An interesting question that I was asked once again yesterday is “How much do my implants weigh?” Most women that get breast implants care about what they look like and many of them are prisoners to a scale. I get called quite frequently a day or two after surgery by one of my New Jersey breast implant patients worried about risks of breast enhancement who has noticed that one day after surgery her weight has jumped up by ten or more pounds.

I have several answers to this question. First of all, everyone retains fluid after anesthesia. The medications given, the fluids given, and simply the surgery itself cause many people to gain 10 or 15 pounds. I tell them all of the time, stay away from the scale! Many don’t listen. I have found that interestingly enough, liposuction and body contouring procedures tend to show the most weight gain immediately postoperatively. This always goes away, and I tell patients to avoid the scale for 10 days.

As far as the implant weight itself goes, for every 100cc, a silicone implant weighs 0.23lbs. For every 100cc a saline implant weighs 0.21lbs. Thus, the average 300cc silicone implant weighs 0.69 pounds and both of them together weigh 1.38 pounds or less than a pound and a half. For 300cc saline implants they weigh 0.63lb each or 1.26lbs for both of them or almost 1 and 1/4 pound. The conversion factor for silicone is 1cc divided by 426.67 and for saline is 1cc divided by 473.18. (Please note that these are weights that I have obtained by measuring implants and not necessarily exactly what various manufacturers might quote.)

I also get asked frequently “Should I go with saline because it weighs less?” Well, I don’t think that the difference is substantial enough to make a major impact in the decision process. Yes, silicone weighs more, but not much more…