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Top 4 Tips To Promote Healing After a BBL + Your Complete Recovery Timeline

Medically reviewed by Jennifer Richman on August 19, 2025. 

Welcome to our page on the healing process from the Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), also called a buttocks fat transfer, fat grafting or augmentation procedure.

The recovery process for a BBL generally lasts up to 6 weeks after surgery. Patients should avoid putting prolonged pressure on their buttocks (lying down or sitting) for the first 3 weeks to prevent pressure necrosis or tissue death of the transferred fat cells.

Most patients undergo this fat grafting surgical procedure to reduce unwanted fat in certain parts of their body––such as their abdomen, flanks, back and/or arms––and increase the volume of their buttocks. Buttocks feminization surgery can help patients get closer to having a 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Please note that most initial swelling takes 6-8 weeks to resolve. Still, it can take up to 6 months for your final results to be visible.

Top 4 Tips to Promote Healing and Maintain Your BBL Results Long-Term:

1. Compression Garments

Compression helps reduce swelling and allows for improved uniformity of body contouring results. Also known as fajas in Spanish, they need to be worn between 3 weeks to 3 months after surgery, depending on your surgeon’s instructions. During this time, you should only remove them to take a shower.

2. Proper Nutrition and Hydration

During the first 1-2 weeks after surgery, your surgeon will likely recommend that you follow a low-sodium diet. Consuming no more than 1500mg of sodium daily during this time can significantly aid in reducing and managing inflammation.

Staying adequately hydrated is essential to promoting healing after surgery. Be mindful that consuming caffeinated and sweetened beverages can contribute to dehydration.

Patients should be careful to avoid caloric and nutritional deficits (from eating restrictively small portions, for example), which can impact the possibility that your newly injected fat survives the recovery process.

3. Sleeping and Sitting Positions

Patients should avoid sitting altogether during the first 3 weeks after surgery, with the exception of using the restroom. In these cases, please avoid sitting on the toilet for more than 10 minutes at a time. Placing too much pressure on your newly injected fat as it attempts to gather a new blood supply can cause tissue necrosis or death.

After week 3, patients may sit down for longer periods of time with certain restrictions. Many patients purchase large, doughnut-shaped pillows called BBL pillows. These allow you to distribute your weight, mostly to your thighs, to keep pressure off your buttocks.

The ideal resting or sleeping position after a BBL is sleeping on your stomach. If you are not accustomed to sleeping stomach-down, we recommend that you practice it the weeks before surgery so your body gets used to resting in this position.

Patients that undergo a hip fat transfer augmentation alongside a BBL should not sleep on their side as this can cause tissue necrosis of the newly transferred fat. BBL patients may sleep on their side on occasions so long as pressure is not placed on the buttocks.

4. Final Results and Weight Fluctuation:

It is generally regarded that whatever fat grafting takes at the 6 month mark is considered permanent. Some patients will seek out touch-ups at the decade mark if fat deposits in the buttocks reduce.

Drastic weight changes can put the results at risk. Weight gain can cause weight to come back to the areas that were liposuctioned. Weight loss can result in the gains in volume from a BBL to be reversed.

Finding a Surgeon for your Fat Transfer Procedure

It is important that your procedure be conducted by a board-certified plastic surgeon with hospital privileges and experience with the type of surgery you will undergo. You can schedule a free, virtual consultation with one of our surgeons or check out their before and after results on our website.

Week-by-Week Recovery Breakdown

Waking up After Surgery

• Waking up: You will wake up after surgery in a recovery center lying on your stomach. You will be wearing a compression garment and/or bandages.
• Pain: Soreness and pain is expected.
• Drains: Surgical drains are not commonly utilized for BBL procedures unless combined with other procedures such as an abdominoplasty. If you wake up with surgical drains, the nurse in the recovery center will teach you how to use them before you are discharged:
• Discharge: BBLs are usually an outpatient procedure, meaning most patients will be discharged from the hospital the same-day as your procedure. Someone else will need to pick you up from the hospital or surgical facility.

Week 1: The Initial Healing Phase

• 24-hour care: We strongly encourage you to be accompanied by a care person for at least the first 24 hrs after surgery.
• Rest: Rest as much as possible to help reduce inflammation and pain. You will need to rest on your stomach to avoid putting pressure on your buttocks during this time.

• Pain management: Moderate to severe pain should subside around 5-7 days post-op. If necessary, your pain will be controlled with prescription pain medications. While you are taking prescription pain medications, you may not operate a vehicle or consume alcohol.

• Avoiding blood clots or bleeds: Patients should take light walks every 2-3 hours while awake  to avoid blood clotting. We also request that you avoid taking NSAIDS such as ibuprofen, naproxen or aspirin during the first week after surgery to avoid issues with bleeding; Tylenol is recommended as an alternative.

• Showering: Please avoid showering for at least 24 hours after your procedure. If you were sent home with drains, you need to wait until after they are removed by our staff before you are cleared to shower.

• Low-sodium diet: Many surgeons recommend a low-sodium diet to reduce inflammation for the first 2 weeks after surgery.

Weeks 2-3: Critical Fat Survival Period

• Compression garments: Patients will need to wear a compression garment and/or compression wraps 24/7 for at least 3 weeks after surgery. The garments and/or wraps can be removed briefly to take a shower. The location and size of your compression garment and/or wraps will depend on where you got liposuction.

• Pain and discomfort: Patients can expect mild soreness to last for around 3-6 weeks.

• Showering: Do not submerge yourself underwater until 3 weeks post-op. Showering is fine.

• Returning to work: By the end of week 2, most patients will return to work. If your job involves heavy lifting, patients will need to wait at least 6 weeks to begin engaging in that activity again.

• Pressure precautions: Avoid placing pressure on your buttocks for the first three weeks. This means you should avoid sitting down and should try to sleep by laying on your stomach. Of course, you can still sit down to use the bathroom, but try to avoid being seated for more than 10 minute increments at a time. If you cannot sleep on your stomach, you can use a large doughnut-shaped pillow to avoid putting pressure on your buttocks.

• Smoking: Patients should avoid smoking––tobacco or marijuana––until at least 3 weeks after surgery. Patients may consume edibles if they wish to use THC or medical marijuana to help with pain management.

Weeks 4-6: Gradual Return to Activities

• Physical activity: Begin light exercises during weeks 3-6 once you get clearance from your surgeon. Try to avoid heavy lifting, bouncing and high-cardio fat burning activities as these can impact your results. With clearance from your surgeon, you can take up most of your activities like vigorous exercising around 6 weeks post-op.

• Pressure precautions: Once the surgeon gives clearance, patients can begin to sit down for short periods of time using specially designed “BBL pillows.” These allow the pressure of sitting to be placed onto your thighs. Still, patients should try to avoid placing pressure on your buttocks as much as possible. If you have a desk job, this might mean getting a standing desk or getting permission to work from home so that you can lie on your stomach.

• Follow-up with your surgeon: We encourage patients to submit virtual post-op photos to be assessed at the 2 week, 6 week, 3 month and 6 month marks to monitor your healing.

• Soreness and discomfort: Pain usually subsides during this time. You might feel some light soreness until week 6.

• Final results: The majority of inflammation reduces during this time with consistent use of compression garments. You’ll be able to get a sense of what your final results look like in 6-8 weeks. It will still take 6 months to a year for everything to settle.

Warning Signs: When Should I Call My Doctor?

If you experience the following symptoms during the initial recovery period, call your doctor for urgent help:

• Moderate to severe pain that lasts beyond the first 2 weeks
• Fever
• New areas of swelling, bruising or redness of the skin that were not present previously
• Shortness of breath, painful breathing and/or chest pain
• Signs of a blood clot:
  • Redness, swelling and/or pain concentrated in your arm, leg, groin, calf or at the back of the knee
• Blood or other fluids leaking out of surgical incisions.
  • If you experience abnormal bleeding, compress with firm pressure for 10 minutes until it stops. Some soiling of dressings or compression garments can be expected.
  • If heavy bleeding occurs, go to urgent care and inform your surgeon

How can I maximize my body contouring results through recovery?

Besides trying to avoid drastic changes in body weight, which can undo the results of body contouring, closely following the recovery guidelines can help you preserve your body contouring results. Dr. Facque (he/him) talks about this more in the following video: