After losing a significant amount of weight, many men and women are left with loose skin in their midsection area that can be impossible to get rid of without surgery. A lower body lift is a surgical procedure that can remove this excess skin while tightening the remaining skin and abdominal muscles to complete your weight loss goals.
If you’re considering a lower body lift but aren’t quite sure what it entails, take a look at this guide to give yourself an overview of this common after-weight-loss procedure and to see if it could be right for you.
Lower Body Lift Techniques
A lower body lift is designed to target your entire midsection, both front and back. At The Natural Result, our experienced plastic surgeons perform a customized lower body lift that will involve several complementary techniques to achieve the best overall results.
- Tummy tuck. A tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, removes loose skin and repairs weakened abdominal muscles, to create a smoother, slimmer midsection.
- Extended backside incision. The tummy tuck incision is extended along the lower back so that excess skin and fat in this area also can be removed. This is called a “circumferential incision” and it helps to contour the flanks and can also provide a modest lifting effect for the buttocks and outer thighs.
- Liposuction. Liposuction is usually performed as part of a lower body lift to remove pockets of excess fat from common trouble spots like the love handles, belly, bra roll, and upper hips.
Is a Lower Body Lift a Single Surgery?
Yes, a lower body lift is generally performed as a single, comprehensive surgery. This approach allows your surgeon to address multiple areas of concern in one procedure, reducing the need for multiple rounds of anesthesia and recovery while enhancing your overall result.
That said, if you would like to add other procedures to your lower body lift, such as a thigh lift, arm lift, or breast enhancement, your plastic surgeon may recommend splitting these up across multiple surgeries to optimize safety and the quality of your results.
Am I a Good Candidate for a Lower Body Lift?
The best candidates for a lower body lift are men and women who have lost a significant amount of weight and have residual fat and excess skin throughout their midsection. Before surgery, you will need to maintain a weight close to your target weight for several months to allow for optimal skin removal and overall results.
It is also important to have realistic expectations about your lower body lift results. While this procedure can greatly improve one’s mobility and quality of life after massive weight loss, it is still a surgical procedure that will result in some discreet scarring. It is also not meant to act as a weight loss tool, but rather a way to fine-tune your weight loss results.
If excess skin is keeping you from fully enjoying the benefits of your hard work, call our Sacramento office at 916-983-9895 or get in touch online to see if a lower body lift could be right for you.
