Tummy fat removal is among the most common fat-removal treatments. However, many people are not aware of the two types of fat in the body – subcutaneous and visceral.

Subcutaneous fat is the fat under the skin. It tends to accumulate below the waist line, and has less negative consequence on overall health.

Visceral, or deep fat, is located deep in in the body between internal organs. It is denser than subcutaneous fat and has more negative influence on overall health.

The shape (appearance) of the body can also give a clue (hint) to which fat compartment is predominant.

People with more visceral fat tend to have the typical ‘apple’ shape belly with the upper part of the abdomen being larger than the lower part and hips.

Those with subcutaneous fat tend to be ‘pear’ shaped with the hips and lower abdomen being wider. ‘Fat-rolls’ may also be more noticeable.

It is important to differentiate these types, as approaches vary on how to reduce them.

The most important strategy to reducing visceral fat is to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle – this may include weight loss programs and dieting, regular exercise, obesity pills, or procedures such as gastric sleeve, stomach balloons, stomach resection, or bypass. Other medical conditions that may contribute to obesity also need to be managed.

While visceral fat responds very well to dieting and weight loss, subcutaneous fat is very slow to respond. This is why many people choose treatments like liposuction.

It is important to know that as subcutaneous fat is not as dense as visceral fat, losing subcutaneous fat will not result in huge weight loss. However, it can lead you to be more happy with your new body shape.

This is why liposuction is a body-contouring treatment, not a weight-loss treatment. The ideal candidates for fat-removal treatments are people close to their ideal weight, or a little over but just want to smooth out some stubborn rolls.

Of course, there is the natural question of what to do if somebody has both subcutaneous and visceral fat in generous proportions. The best results will be achieved by addressing the visceral fat first through diet, exercising, pills, or surgery, before turning attention to subcutaneous fat through continued weight loss, exercise, or fat-removal treatment.

Sometimes a massive weight loss will reduce subcutaneous fat so much that the skin is not able to hold onto the underlying layers, and become saggy/tax. In this scenario, liposuction or any fat-dissolving or removing procedure will make the sagging worse and a lifting procedure like abdominoplasty (‘tummy tuck’) is required.