One of the new fashions that are being implemented globally is the so-called ‘Thigh Gap’, which consists of trying to achieve a gap between the thighs so that when a girl puts her feet together, the legs do not touch. But is this new trend healthy? To analyze the two sides of this new fashion, cosmetic surgery and dangerous diets, and to learn about their possible repercussions, we talked to the prestigious plastic surgeon, Dr. Ignacio Uribe, and with a specialist in nutrition, Dr. Ivan Ibáñez.
Thigh Gap Diets
To try to achieve this, many women opt for specific diets that help reduce the fat in that body area. These diets are characterized by lacking medical control and in the long run “cause a tendency to osteoporosis in advanced ages or diseases of immediate onset derived from a viral immunodeficiency”, as Dr. Ibáñez warns.
In short, this type of diet is strongly discouraged from the point of view of nutrition and also, as the nutritionist points out: “They cause a ‘huge’ rebound effect after a few months. That is to say that your metabolism will slow down and in the long run you will gain weight at the expense of fatty tissue more quickly”.
For those who want to try to achieve the longed-for hollow with the certainty that their health will not be affected, the doctor recommends: “Maintaining a diet low in saturated fats and red meat, eliminating coffee, increasing the intake of vegetable fiber, a normo-protein diet -preferably white meat and fish- and lots of fruit. At the same time, it is important to do aerobic physical exercise and at the same time to tone up the lower limbs by means of some weights -with a little massage-. And, if possible, accompany it with a local treatment such as mesotherapy or draining massages”.
In spite of this advice, Dr. Ibáñez warns that a woman cannot always achieve the ‘Thigh Gap’ non-surgically: “The anatomical genetic component of the lower extremities determines the distance between thigh and thigh even if there is practically no localized fat present”.
Surgery as a method
Others opt for cosmetic surgery, although it is not yet common in Spain. “The procedure that can achieve a depression or hollow between the internal face of the thighs is liposuction or liposculpture, to extract fat from this area and create an unevenness”, points out Dr. Uribe.
According to the doctor, seeking this type of surgery is paradoxical: “If we seek this type of result, we are actually creating a sequel. That is, an exaggerated depression between the inner thighs has until today always been considered a bad result after liposuction due to overcorrection when this procedure was performed by inexperienced hands or with large caliber cannulas or by extracting too much fat.”