lose weight in certain areas

Dear Doctor,

I need to know if there is ANY way to lose weight in certain parts of your body with exercise or diet or things like that without doing plastic surgery.
I try to keep my weight above 55 kg because even if I reduce a kilo or two my face looks awfully thin and drawn - and ill actually. But the problem is I have rather fat thighs and even some fat on my belly which is just awful. I want to get rid of them but exercises only make my thighs fatter than they are. It seems like I only lose fat from my face and upper body. On my lower body instead of burning fat I'm just building muscles.
I have heard that the only way to burn fat on your thighs is to first reduce your body fat to 18% but I can't have a face thinner than I already do because it looks so thin everybody thinks I'm sick.
I don't really like the idea of liposuction because I don't have the money and I don't think the results would be permanent. It would be great if you could help me with this problem.

Thank you and best regards
Lily

[Howard Rosenberg, MD]

I do not believe that there is any non-invasive technique that will selectively reduce areas of fat.  The results of liposuction are permanent.