Prospective and Bidirectional Cross-Sectional Associations between Body Mass Index and Physical Activity following Liposuction: A Cohort Study.

[BACKGROUND] It has been speculated that the immediate decrease in body fat following liposuction may affect body composition by feedback mechanisms of body fat regain. Physical activity has both short- and long-term impacts on health. Although the lay public often associates higher levels of physical activity with body fat distribution changes, studies on the association between physical activity and body fat distribution present inconsistent results. The aim of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional and prospective associations between physical activity and body mass index following liposuction.

[METHODS] This is a prospective, bidirectional, cross-sectional study, including 526 liposuction patients, who were followed up at a mean of 11.7 and 24.3 months after surgery.

[RESULTS] The sum of skinfolds at 11.7 months was highly correlated with skinfolds at 24.3 months (rho = 0.74, p < 0.001). More than 85 percent of participants remained in the same quintile or changed by not more than one quintile during the 13.6-month period. Tracking of physical activity was considerably lower but still significant; the correlation was 0.24 (p < 0.001), and 61.4 percent of the patients moved one or less quintiles. In fully adjusted models, no significant cross-sectional or longitudinal associations were found between physical activity and body mass index.

[CONCLUSIONS] The authors provide evidence of tracking of physical activity and particularly body mass index following liposuction. The authors' results do not support the hypothesis that physical activity and fatness are strongly related following liposuction.