Body contouring after weight loss is a medical or surgical technique used to modify a specific body region. It may entail any or all these nonsurgical and surgical procedures:
- Eliminate fat with lipolysis.
- Remove fat with liposuction.
- Reshape or contour the area with high-density liposuction.
- Removal of extra skin.
- Re-drape or reshape an area of the body with a partial or full-body lift.
Body contouring is not to aid in weight loss. Instead, it shapes the body and addresses areas where weight reduction is impractical, unsuccessful, or considerable weight loss results in excess skin.
Different Methods of Body Contouring
Lipolysis is a term used to describe nonsurgical body sculpting. Lipolysis can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including:
- Cryolipolysis (for example, CoolSculpting®) utilizes freezing temperatures to kill fat cells.
- Injection lipolysis entails injecting deoxycholic acid (Kybella®) into the body to target fat cells.
- Laser lipolysis uses lasers to kill fat cells (for example, Zerona®).
Radiofrequency lipolysis (truSculpt®, for example) targets fat cells with ultrasound waves and heat.
The outcomes for lipolysis vary at times. There are specific frequent issues that necessitate revision surgery to address abnormalities caused by lipolysis. Control over contouring is minimal.
Lifts and tucks are two surgical procedures that may tighten muscles and remove excess fat and skin from the body. Examples are tummy tucks, facelifts, breast lifts, upper and lower body lifts, and double chin surgery. Liposuction (lipo) by various methods is a procedure that suctions fat deposits out the body.
What Occurs Following a Body Contouring Procedure?
Even after surgical operations, most patients return home the same day. If you choose a surgical option, someone should drive you home and remain with you for the first night if you have surgical procedures. If you have a tummy tuck or body lift, a small tube may be placed near one or more incisions to drain fluid and avoid swelling, and that will require return visits to check on your progress and empty the drains.
Your surgical team will provide you with post-operative instructions. They may include the following:
- Caring for the drains and changing the bandages.
- Be careful not to engage in over-activity but ambulate (moving around) to avoid blood clots.
- Lymphatic drainage massage.
- Reporting any complications will be explained pre-operatively.
- Staying out of the sun.
- Using medications to control pain or prevent infection, creams, or ointments for scar softening.
Body Contouring Surgery After Significant Weight Loss: What You Need to Know
What happens to the excess skin after you lose 100 pounds or more? Many people look to body-contouring surgery as the solution to excess skin that cannot snap back.
The following excerpt from the WebMD Archives: When author Frances Kuffel achieved her ideal weight after dropping over 200 pounds, she had no idea how far she’d come.
“‘I’m still overweight; I still look horrible,’ I kept thinking. Someone else had to point out that the issue was no longer fat, but skin, all this extra skin from dropping so much weight, “Kuffel, author of Passing for Thin, agrees.
Weight loss of 100 pounds or more is becoming increasingly frequent as weight reduction surgery becomes safer and more options are available. However, according to specialists, when layers of extra skin replace lost layers of fat, the effect may be gratifying, and dramatic, but harsh as the reality of pounds of excess skin is left behind.
“People who lose one hundred pounds or more feel better, they know they’re better, and they can accomplish things they couldn’t do before.” According to J. Peter Rubin, MD, director of the Life After Weight Loss Surgery Center. But when people look at their bodies, the excess skin is a continuous reminder of where they were – and it may sometimes make it difficult for them to go on with their lives.
Body Contouring After Weight Loss – Be Realistic
Body-contouring plastic surgery is a relatively new medical specialty. It was created, in part, to address the cosmetic issues of people who have lost significant amounts of weight, whether by dieting alone or with the assistance of weight reduction (bariatric) surgery.
It’s frequently the final step in getting the body that many people imagined they’d have when they made the life-changing decision to have weight reduction surgery.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, more than 68,000 patients underwent body-contouring surgery after losing weight in 2005, a 22% increase over 2004.
It’s important to have realistic goals for body contouring after weight loss. Talk with your doctor about what to expect and make sure you understand the limitations of this surgery.
Body Contouring Surgery for the Shape or Physique You’ve Dream About
We would be remiss if we did not address the other reason people are doing body contouring. Many people are finding that they have more artistic options for surgical body contouring than in the past. Liposuction was, and sometimes still is, done area by area. But it’s nearly impossible to achieve the balance, proportion, and lines that make for a sculpted, eye-catching result without a 360 approach to liposculpture.
Using VASER liposuction technology, a skilled, highly trained surgeon can strategically remove fat to shape the body front and back. The fat removed is healthy and can even transfer into areas where it adds shape and desired volume. For example, to fill in “hip dips” or to shape the buttocks (BBL). Additionally, VASER is the only type of liposuction used to remove subcutaneous fat to reveal muscle definition, called etching.
This level of sculpting requires a cosmetic or plastic surgeon who has received specialized training and has an artistic eye.
What’s Next?
Are you ready to explore body contouring in the hands of the only OrthoScupt cosmetic surgeon? Fill out our contact form here to take your next step or better yet, call today! 1 (833) CHISEL U | (833-244-7358).
