Extreme weight loss may not provide ideal results. Trading body fat for hanging, loose skin is not the dieter’s dream. Prevent loose skin with healthy weight loss.
Slow Weight Loss is Best
Quick weight loss may be possible by having weight loss surgery, making extreme lifestyle changes or taking weight loss drugs, but experts recommend losing only 1 Kg per week for good reason. Looking weight too quickly takes an unhealthy toll on your body. Most people are also unlikely to maintain weight loss that has been achieved too quickly, causing them to regain the weight.
Prevent Loose Skin After Weight Loss
- Exercise regularly to tighten and tone problem areas
- Follow a healthy diet plan
- Do resistance training 3 times a week to build new muscle for the skin to adhere to
- Count calories
- Don’t follow an extremely restrictive diet
- Drink a lot of water
- Lose weight slowly
- Talk to your doctor about healthy weight loss options
Ways to Tighten Loose Skin After Extreme Weight Loss
- Continue to exercise regularly
- Concentrate on strength training exercises
- Eat lean poultry and other proteins with each meal
- Try over-the-counter creams to tighten the loose skin
- Consider surgical options to remove hanging skin
Surgery to Remove Hanging Skin
Though continued exercise and fat loss will help reduce hanging skin around the abs, inner thighs and underarms, a surgical procedure is likely necessary to remove the loose skin. Prevention is the ideal way to deal with loose, hanging skin due to weight loss.
Abdominoplasty Procedure – Tummy Tuck Surgery
When you think about your abdomen, you frequently wish for it to be as tight as the drum. The consequences of pregnancy or rapid loss of weight remain visible on your abdomen as loose skin or striae. You are not aware how good you can look after relatively simple surgical procedure.
What is Abdominoplasty Plastic Surgery?
The plastic surgery procedure known as Abdominoplasty or, more commonly “Tummy Tuck” is performed on the abdomen and comes in a variety of forms:
Complete Abdominoplasty/Tummy Tuck
During this body contouring procedure, excess body fat and skin is removed from above and below the belly button. Abdominal muscles are then tightened and the belly button is re-positioned.
Mini-Abdominoplasty (Mini-Tummy Tuck)
During this smaller plastic surgery operation, surplus fat (adipose tissue) and skin are taken from below the belly button, the muscles are tightened but the belly button is not re-positioned. This may leave the belly button in an unnatural position.
Endoscopic Abdominoplasty
During this minimally invasive abdominal procedure a small camera is used, and smaller incisions are made. Muscles are not tightened as much as in regular abdominoplasty.
Abdominal Dermolipectomy
During this operation, body fat is removed from above and below the belly button, which is re-positioned, but the muscles are not tightened. Dermolipectomy is for patients who have a higher level of skin laxity than mini-tummy tuck candidates.
Abdominal Liposuction
For patients with excess fat but good skin and muscle tone, plastic surgeons often recommend liposuction alone. This typically involves making two tiny incisions in the pubic hair area and one inside the navel are used. For more information about all types of liposuction.
Dermolipectomy – After Weight Loss
Because of its benefits for skin removal, dermolipectomy is the most important procedure for treatment of the deformities caused by massive weight loss. By comparison, lipoplasty may be useful for removing fatty deposits without traditional surgical incisions, but its use depends upon the ability of the skin to contract to the newly sculpted figure. Thus while liposuction can be useful in treating a patient’s body contouring requirements after weight loss, unlike dermolipectomy it is not a primary procedure.
Dermolipectomy – Method, Risks, Recovery
Bandages are removed in 1-4 days. Surface stitches are removed in 7 days, deeper sutures protruding through the skin, will come out in 14-21 days. Drains are placed at the time of surgery to prevent postoperative fluid collections, called seromas. They are usually removed between 2 days and 2 weeks following surgery. You can expect 3-8 days of pain medication, together with a degree of abdominal numbness for 6 months or longer. Except that dermolipectomy does not involve surgical tightening of the ab-muscles. Thus post-operative discomfort is reduced.
The patients who are smokers should quit three weeks because the surgery since there is a possibility of poor wound healing at the level of the caesarean section (skin necrosis). Both seromas and hematomas are possible and if they appear, they will disappear within seven days.
Who Are the Best Candidates for Dermolipectomy?
People who have lost a great deal of weight and have sagging skin on the abdomen are ideal candidates for a dermolipectomy. So are people who have skin that is not very elastic and that will not bounce back or shrink to fit after fat is removed, such after an abdominal liposuction. No muscle tightening or repair to the abdominal muscles takes place in a dermolipectomy.
Dermolipectomy Incisions:
In a dermolipectomy, the surgeon will make an incision across the abdomen, usually just at the level of the top of the pubic hair. The skin is loosened from the underlying tissue on the abdomen and is pulled downward. Excess skin and some subcutaneous fat are removed.
Usually, an incision is also made around the navel and the skin is release from it. After the skin is redraped, a hole is made in it and it is sutured around the navel. Although this looks as if the navel has moved, it has not. The skin around it has been moved. The surgeon then sutures closed the main incision.