Abdominoplasty (or tummy tuck) sounds like it would be a great option for you. It sounds like you have done a great job exercising and doing all you can to lose excess fat.
When exercise doesn’t give the desired result, abdominoplasty should work great for you.
Abdominoplasty is a surgical procedure designed to flatten your protruding abdomen by tightening the muscles and removing excess fat and skin.
Another option may be a mini tummy tuck. With a mini tummy tuck a smaller incision is made and no incision is made around around your belly button.
To discuss the best option for you make sure you consult with your surgeon. (Shain A. Cuber, MD, Edison Plastic Surgeon)
Loose skin is best treated with full or extended tummy tuck
An extended tummy tuck is the best way to treat loose and excess skin marked by stretch marks that surrounds the lower belly following pregnancy. This will also provide some improvement to hips and thighs. (Otto Joseph Placik, MD, Chicago Plastic Surgeon)
More than likely you are describing loose skin and some fat in the lower abdomen. Perhaps a bit of weakness in the muscles as well. It sounds like you may need a tummy tuck or a modificatin of one. (Steven Wallach, MD, Manhattan Plastic Surgeon)
The bulge you have in the lower abdomen could be fat, or separation of the muscles. There is no other method to bring the muscles together but surgery. With pregnancies, the rectus muscle get vertically lax and seperate in the middle. No exercise or massage or any other treatment will repair this except surgery. (Samir Shureih, MD, Baltimore Plastic Surgeon)
Local abdominal fat is nicely flattened with liposuction. You just need to make sure you don’t have a separation (diastasis) of the rectus muscles, because this can make your stomach bulge and requires tummy tuck to correct. (George J. Beraka, MD (retired), San Diego Plastic Surgeon)
It sounds like you would be a great candidate for a tummy tuck procedure. No matter how much work you put in at the gym, your abdominal region has suffered from pregnancy. The only way to achieve a flat stomach would be abdominoplasty surgery. A tummy tuck procedure involves rectus muscle repair and removal of loose and saggy skin or tissue.
Usually liposuction is also included as well as the creation of a new belly button. Keep up the hard work at the gym and consult with surgeons to discuss your options. Most importantly, choose a board certified plastic surgeon to perform your surgery. (Tom J. Pousti, MD, FACS, Memphis Plastic Surgeon)
Getting rid of resistant tummy fat pooch or loose skin
With your history of physical fitness and weight loss and of having several children it is safe to assume that you are at the maximal best that can be achieved by exercise. If any further improvement is to be had, it would need to come with the help of one of my Plastic surgery colleagues.
The odds are hands down that you have abdominal wall looseness (from the pregnancies). That would place your six pack muscles (rectus abdominis) to the sides and they will NOT come together. No matter how hard you exercise – the separation of the muscles and looseness of the tummy will persist, as you have already seen. You would probably greatly benefit from an ABDOMINOPLASTY (tummy tuck) with or without liposuction. (Peter A. Aldea, MD, Dallas Plastic Surgeon)
If you are back at your pre-baby weight and exercising regularly, it is quite possible that the contour issues you are noticing are due to weakness of the abdominal wall. If exercise and strengthening of the abdominal muscles do not solve the problem, then a tummy tuck is the only way to address the stretched out fascia that creates this type of bulge.
I’d suggest visiting a board certified plastic surgeon to have them evaluate your abdomen to see what is causing the bulge. Listen to their advice on how to attain the figure you want to achieve. (Michael A. Bogdan, MD, FACS)
You are doing all you can to maximize your post-pregnency belly. Congratulations for that effort!
You should see a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon who can offer both liposuction and tummy tucks and can examine you and tell you what each can and cannot do for you and which would be better in your case.
If you go to a non-plastic surgeon who only can perform liposuction, they will tell you most likely that is all you need and you might be very disappointed. There are ways to describe which surgery would be better for you but the best thing is to go to an excellent doctor who can examine you directly. (Richard P. Rand, MD, FACS, Seattle Plastic Surgeon)