Ten years into her practice as a board-certified plastic surgeon in Austin, Texas, Dr. Ashley Gordon noticed something unexpected about certain liposuction patients sheโd โinheritedโ from older, retiring colleagues: They were slim overall, save for rock-hard belly fat.
โThese were women who would have liposuction every couple of years,โ she recalls. After repeatedly having fat removed from their arms, thighs, and flanks, these sexagenarians and septuagenarians were anything but flabbyโyet their abdomens told another story. โThey could barely pinch the skin on their bellyโit was tense [and] firm and felt hard,โ Dr. Gordon says. โIโd have to explain that it wasnโt fat on the outside, it was fat on the inside.โ