How Much Fat Is Transferred in a BBL?

At Centre for Surgery, the typical volumes of fat transferred to the buttocks are:

Standard (full) BBL: around 1,600 to 2,000 ml in total, or about 800 to 1,000 ml per side. Fat is usually harvested with 360 liposuction of the abdomen, waist, flanks and back.
Mini BBL (also called a baby or small BBL): around 800 to 1,000 ml in total, or 400 to 500 ml per side, usually taken from two donor areas such as the lower flanks and upper thighs.
Skinny BBL: typically 300 to 500 ml per side (600 to 1,000 ml in total), gathered in small amounts from four or five donor sites in people with a BMI below about 23.

These figures are planning ranges rather than fixed packages. Your surgeon decides the final amount during surgery, guided by how much usable fat the liposuction yields and how the buttock responds as it fills.

Published studies show how widely BBL fat volumes vary around the world. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies and 4,105 patients found a mean of about 400 ml of decanted fat injected into each buttock^[1]. A European series of 185 women with an average BMI of 23, treated with ultrasonic liposuction and ultrasound-guided fat grafting, reported a mean graft volume of about 600 ml, ranging from 500 to 800 ml^[2]. At the high end, a Turkish series of 7,000 BBLs reported an average of 1,200 cc per buttock^[3], and a US series of 2,419 cases using expansion vibration lipofilling (EVL) averaged 1,003 cc^[4]. The range reflects different patient builds, aesthetic goals and techniques, not a single right number.

Infographic of how much fat goes into a BBL: 1,600 to 2,000 ml for a standard BBL, 800 to 1,000 ml for a mini BBL, 600 to 1,000 ml for a skinny BBL, 50 to 70% fat survival, 1 ml equals 1 cc — Typical fat volumes for a standard, mini and skinny BBL at Centre for Surgery, and how much of that fat usually survives.

BBL cc vs ml: What Do the Numbers Mean?

BBL volumes are quoted in either cc (cubic centimetres) or ml (millilitres). They are identical: 1 cc is exactly 1 ml, so a “500cc BBL” and a “500 ml BBL” describe the same amount of fat. UK clinics tend to use ml, while US surgeons and social media more often use cc.

The figure that causes most confusion is whether the number is per side or in total. A “1,000cc BBL” might mean 1,000 ml in each buttock (2,000 ml altogether) or 1,000 ml split between both sides (500 ml each). When you compare quotes, results photos or online posts, always ask which one is meant.

To put common BBL cc numbers into perspective:

500cc BBL: about the volume of a standard bottle of water. As a total, it is a small, skinny BBL-type result; per side, it sits within a mini to moderate BBL.
800cc BBL: per side, this is a typical full BBL volume; as a total, it is a mini BBL.
1,000cc (1 litre) BBL: per side, the upper end of a standard BBL at Centre for Surgery; as a total, the upper end of a mini BBL. A litre of fat weighs a little under 1 kg.
1,500cc and 2,000cc BBL: these figures almost always describe the total for both buttocks, which places them within the range of a standard BBL.

Remember that these are the volumes injected on the day, not what you keep. If 1,000 ml goes into a buttock and around 50 to 70% survives, roughly 500 to 700 ml becomes a permanent part of your shape.

How Much Fat Is Harvested vs Transferred in a BBL?

The fat removed by liposuction is not the same volume as the fat that goes into your buttocks. Before liposuction, the donor areas are filled with tumescent fluid, a mixture that contains local anaesthetic and adrenaline to numb the tissue and reduce bleeding. What comes out through the cannula, called lipoaspirate, is a mixture of fat cells, that fluid, blood and free oil released from broken cells.

That lipoaspirate is processed before it is used. Common methods include letting it settle so the fluid separates (decanting), filtering it, or spinning it in a centrifuge. A review of harvesting, processing and injection techniques found that clinical studies in patients favoured centrifuged fat over fat left to settle, and that slower reinjection was linked with better retention^[5]. Only the concentrated layer of intact fat cells is grafted.

In practice this means the surgeon needs to remove considerably more than the volume planned for the buttocks, often around twice as much, and sometimes more when the fat is very fluid or the donor areas are small. Liposuction of the donor areas is part of the result in its own right: slimming the waist, flanks and lower back makes the buttocks look rounder and more projected without adding a single extra millilitre. At Centre for Surgery, fat is harvested by power-assisted liposuction or VASER, and your surgeon recommends the method that suits your tissue.

How Much Fat Survives After a BBL?

Transferred fat has no blood supply of its own at first. It survives by absorbing nutrients from the surrounding tissue until new blood vessels grow into it over the following weeks. Fat cells that are too far from a blood supply, or under too much pressure, do not survive and are gradually reabsorbed by the body.

As a guide, around 50 to 70% of the fat transferred in a BBL survives, and 30 to 50% is reabsorbed. Most of this loss happens in the first few months, which is why your buttocks look biggest in the first weeks, when swelling adds to the volume, then soften and settle. The skin relaxes around the new fat at around 6 to 8 weeks, often called fluffing, most of the result is visible at about 3 months, and the final result is seen at 3 to 6 months. Fat that has survived at around 6 months is generally permanent, although it changes in size with your weight.

The evidence supports this range. In a 2026 retrospective study of 7,000 BBL procedures in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery ↗, estimated fat graft survival was about 70% using subcutaneous-only injection^[3]. Results at the upper end of the range depend on careful harvesting and processing, injecting into well-supplied tissue, avoiding pressure on the buttocks while the fat establishes a blood supply, and not smoking or vaping for 4 weeks before and after surgery.

Why Do Surgeons Over-Fill in a BBL?

Surgeons expect some of the fat to be reabsorbed, so they place a little more than the final volume you want. If your target is about 600 ml of lasting volume per side, the surgeon might plan to inject closer to 900 to 1,000 ml, knowing that a portion will not survive.

Over-filling has a limit, though. The space inside the buttock is not unlimited, and packing in more fat than the tissue can supply with blood raises the pressure and lowers the proportion that survives. In a 2014 volumetric study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery ↗, the authors described the graft-to-capacity ratio, the volume of fat grafted relative to the capacity of the recipient site, and found that cases grafted well beyond that capacity kept a lower percentage of their volume, while more moderate grafting kept a higher percentage^[6]. That study looked at breast fat grafting, but the principle applies to the buttocks too: more fat injected does not always mean more fat kept.

How Much Fat Can Be Transferred to the Buttocks?

There is no single maximum that applies to everyone. The amount of fat that can safely be transferred in a BBL is set by three things.

Donor fat. You can only transfer what can be harvested, after processing. A BMI of around 23 to 28 usually gives enough donor fat for a standard BBL. Slimmer people may need a mini or skinny BBL using several small donor areas, and our guide to what happens if you don’t have enough fat for a BBL explains the options, including buttock implants. Liposuction itself has safe limits on how much can be removed in one operation.
The skin envelope. The skin and fatty layer of the buttock can only stretch so far in one sitting. Tight, firm skin, often in younger or very athletic people, accepts less volume than softer skin. Once the tissue feels firm and tense, adding more raises pressure, which reduces blood flow to the graft and increases the risk of fat necrosis, oil cysts and lumpiness.
Safety. The most serious risk of a BBL, pulmonary fat embolism, is linked to fat being injected into or beneath the gluteal muscle, where large veins run, rather than to the total volume alone.

The landmark evidence on safety comes from the 2017 ASERF Task Force survey of 692 surgeons and 198,857 gluteal fat grafting cases, published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal ↗. Surgeons who injected into the deep muscle had a significantly higher rate of fatal and non-fatal fat embolism, and the task force advised against deep muscle injection, cannulas narrower than 4 mm and angling the cannula downwards^[7]. A Norwegian safety study and literature review also listed moderate grafted volume among its safety recommendations, alongside avoiding muscle and submuscular grafting and early mobilisation; its patients received a mean of 422 ml (range 210 to 850 ml)^[8].

Volume still matters for other complications. In the 7,000-case series, where buttocks received an average of 1,200 cc each, there were no fat embolisms, but seroma (fluid collection) occurred in 23% and fat necrosis in 1.9%^[3]. In a smaller study of 114 patients treated with strict ultrasound guidance, complications such as oil cysts and asymmetry were not significantly linked to the total volume injected^[9]. The overall picture is that injection plane is what makes a BBL dangerous or safe, while volume mainly affects fat survival, lumps and fluid collections.

At Centre for Surgery, fat is placed only in the subcutaneous layer above the gluteal muscle, never into or beneath it, under real-time ultrasound on every BBL, using a blunt cannula and expansion vibration lipofilling. Our guide to ultrasound-guided BBL explains how this works, and BBL risks covers the complications in more detail.

What Is a Safe Amount of Fat per Side in a BBL?

For most people at Centre for Surgery, a standard BBL places up to around 800 to 1,000 ml per side, and that range is planned around each person’s donor fat and skin. A safe amount for you is the volume your buttock can hold comfortably without becoming tight, placed entirely above the muscle under ultrasound guidance. Your surgeon judges this during the operation by watching and feeling how the tissue responds, and stops when it reaches capacity, even if more fat is available.

If you want more volume than one session can safely achieve, a second fat transfer once the first result has fully settled is usually a better route than over-filling. Our page on revision BBL explains how adding volume, correcting dents or reducing size works later on.

How Many cc for a Noticeable BBL?

A noticeable BBL depends on your starting shape and frame as much as the number of cc. As a broad guide:

Around 300 to 500 ml per side can give a visible, natural-looking lift and roundness in a slim, petite person, which is the range of a skinny BBL.
Around 400 to 500 ml per side suits a subtle, proportionate change from a mini BBL, especially if you mainly want to fill the upper buttock or soften hip dips.
Around 800 to 1,000 ml per side is the typical range for a full BBL with an obvious change in projection and curve.

Many people ask whether 350 cc is enough for a BBL. Per side, 350 ml can make a clear difference on a small frame, but on a larger or taller frame the same volume may look modest, and as a total for both sides (175 ml each) it would give only a slight change. Remember that 30 to 50% of injected fat is reabsorbed, so a 350 ml graft may settle to around 175 to 250 ml of lasting volume.

Contouring the surrounding areas makes a big difference to how noticeable the result looks. Removing fat from the waist, flanks and lower back sharpens the curve between waist and hips, so the buttocks look fuller even at a moderate volume. This is why two people receiving the same number of cc can end up with quite different results.

How Does Fat Volume Relate to Your BBL Shape?

The volume of fat sets how much bigger your buttocks become, but where the fat goes and where it is removed decide the shape. Your surgeon plans both together:

Natural or “slim thick” look: a moderate volume placed mainly in the upper and central buttock, with liposuction of the waist and back to sharpen the curve.
Round shape: fat spread through the upper, outer and lower zones for an even, circular projection from the side.
Hourglass shape: fat placed in the buttocks and along the upper outer thigh to fill hip dips, combined with waist liposuction.
Larger or “dramatic” look: needs the upper end of the volume range and enough skin stretch to hold it. Not everyone can reach this in one session safely.

Your frame and starting shape also matter. Buttocks that are square, V-shaped, A-shaped or round respond differently to the same volume, and filling hip dips uses part of the fat that would otherwise go into the buttock itself. A male BBL usually uses fat in the upper and central zones to create a squarer, more athletic projection, with the hips left untouched. Our guide to BBL shapes explains the four butt types and how to choose a style that suits your proportions, and it is worth bringing photos of the look you like to your consultation.

Brazilian butt lift with a fuller rounded buttock and improved waist-to-hip definition before and after — Centre for Surgery London

Tap to reveal

Real Centre for Surgery patient, photographed at least six months after BBL surgery.

You can see more results, including different volumes and shapes, in our BBL before and after photos. Photos taken at least six months after surgery show the lasting result rather than swelling.

How Much Fat Do You Need for a BBL?

To transfer around 800 to 1,000 ml per side, you need enough spare fat in your donor areas to yield that volume after processing, which usually means removing considerably more. Most people with a BMI of about 23 to 28 have enough for a standard BBL. Your weight should be stable for at least 3 months before surgery, or 6 to 12 months after major weight loss.

If you have less fat, a mini BBL from two donor areas or a skinny BBL from four or five smaller areas can still give a clear improvement. Gaining weight just to have a BBL is not advised: if that weight comes off again afterwards, the transferred fat shrinks with it, as our article on gaining weight after a BBL explains.

Does More Fat Mean a Higher BBL Cost?

The cost of a BBL is shaped more by the number of liposuction areas, the length of the operation and the type of BBL than by the exact number of millilitres injected. A skinny BBL, for example, can cost more than a standard BBL despite using less fat, as harvesting small amounts from four or five areas takes more time. Our BBL cost guide explains what is included. Finance isn’t available for BBL at Centre for Surgery, so the procedure is self-funded.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many cc is a BBL?

A standard BBL at Centre for Surgery usually transfers around 1,600 to 2,000 cc of fat in total, or roughly 800 to 1,000 cc per buttock. A mini BBL uses about 800 to 1,000 cc in total and a skinny BBL around 300 to 500 cc per side. Your exact volume depends on your donor fat, skin and goals.

Is 1,000cc a lot for a BBL?

It depends whether it means per side or in total. At 1,000 cc per buttock, it is at the upper end of a standard BBL and gives a full, clearly visible result. At 1,000 cc split across both sides, it is in the range of a mini BBL, giving a more subtle enhancement.

How much fat survives after a BBL?

Around 50 to 70% of the transferred fat usually survives, and the remaining 30 to 50% is reabsorbed over the first few months. Fat still present at around 6 months is generally permanent, although it grows or shrinks with changes in your weight. Not smoking and avoiding pressure on the buttocks help more fat survive.

Is 350cc enough for a BBL?

Per side, 350 cc can give a visible, natural lift on a slim or petite frame, similar to a skinny BBL. On a larger frame it may look modest. As a total for both buttocks, 350 cc would give only a slight change. Expect some of it to be reabsorbed as the fat settles.

Is there a maximum amount of fat for a BBL?

There is no universal maximum. The limit is the amount your donor areas can provide and your buttock skin can hold without becoming tight, as over-filling lowers fat survival and raises the risk of lumps and fat necrosis. Safety depends above all on keeping fat above the gluteal muscle.

How much fat is used in a mini BBL?

A mini BBL transfers around 800 to 1,000 ml of fat in total, or 400 to 500 ml per side, usually harvested from two donor areas such as the lower flanks and upper thighs. The operation takes around 2 hours and most people take about a week off work.

Can you use someone else’s fat for a BBL?

No. A BBL uses only your own fat. Fat from another person would be rejected by your immune system, which is why donated fat is not used for fat transfer. If you do not have enough fat, options include a skinny or mini BBL, buttock implants, or implants combined with your own fat.

Can you lose your BBL after 2 years?

Fat that has survived the first 6 months is generally permanent, so a BBL does not simply disappear after 2 years. Significant weight loss shrinks the transferred fat along with fat elsewhere, and natural ageing and skin laxity can change the shape over time. Keeping a stable weight is the best way to protect your result.

Brazilian Butt Lift in London

Brazilian butt lift surgery at Centre for Surgery is performed by GMC-registered surgeons at our CQC-regulated Baker Street hospital, rated Good overall by the CQC. Every BBL places fat only in the layer above the gluteal muscle under real-time ultrasound guidance, as a day case under TIVA (total intravenous anaesthesia). Your surgeon plans the volume of fat with you at consultation, based on your donor areas, skin and the shape you want, and the consultant who assesses you is the consultant who performs your surgery. We recommend a two-week cooling-off period before you go ahead. Your initial consultation fee is redeemable against the cost of surgery if you go ahead.

Phone: 020 7993 4849 | Address: 95–97 Baker Street, Marylebone, London W1U 6RN
Contact us to schedule a consultation

References

Condé-Green A, Kotamarti V, Nini KT, et al. Fat grafting for gluteal augmentation: a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2016;138(3):437e–446e. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000002435 ↗
Elsaftawy A, Ostrowski P, Bonczar M, et al. Buttock augmentation with ultrasonic liposuction and ultrasound-guided fat grafting: a retrospective analysis based on 185 patients. Journal of Clinical Medicine 2024;13(6):1526. doi:10.3390/jcm13061526 ↗
Güzey S, Ergan Şahin A. Brazilian butt lift: what we learned over 7000 patients? Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 2026;50(14):5864–5872. doi:10.1007/s00266-026-05899-9 ↗
Del Vecchio D, Wall S. Expansion vibration lipofilling: a new technique in large-volume fat transplantation. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2018;141(5):639e–649e. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000004338 ↗
Strong AL, Cederna PS, Rubin JP, Coleman SR, Levi B. The current state of fat grafting: a review of harvesting, processing, and injection techniques. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2015;136(4):897–912. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000001590 ↗
Del Vecchio DA, Del Vecchio SJ. The graft-to-capacity ratio: volumetric planning in large-volume fat transplantation. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2014;133(3):561–569. doi:10.1097/01.prs.0000438471.23249.6e ↗
Mofid MM, Teitelbaum S, Suissa D, et al. Report on mortality from gluteal fat grafting: recommendations from the ASERF Task Force. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2017;37(7):796–806. doi:10.1093/asj/sjx004 ↗
Kalaaji A, Dreyer S, Vadseth L, et al. Gluteal augmentation with fat: retrospective safety study and literature review. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2019;39(3):292–305. doi:10.1093/asj/sjy153 ↗
Durán Vega HC, Sieber D, Magallanes S, et al. The Linear Retrograde Infiltration (LiRi) technique for buttock fat infiltration: a cohort evolution. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2025. doi:10.1093/asj/sjae254 ↗

The Centre for Surgery clinic frontage at 95 to 97 Baker Street, London W1U 6RN — Centre for Surgery, 95–97 Baker Street, Marylebone, London W1U 6RN.

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