A tummy tuck is designed to re-contour the abdominal wall. The biggest difference in a tummy tuck is on your profile view. You should have a much flatter abdominal wall after the tummy tuck than you did before.
The tummy tuck will not only remove excess skin and fat of the abdominal wall but oftentimes will tighten the muscle underlying the skin and fat. It should not in itself be considered a weight-loss procedure.
Immediately after the tummy tuck you may even weigh more than you did before surgery. This would be due to fluid retention, which is normal after any type of surgical procedure. The actual net loss of tissue will not be appreciated for several weeks afterward. If you do not gain or lose any other weight then the weight loss will be a result of the tissue removed.
When a very slender woman undergoes an abdominoplasty the skin removed will not weigh very much. It can be as little as one-half pound. On the other hand, if there is a considerable amount of excess skin and fat removed, it can weigh two to three pounds.
This varies according to side of patient, but usually the tissue removed weights about 3-10lbs.
Tummy tuck is not a weight loss procedure. Tummy tuck is a body contouring procedure. I always tell my patients that they will achieve the best result after they attain their ideal body weight before undergoing a tummy tuck procedure.
While you will likely lose some weight as excess fat and skin are removed during your surgery, but remember that the purpose of plastic surgery is rarely to lose weight and is certainly no replacement for a healthy lifestyle.
Figuring out how much weight will be removed is a very individualized situation- some women have only skin to remove with an abdominoplasty and that removed skin may not represent much weight, but may still result in a fantastic improvement in body form. Other women who have a large pannus, or apron-like collection of fat and skin, that gets removed will likely see a much more significant change in weight from their Tummy Tuck surgery
Although the actual weight of tissue removed during an abdominoplasty is not a large percentage of a person’s overall weight, the reshaping accomplished by the procedure gives the appearance of a significantly thinner physique. The removal of skin and tissue is just one aspect of the abdominoplasty procedure.
Typically muscles that have separated and caused a “bulgy” appearance to the central abdomen are repaired, yielding a much flatter appearance to the abdomen. The skin tightening also accentuates and defines the waist. Typically a patient is encouraged to acheive a stable goal weight before surgery in order to acheive the best long term results with this reshaping.
Tummy tuck surgery is not weight loss surgery; it is body contouring. The amount of weight loss depends on how much tissue is removed at surgery. The amount of tissue removed is dependent on your maximum weight prior to surgery, amount of weight loss, amount of weight gain with pregnancy, heredity and skin laxity.
Typically, in mommy make over tummy tucks, there is is only 800 to 2000 grams of tissue removed, which is about 2 to 5 pounds. In body lift patients, it can be more.
Your focus in this procedure should be improved contour, and not weight loss. If you have an increased amount of intrabdominal fat, this is not corrected by a tummy tuck. In people with increased intrabdominal fat, they should consider weight loss prior to surgery to achieve the optimal result.
Although this is easier to say than for some patients to accomplish. The point of this statement is that an Abdominoplasty is performed to address laxity of the skin and fat layer (spare tire or lower belly overhang) as well as to restore normal tone to the muscle and fascial layer.
The closer you are to your ideal healthy weight before surgery, the better your shape improvements with surgery can be. For patients near to their ideal weight, the removed skin and fat rarely weighs more than five pounds. As other surgeons have stated, a shape and tone improvement is the goal rather than weight loss after tummy tuck surgery.
It is a common question for patients to ask how much weight will they lose with their tummy tuck. The reality is that tummy tucks are not weight loss procedures and patients are often disappointed to hear that they will only lose a few pounds. Patients that have undergone significant weight loss, can lose anywhere from 7-20 lbs if they have a large hanging abdomen, but this is specific to this subset of patients.
Tummy tucks can give great contour to your abdomen. Patients should already be at or near their goal weight prior to the procedure as further weight loss after the procedure may result in losing the tightness you achieved with your procedure.
Tummy tucks are not answer to weight loss specifically. The idea behind a Tummy Tuck is to remove extra skin and fat and tighten muscles, in most cases. The pounds that will be loss will be completely dependent on the amount of excess skin that you have. It is very common to also have liposuction performed at the same time as the Tummy Tuck.
Remember though, even after your Tummy Tuck, a healthy lifestyle are an intricate part of your overall tummy tuck results.
But you will lose some weight with a tummy tuck, since fat and skin are removed. The total amount varies widely and depends completely upon the amount of fat and loose skin you have to be removed. The best results come when you are already near your ideal body weight before having a tummy tuck.
A tummy tuck, or any other type of body contouring surgery such as liposuction, is not intended as a weight loss technique. It is a SHAPING procedure. The actual amount of fat and skin removed during a tummy tuck us usually much less than you would think, often less than 5 or 10 pounds.
Of course in some individuals, especially post bariatric patients undergoing a belt or circumferential abdominoplasty, as much as 40 pounds or more may be removed, but that is unusual. The effect of removing even a couple of pounds of fat and skin can be dramatic.
Generally, the goal of tummy tuck surgery is to eliminate loose skin, reaproximate separated muscles and localized fat removal.
It is not performed to lose weight. The average weight of the removed skin typically varies from 1-4 pounds. However, more or less can be removed.
While you might lose a few pounds from the removal of excess skin and fat, the purpose of a tummy tuck is to create a better contour by tightening the abdominal skin and muscles.
This often creates the appearance of having lost a lot of weight, but the actual weight loss from the procedure will be minimal.