Brazilian​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ Butt Lift: Do You Need Body Fat for a BBL?

Yes, sufficient donor fat is required.

A BBL, or Brazilian Butt Lift, is a very popular surgical method for achieving defined body contours and a highly desirable shape by using your body’s own fat. When patients ask if body fat is necessary for BBL, the answer from a doctor’s point of view is absolutely yes. Unlike other butt augmentation which use an artificial implant, a BBL is basically a combination of liposuction and lipotransfer, where the “donor site” is required to have at least a few layers of fat usually located in the stomach, flanks, or thighs. These are the sources from where fat is extracted, purified, and injected into the buttocks.

We at Lin Health Europe Clinic consider fat as the “raw material” of body sculpting. We inform our overseas patients coming to Turkey that BBL is not only about the “give” (liposuction) but also about the “take” (fat survival). Our clinic has become a go-to place for top-notch fat grafting procedures, and by employing VASER technology, we keep the harvested fat cells alive for their transfer, making sure that the enhancement of your figure in Istanbul is done in line with the highest standards of structural stability and safety.

What Is Autologous Fat Grafting?

BBL is shorthand for doing autologous fat grafting, that is to say that you take fat tissue from one part of the body and transplant it to another one. Since the procedure uses your own cells, the risks of getting an allergic reaction or being rejected by your body in case of implant are zero which is a big plus clinically.

At Lin Health Europe Clinic in Turkey, during the operating phase, our surgeons only consider the places where the fatty deposits are densest. These fat units or adipocytes are live creatures that, after being transplanted to the buttocks area will start to look for a new blood supply (vascularization). If a patient lacks enough “padding” in their donor areas, harvesting a volume that would be significant enough for changing appearance would be impossible. In Istanbul, we mainly tell our overseas clients that the fat should be “harvestable,” which is to say, it should lie just under the skin as opposed to around the interior organs (visceral fat), because fat stored under the skin is the only type that can be safely taken out in a BBL.

What About the “Skinny BBL” Concept and BMI?

So the rumor that in order to get a BBL you have to be “overweight” is nothing more than a myth. The fact is that current surgical techniques enable a very thin patient to have what is called a Skinny BBL with a BMI of only 21 or 22, as long as they have localized fat areas. On the other hand, if a patient’s BMI is under 20, then the “yield” turns into a big problem, medically speaking. To have a slight increase in the buttock size, the surgeon has to be able to extract from the body somewhere between 1,500ml and 3,000ml of fat to finally get enough high-quality fat for injection.

Therefore, patients who are very skinny in Turkey might just be fit for “sculpting” instead of “sizing.” By conducting a 360-degree liposuction to the waist, a small amount of injected fat can then be made to look great to the eye. We at Lin Health Europe Clinic place great emphasis on such a holistic approach that helps even our thinnest in Istanbul achieve the desired contour of an hourglass figure.

Fat Survival and How “Take Rate” Works

One very important biological thing that goes on in the long term after BBL is the fat survival phase. The medical fact is that none of the transplanted fat survives 100%. Normally, the “take rate” ranges between 60% and 80%. The fat that doesn’t survive is simply absorbed and metabolized by the body during the first 3 to 4 months. This explains why having “extra” donor fat is good—it permits the surgeon to slightly over-fill the area, taking into account that there will be some natural absorption.

We in Istanbul are able to enhance the survival rate thanks to our expert fat purification methodology, through which the blood and oil are removed from the fat so that only the healthiest, living cells are reinjected. This professional rigor in Turkey maximizes the survival rate, allowing the phase of neocollagenesis to strengthen the surrounding tissue and provide a permanent, soft, and natural-feeling result.

Harvesting Places: Where Do the Fat Reserves Come From?

One factor determining how successful BBL can be is how much fat you have in certain “problem areas”. The common donors for fat are around the stomach, “love handles” (flanks), and inner-outer thighs. In Turkey, this is often a “two-for-one” deal: not only do you get rid of the parts that are bothering you, but you also manage to make the parts that you want to show off really stand out. When the abdomen is skinny, the sources for harvesting will then be the rear and the arm.

Using the full power of one of the best teams of surgeons, Lin Health Europe Clinic is capable of biometric body mapping to such an extent that not a gram of fat suitable for use is overlooked. This strategic harvesting is what brings about the most dramatic transformation ‘before and after’ that can be seen in Istanbul, as a smaller waist creates an illusion of more volume of the gluteal region.

Lack of Fat: Options for Patients Who Are Thin

If a medical check at our Istanbul clinic finds out that you cannot get enough fat for a safe and realistic BBL, then you have two main choices: gain weight or use gluteal implants. To some patients, a 5 to 10 kilograms of weight increase is recommended before surgery in Turkey, so that sufficient donor fat is accumulated. But the newly gained weight must be healthy and stable before the surgery. If weight gain is not on the cards or not wanted, implants can be considered as a permanent volume-giving solution that does not depend on fat.

We in Lin Health Europe Clinic are committed to complete openness about these alternatives. We hold patient safety to be the highest value and will never do a BBL simply because the absence of fat would make the lifting process structurally unsafe or cause one’s overall health to diminish in Istanbul.

BBL in Turkey

We at Lin Health Europe Clinic firmly believe that the essence of becoming a true surgical artist lies in the careful management and exploitation of your body’s natural resources. Our center in Turkey has been recognized as a palace of health where the cutting-edge of lipotransfer science is combined with the top-notch standards of patient care on a global scale. Working in modern, JCI-accredited hospitals, we symbolize our standing as the world leader in medical tourism and body rejuvenation at the highest definition level.

Contacting Lin Health Europe Clinic, you get to vote for the most proficient and safety-minded hands in Istanbul. Our internationally known professionals are committed to making you an aesthetic and structurally safe person in the long run for every friend from abroad. They help you from the very first biometric fat analysis through the last gorgeous, contoured unveiling step. You will find the professional diligence and first-class hospitality that have brought us to the top in aesthetic medicine with us. In doing so, your trip to having a more confident, curvy, and balanced figure is looked after by the world’s very ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌best.

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