Why is Mariah Carey’s stomach so flat?

One of my least favorite things in the world is when doctors chime in via the tabloids about what’s happening with a random celebrity that they’re not treating. This goes for psychiatrists, medical doctors, plastic surgeons, whoever. It’s cheap and I’m pretty sure most doctors could (and should) loose their license. But that’s not stopping them!

This latest case of a doctor getting all up on a celebrity’s grill is about Mariah Carey’s recent weight gain. We’ve been through Mariah’s weight drama before – she gains and looses weight more than Elizabeth Taylor in her hey-day. But this doctor, Dr. Harry Haramis (seriously), who does not treat Mariah, is pretty sure Mariah had liposuction on her abdomen. His proof? Mariah seems to have gained weight in her thighs and arms, but not her stomach:

While soaking up the sun in Cannes, France, in mid-May, Mariah Carey, 40, revealed a fuller figure. However, her arms and hips appeared to carry the brunt of the weight gain while her abs remained relatively flat.

Mariah hasn’t kept her battle of the bulge a secret. “I’m really bad with the weight thing. I go up and down quickly,” she has said.

Although the star denies having surgery to lose weight, an insider believes that about six years ago, Mariah “may have had lipo done to her midsection.”

Whie her rep denies that she’s had the procedure, Dr. Harry Haramis, medical director of Sleek MedSpa in New York, says it could explain why someone would appear larger in some places, but not others.

“If a person gains considerable weight after liposuction, the treated areas will not change appreciably,” says Dr. Haramis. “The fat would go to remaining fat cells, with untreated areas getting the majority.”

[From In Touch, print edition, June 1 2009]

I have a theory about this, actually. In most paparazzi pictures of Mariah, you can totally see that she knows the camera is there. I think she sees the camera and sucks in her gut, like any respectable woman would do. The problem is that in nearly all of Mariah’s “candid” photos, we’ve now gotten used to seeing Mariah compulsively sucking in her gut. It’s warped us. I’d bet her abdomen has just as much proportional weight gain as her arms and thighs, but she looks disproportional because she has that small, petty gut-check vanity of most women. So, did she have surgery… or is she just sucking it in all of the time?

Note by Celebitchy: Last year some bikini candids of Mariah came out and her stomach was rippled in a way that would suggest she had lipo, so I would say it’s a definite possibility.

Mariah Carey is shown out in Cannes on 5/15, 5/16, and 5/17/09. Credit: WENN.com and Fame Pictures