For years, I never thought I’d consider any sort of plastic surgery, but after 3 children, I started to think about having a tummy tuck. It wasn’t that I’d gained lots of weight or fat, but I simply didn’t recognize my abdomen. I had always been a person who has taken care of my health and body and whenever I’d heard the term tummy tuck, I thought it was for people who were looking to skip the hard work of losing weight with a shortcut via a tummy tuck.
But even after all the baby weight gain went away, I still didn’t have my old body back. I felt like it was hard to find my belly button in the excess skin left behind, plus, I had stretch marks. There was no way that weight loss was going to magically get rid of my excess skin and bring back my old tummy. I decided to investigate abdominoplasty, otherwise known as a tummy tuck.
Let’s be clear, a tummy tuck is not liposuction, but it is a substantial surgery and a procedure performed by a plastic surgeon that carries its risks. In some ways, a tummy tuck can be more daunting than liposuction because it can be more invasive since liposuction can be approached through the belly button, while more surgery is required for the removal of excess skin.
A tummy tuck can give a lift to all that excess skin left after having children or losing a substantial amount of weight. A tummy tuck is not a reduction in body fat – so if you carry too much weight on your abdomen because your body is overweight, a tummy tuck isn’t likely the direction your plastic surgeon is going to push you. However, a tummy tuck may be just the thing for someone who has tried everything, including losing weight and working the abdomen with targeted diet and weight lifting exercises, but still has seen no change in their tummy due to excess skin.
There are some people who will need to have a tummy tuck and liposuction together. My surgeon explained that this is not an unusual approach to the surgery, however the surgery is much more about the tuck than it is about removing excess fat. For me, the tummy tuck was exactly what I was looking for to minimize the look of my stretch marks and take care of that unsightly excess skin.
After recovery from my tummy tuck surgery, I was happy to have my old abdomen back and did not feel as fat as I had before I had the tummy tuck procedure done. While recovery wasn’t enjoyable, anyone who has endured child birth (and I’m assuming most people who are looking into the tummy tuck procedure likely fall under that category) will likely not find tummy tuck recovery any worse than what cause all that excess skin and stretch marks in the first place!
So far, my tummy tuck has held up and my tummy is in good shape. But neither have I gained any weight since the procedure. If you think you might gain weight back after the tummy tuck, it is one of the things you should definitely talk over with your surgeon when discussing the possibility of having the procedure done with your plastic surgeon.I Never Thought I’d Consider Plastic Surgery
A tummy tuck can give a lift to all that excess skin left after having children or losing a substantial amount of weight. A tummy tuck is not a reduction in body…. Learn more at Tummy Tuck Utah and breast