loose skin & persistent fat
After major weight loss, despite all the changes that you have made to your body, you can still struggle with the effects of time and weight fluctuations. Despite dieting and exercising, many people who have had significant weight loss may not achieve a lean, toned appearance due to loose skin and persistent fat deposits. When you want to show off the results of your hard work in body-conscious clothing like a bikini or miniskirt, you may feel held back by a lack of confidence due to the presence of sagging skin. Body contouring is a plastic surgery procedure that can help people who have achieved a major weight loss to build body confidence and reflect their accomplishments with a toned, slender look. This procedure is designed to help people achieve their ideal body contour that allows you to show off your fitness.
At Cold Spring Plastic Surgery, our Long Island plastic surgeons can work with an array of body contouring procedures to help you achieve all of your aesthetic goals for your body. Whether you have achieved your weight loss through bariatric surgery, lifestyle changes or other mechanisms, body contouring can address the changes to your body and help you take pride in your body image.
Body contouring procedures can also help to counteract the changes in the body that can occur with aging, pregnancy and other major life milestones. By removing excess skin and reshaping the body, these procedures can help you to feel greater confidence with or without clothing.
Am I a Good Candidate for Body Contouring?
Body contouring is designed specifically for adults who have experienced significant weight loss. It can be an excellent follow-up treatment to weight loss surgery or any other major weight loss efforts. While you have made great changes to benefit your health and life, the persistent saggy skin can inhibit people from truly enjoying the effects of their weight loss. Loose skin cannot be removed by any amount of dieting and exercise; body contouring can help you to take pride in your new, slimmer body. People who have had body contouring procedures report a high degree of satisfaction with the new look and shape of their bodies.
Before beginning you body contouring process, it is important that you have achieved your weight loss goals and plan to maintain them through a healthy lifestyle. Weight fluctuations can affect the results of your body contouring procedures, so these are best performed on patients who are satisfied with their current weight.
What Procedures Are Part of Body Contouring?
Body contouring is designed to produce an overall change in the look and feel of your body to help you complete your weight loss journey. Depending on your individual needs and goals, body contouring can involve multiple plastic surgery procedures. Some elements of body contouring can be similar to those used in a Mommy Makeover, including tightening the torso and removing excess skin.
Buttocks procedures, tummy tucks, breast procedures and other treatments can be part of a body contouring procedure. Some of the procedures that can be involved may include:
How Is Body Contouring Performed?
Every body contouring procedure is different, because it involves an individualized treatment plan that meets your unique concerns and goals for your body after weight loss. Your Long Island plastic surgeon at Cold Spring Plastic Surgery will develop a set of treatments that will help you achieve your aesthetic goals.
Body contouring may be performed at one time or may require several treatments to fully complete all of the procedures that are part of your overall surgical plan. In many cases, this treatment will involve several stages before completion. Body contouring will be conducted under general anesthesia or intravenous sedation, as advised by your plastic surgeon.
In general, all body contouring procedures involve the use of incisions to remove excess, sagging skin throughout the body. The location and size of the incisions depend on which areas of the body require the removal of excess skin and the amount of loose skin to be removed. Your surgeon will work with you to discuss in detail the outcomes and goals of each procedure and technique used in order to produce your desired outcomes. In addition, your surgeon will carefully plan your incisions in order to locate them most effectively where they can be hidden under clothing, underwear or swimsuits.
One of the most common procedures performed as part of body contouring is a lower body lift, which allows your surgeon to remove excess skin from the abdomen, waist, hips, outer thighs and buttocks as part of one comprehensive procedure. This surgery often includes an incision around the body that helps your surgeon to comprehensively remove excess loose skin and fat deposits in these areas before tightening the tissue beneath the skin and redraping the skin over the new, tighter contours of your body.
What Outcomes Can I Expect After Body Contouring?
After your procedure, you will be wrapped in bandages or compression garments that help to protect the results of your surgery. Your surgeon will provide detailed instructions about how best to care for the treated areas in order to keep them clean and safe. In many cases, you may need to avoid bending or lifting for up to several weeks after the procedure. It is important to begin walking as soon as possible, but in some cases best to avoid stretching or straining to protect your sutures.
After one to two weeks following your surgery, you can plan to return to work; three to six weeks after your procedure, you can resume active exercise. Because body contouring is an excellent choice for people whose weight has been stable for six months or more, exercise can be important to maintain the results of these procedures over time.
Schedule a Body Contouring Consultation
The experienced Long Island plastic surgeons at Cold Spring Plastic Surgery can help you achieve all of your goals for your appearance after weight loss. Call our office or use our convenient online form to make an appointment at our Suffolk County location to set up a consultation about body contouring procedures. We work with patients from across the United States and around the world, and we look forward to speaking with you about how our plastic surgeons can help you achieve your aesthetic goals.