A body lift surgery is a procedure which tightens a wide area of the body including lower abdominal, buttocks and inner thighs. The surgery will greatly improve the contour of the area by excising any excess of loose tissue from it. This makes it perfect for people that just underwent weight loss and have a lot of stretched skin as a result.
Who Undergoes A Body Lift?
There are several profiles for patients that request a body lift and they all have one thing in common: loose skin. These patients are.
Patients That Underwent Massive Weight Loss – When the skin carries too much fat for too long, it stretched permanently, even after the fat is long gone. Removing that loose skin from you is what a body lift does.
Bariatric Surgery Patients – In a similar case, patients that underwent bariatric surgery can expect a tremendous amount of weight loss post-surgery. And, to deal with the saggy skin from that, the surgeon recommends them to have a body lift after a couple of years.
Women That Gave Birth – Having a baby requires much stretching of the stomach area and inevitable weight gain. That sometimes remains even after the baby is some years old. For women which pregnancy wreaked particular havoc to their figure, a body lift is a right choice.
When to Undergo A Body Lift Surgery?
As stated, body lift surgery is for those people that recently experienced a massive loss of weight. That, not achieved only through dieting and exercise, but these days patients of bariatric surgery regularly undergo it as well. But it is not only about if you had the actual loss of massive amounts of weight. It also is about how long has it been since you had the loss of massive amounts of weight. This is because the surgery requires you to have been able to keep the same stable weight for some time. For one year minimum or two years if you can help it. This is because that is the estimated time a body that underwent a massive weight loss assumes its final contour as long as the person manages to keep their weight stable.
Thus, it then that you should start seriously considering undergoing a body lift surgery. Not following these simple recommendations and attempting to have the surgery without s stable weight can lead to odd-looking results. Not only could you undo whatever results the procedure had very fast but, worse, you could have an incomplete one. Undergoing a body lift bereft of a stable body weight means the surgeon will have difficulties assessing just how much loose skin you really have. Therefore, they will either undercut or overcut skin tissue resulting in a less than satisfactory outcome. Make sure you are able to keep a stable weight for the stated amount of time before moving forwards with a body lift surgery.
Body Lift Surgery
The body lift is not so much a sole surgery as much as it is a package of several different surgeries. The procedure is similar to a tummy tuck but with a much large range of operation. The surgery happens under general anaesthesia and requires two long incisions. The incision goes from hipbone to hipbone just above the bikini line. It continues following that pattern on the backside of the body, covering the lower part of the buttocks. Another long incision goes higher, across the top part of the lower abdomen from side to side. This one also continues towards the backside of the body, this time covering the upper part of the buttocks’ crease. The final look of the incision resembles a wide belt covering the whole lower abdomen and back, not unlike the outline of wrestling champion belt. From that incision, the surgeon proceeds to excise all of the excessive tissue.
They trim your lower abdomen, thighs, buttocks, and love handles of any skin hanging loose. Then they grab the now neatly trimmed and much tighter skin layer still attach to you and pull it together to suture it in place, ending the surgery. It is also very common to incorporate a tummy tuck surgery as part of the body lift. In fact, most bariatric surgery patients request it. Since the area is right there and the wide incision allows easy access to it, it requires little time added to the procedure.
Having a tummy tuck means that the surgeon grabs any distended abdominal muscles and sews them together. Thus, not leaving you with a slimmer but also a tighter abdomen after your body lift. Recovery from the surgery is at least six weeks before you do any little effort such as driving or lifting stuff. And a total of eight to ten weeks before going back to work or attempting exercise so plan accordingly.
What A Body Lift Does Not Do
Within the general public, there is still a lot of misunderstanding regarding what some surgeries do or don’t. Doubly so when it comes to surgeries that deal with and around the abdominal area. Being the abdomen one of the most problematic zones for the average patient to lose weight. They think that the surgery will do just that: help them lose weight.
And this is something a body lift surgery will definitively not help them with. See, the body lift surgery is very similar to the tummy tuck surgery in that regard. It will only help contour the body by removing skin and putting some muscles back together. Those two surgeries are so similar that, in fact, a body lift surgery can actually incorporate a tummy tuck when performing. If what you as a patient are looking for is to lose actual weight in some area of your body, choose liposuction.
Liposuction And Body Lift Surgery
The liposuction procedure is the one procedure that will actually help you ‘lose’ weight. The way you lose weight with it, by the way, is by having it sucked out straight out of you. The liposuction requires small incision placed in the area you are looking to have fat removed from.
Through that small incision, a thin hollow tube known as a cannula enters the area. When turning on the device, the cannula will start sucking the fat cells out from that place. Fat cells are, by the way, where the body stores the actual fat. And the body does not produce more fat cells to replace those sucked out. Thus, you will not accumulate much fat on those areas again after the liposuction. It is not all roses though; loose skin were those fat cells formerly sat remains.
When the patient held a high body mass index for a long time, the skin will remain stretched out. Luckily, a body lift can deal with that. The procedure excises excessive tissue and tightens muscles, exactly what a post-liposuction patient would need. This makes it for having liposuction first and a body lift later a very attractive option for patients. In fact, a significant percentage choose this route. The reason is simple, liposuction can take away the most troublesome fat with no physical effort. And a body list can then come to contour the rest of the body by dealing with the remaining tissue.
Body Lift FAQ
Q: Do I need to have liposuction to have a body lift?
A: No, not necessarily. You need to have an excess of loose, hanging skin from weight loss. It just so happens that is a common result of liposuction.
Q: Do I lose weight with a body lift?
A: No, you will lose not much weight with it. The procedure’s goal is to contour the body by excising the excess of loose hanging skin.
Q: Does a body lift include a tummy tuck?
A: Not by default. The body lift traditionally sticks to just cutting the excess tissue from the abdominal area. You can, however, request a tummy tuck performed as part of your body lift to tighten the underlying abdominal muscles.