal etching, which basically uses modern liposuction techniques along specific areas of a person’s abdomen, removing the fat along the vertical and horizontal muscles, while preserving fat over the central muscles, to accentuate the appearance of a six pack.
Experts say the procedure can create perfectly sculpted abs from, well, bellies that definitely aren’t perfectly sculpted.
Of course, the procedure won’t work on everyone, as regular exercise and a good diet will be needed to make sure the belly fat doesn’t return and undo the liposuction.
And, as with all surgeries, it comes with a few risks of its own, such as infection or damage to nerves. The results of the new surgical technique were published in a paper by the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal, called Abdominal Etching: Surgical Technique and Outcomes.
American Society of Plastic SurgeonsThe study recorded the procedure on 50 patients, who were aged between 21 and 55, and who were ‘non-obese’. 49 out of the 50 patients were ‘satisfied’ with the results, and there were zero major complications from the surgery.
The authors of the study concluded:
Abdominal etching challenges certain traditional plastic surgery principles, such as liposuction in the superficial layer. However, this study shows that liposuction can be performed in a safe and effective method with desirable aesthetic results in both male and female patients.
The surgery wouldn’t be for everyone however, as it would set patients back around £4,500, according to The Sun.
The surgeons also highlighted their ‘extensive postoperative management’ with patients, including ‘a multidisciplinary nutrition and personal training team with the goal of maintaining long-term results and retaining their newly etched abdominal muscles’.
So you probably can’t go back to bingeing on junk food if you want the surgery to keep its effects. Oh well, I don’t have the money for it anyway.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.