What is body contouring after major weight loss?

Body contouring after major weight loss deals with excess skin. This excess skin results from losing a significant amount of weight. Weight loss can occur through diet, exercise, or bariatric surgery. Often, with significant weight loss, the skin does not contract back to the slimmer body. This leads to excess skin in the face, neck, breasts, abdomen, buttock, and thighs. Body contouring procedures are designed to remove this excess skin. Procedures include a lower body lift or circumferential abdominoplasty, breast lift, arm lift, and thigh lift.

Results of Major Weight loss

Major weight loss results in significant health benefits, including the elimination of diabetes and hypertension. Still, besides the benefits, any considerable amount of weight loss also results in excess skin. The skin and tissues often lack elasticity and can’t conform to the reduced body size. As a result, skin that has been severely stretched now is unsupported. Frequent sequelae are:

Upper arms sag and are loose and full
Breasts flatten and hang with nipples pointed downward
Abdominal area extend around the sides and into the lower back area, resulting in an apron-like overhang
Buttocks, groin and thighs can sag and cause hanging pockets of skin

Surgical body contouring after major weight loss removes excess sagging fat and skin. The result is a more normal appearance to the body, with smoother contours. This is, in essence, the final phase of your total weight loss experience.

Good candidates for body contouring are:

Adults of any age whose weight loss has stabilized
Healthy individuals who do not have medical conditions that can impair healing or increase risk of surgery
Non-smokers
Individuals with a positive outlook and realistic goals for what body contouring can achieve
Individuals committed to leading a healthy lifestyle including proper nutrition and fitness

Major Weight Loss Surgery

Body contouring surgery usually combines multiple procedures to achieve a comprehensive result. Dr. Thomassen will recommend the procedures needed. Often these will need to be staged, or performed at separate times, usually with 4-6 week recovery period in between. The most commonly performed procedures include:

Lower body lift: to correct sagging of the abdomen, buttocks, groin and outer thighs. Incision patterns vary. A technique includes a circumferential incision around the body. This removes the “belt” of excess skin and fat. This is also called a circumferential abdominoplasty.

Pattern of a circumferential abdominoplasty — Incisions for a Circumferential Abdominoplasty

Scar resulting from a circumferential abdominoplasty — Location of scars after a Circumferential Abdominoplasty

Results of an abdominoplasty after significant weight loss — Lower Body Lift a.k.a Circumferential Abdominoplasty after Significant Weight Loss

Breast lift: to correct sagging, flattened breasts. A breast implant also is recommended to enhance breast shape and size.

Wise pattern breast lift — Breast Lift Incisions

Resulting scars from a Wise pattern breast lift — Breast Lift Scars Following a Wise Pattern Lift

Arm lift: to correct sagging of the upper arms. Extra incisions into the axilla and flank be necessary to handle excess skin in these areas.

Traditional incision location for arm lift — Arm Lift Incisions

Resulting scar from traditional arm lift — Arm Lift Scars

Thigh lift: to correct sagging of the inner, outer and mid thigh. Surgeons reshape the thighs through incisions in the groin. These incisions can extend downward to the knee along the inner part of the thigh.