Understanding Butt Lift & Brazilian Butt Lift Surgery

What Is a Butt Lift?

A butt lift is a body-contouring procedure designed to create a more toned, sculpted buttocks region. This transformative surgery addresses multiple aesthetic concerns that can affect the appearance of your backside, helping you achieve the attractive, proportionate figure you desire. A butt lift can help you feel more confident about a derriere that has lost volume over time, is loose or sagging due to aging or weight loss, has a flat or square appearance that lacks feminine curves, has an unbalanced appearance compared to your upper half, is too small for your frame, or prevents you from finding bikini bottoms or jeans that fit properly.

If your buttocks have always lacked an attractive shape, or if you have noticed a change in your butt's perkiness, size, or shape as a result of pregnancy, significant weight loss, or the natural aging process, a butt lift can provide a full, round, attractive appearance that enhances your overall body contours. The procedure is customized to your unique anatomy and aesthetic goals, ensuring natural-looking results that complement your figure.

There are two basic types of butt lift procedures, each designed to address different aesthetic concerns:

Butt Lift

This procedure reduces excess fat and skin of the buttocks. Fat and excess skin are removed surgically, and the remaining skin is tightened and repositioned to create a firmer, more lifted appearance. This approach is ideal for patients with sagging or loose skin in the buttock area, often due to significant weight loss or aging. By removing excess tissue and lifting the remaining skin, this procedure creates a more youthful, toned buttock contour.

Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL)

This procedure enhances the size and shape of your butt with fat transfer injections. The Brazilian butt lift allows you to take fat from one part of your body where you have excess, such as your back, belly, flanks, or thighs, and move it to your buttocks to create an hourglass figure. If you want to enhance the volume and overall shape of your bottom and do not have much sagging skin, the Brazilian butt lift may be an ideal option.

During your initial consultation, Dr. Schiesel will evaluate your buttocks, examine your body proportions, explain your options, and determine which butt lift method is best suited for your unique body and goals. In some cases, a combination approach may be recommended to achieve optimal results.

The Brazilian Butt Lift: Natural Enhancement with Fat Transfer

How Is a Brazilian Butt Lift Performed?

The Brazilian butt lift enhances the appearance of your bottom through fat transfer, using your own fat from an area of excess, such as your back, belly, flanks, thighs, or lower back, and transferring it to your buttocks. The sculpting and toning of an additional area of the body through liposuction is an often overlooked benefit of BBL surgery—you're not only enhancing your buttocks but also contouring donor areas for improved overall body proportions.

This highly sought-after technique offers numerous benefits, including removing fat from areas of excess where you don't want it, creating an elegant hourglass shape with balanced proportions, using no artificial materials or implants, utilizing your own natural fat cells for the most natural-looking results, and creating a stunning, natural-looking enhancement that moves and feels like part of your body.

During the Brazilian butt lift process, fat is first removed from the donor areas using liposuction. This harvested fat is then carefully purified and processed to separate healthy fat cells from fluids and damaged cells. Finally, the purified fat is strategically injected into multiple layers of the buttocks to enhance its shape, volume, and projection. Dr. Schiesel will create an attractive shape that complements your figure and proportions, improving your overall confidence and appearance. The fat is injected in small amounts into various depths and locations to ensure optimal survival of the transferred fat cells and natural-looking, long-lasting results.

Where Does the Fat for a BBL Come From?

Fat for a Brazilian butt lift typically comes from areas with excess fat to spare, such as the thighs (inner, outer, or back), abdomen (upper and lower belly), flanks (love handles), lower back, or other areas with stubborn fat deposits. During your consultation, Dr. Schiesel will evaluate your body to determine the best donor sites based on where you have adequate fat available and where contouring would provide the most aesthetic benefit. Many patients appreciate that the Brazilian butt lift procedure provides a two-fold improvement: enhanced buttocks and a more sculpted, toned appearance in the donor areas.

Candidacy, Recovery, and Long-Term Results

Am I a Good Butt Lift Candidate?

If you are unhappy with the appearance of your bottom, butt lift surgery may be an ideal solution. You may be a good butt lift candidate if:

you are in good overall health without medical conditions that would impair healing, have adequate amounts of excess fat for fat transfer (for Brazilian butt lift), have flat or small buttocks and want to enhance the prominence of your backside, are at or near a stable, healthy weight, don't smoke or are willing to quit before your surgery and throughout recovery, and have realistic expectations about what the procedure can achieve.

• Be in good overall health without medical conditions that would impair healing
• Have adequate amounts of excess fat for fat transfer (for Brazilian butt lift)
• Have flat or small buttocks and want to enhance the prominence of your backside
• Be at or near a stable, healthy weight
• Don't smoke or are willing to quit before your surgery and throughout recovery
• Have realistic expectations about what the procedure can achieve

The best way to truly know if a butt lift is right for you is to meet personally with Dr. Schiesel for a private, complimentary initial consultation. During this confidential, one-on-one meeting, she will work with you to understand your goals, evaluate your body proportions and available fat for transfer, explain your surgical options, and determine your candidacy for the procedure.

Recovery from Buttock Augmentation

Initial recovery from butt lift or Brazilian butt lift surgery takes around two weeks. You may be able to resume work within one week, but you will need to sit on a special BBL pillow or donut cushion to prevent pressure on your buttocks and protect the newly transferred fat. You must also avoid strenuous activity, sleep on your stomach or side (not on your back initially), and wear a compression garment as directed during this time. Depending on your body's natural healing response, you may feel back to "normal" within 4 to 6 weeks, though full activity clearance typically takes 8 to 12 weeks.

During your recovery from BBL, you will visit our office for regularly scheduled follow-up appointments. Dr. Schiesel uses these visits to answer questions, address concerns, and assess healing, enabling her to determine when it is safe for you to resume specific tasks, such as sitting normally, driving, and engaging in advanced exercises. Following her post-operative instructions carefully is essential for optimal fat survival and beautiful, long-lasting results.

Long-Term Results and Maintenance

Results from Brazilian butt lift surgery can be long-lasting and even permanent. Once the transferred fat cells establish a blood supply in their new location (typically within the first few weeks after surgery), they become a permanent part of your buttocks. However, not all transferred fat survives; typically, 60 to 80% of the transferred fat remains permanently, which is why Dr. Schiesel slightly over-corrects during surgery to account for this natural absorption.

While transferred fat will not simply fade away, over time, gravity, lifestyle choices, environmental factors, and genetics can lead to some volume changes. You can help maintain your BBL results by eating a healthy diet to avoid significant weight fluctuations, committing to daily exercise to build stronger glutes through targeted exercises, maintaining a stable weight (significant weight loss can reduce buttock volume), and following a healthy lifestyle overall.

It may take up to 3 months for your results to fully settle and for all swelling to resolve. Then, if additional sculpting is needed, a secondary procedure can be performed. During your initial consultation, Dr. Schiesel will carefully address your frame, discuss your surgical options, and help you understand what you can realistically expect from your procedure.