For the majority of patients, losing inches and dropping their waist/pant size is the most noticeable effect of tummy tuck surgery. On average, patients can expect to go down about 2 – 3 pant sizes after tummy tuck surgery, though many patients reduce their waist size by even more.
Does a tummy tuck make your waist smaller? Yes, it does. By removing excess fat and skin, and tightening abdominal muscles, you will see a smoother surface and a smaller waistline.
Some patients tend to believe that during the tummy tuck, the plastic surgeon will eliminate the fat in excess on the tummy. This is not the goal of abdominoplasty, and the surgical steps don't include fat removal. Because the fat layer is not addressed, some patients can end up having a boxy look after the tummy tuck.
Having said this, most women after a tummy tuck will go down a size or two. Some will go down even more! However, some patients will not have a change of size, and rarely, some will actually wear a larger size. Most women will go down a size or two after an abdominoplasty and be very happy with their new appearance.
Where do patients gain weight after a tummy tuck? During body contouring procedures like a tummy tuck, fat cells are eliminated from the body and cannot return. Because of this, patients may gain weight in other places like the buttocks, legs, arms, and breasts.
Applying a specialized suturing pattern
Both of these procedure techniques can dramatically enhance body proportions, not only helping to create a more noticeable “hourglass” shape, but also helping your breasts and buttocks look a little fuller in comparison, without any additional procedures.
Because your tummy tuck will result in some swelling around the site of the incision, it's completely normal for your upper pubic region to seem larger than normal immediately following your surgery. Try to be patient as your body heals and you anticipate your final results.
With a full tuck, you will lose more weight than you would with a mini tuck because you probably have more excess skin and fat to be removed. Finally, the opportunity to lose the most weight after abdominoplasty is reserved for clients who choose an extended tuck.
Full tummy tucks help patients lose clothing sizes and inches in their midsection, but weight loss is usually not more than a few pounds. The average woman can expect to lose two to three dress sizes after a tummy tuck, while men can expect to drop several pant sizes.
In short, yes, depending on your anatomy. It is common for extra skin to accumulate on the abdomen after pregnancy or weight loss and disguise a woman's natural hourglass figure. Removing this extra skin and tightening the remaining skin can help restore an hourglass figure.
Because a tummy tuck is a more extensive surgery, patients need around 10 to 14 days to recover. The results are long-lasting, and the removed fat cells won't grow back—but remaining fat cells may expand and the skin may re-stretch if you gain a large amount of weight.
Even though loose skin and subcutaneous fat are removed, abdominoplasty cannot remove excess visceral fat that remains intact behind tightened abdominal muscles. Visceral fat surrounds your organs and can only be reduced by diet and exercise.
For many men and women, no amount of dieting or exercise will result in a significant fat reduction in the lower back. For these patients, celebrity tummy tuck surgery may be a fantastic solution to remove fat from the lower back.
One Year After Surgery
One year later, your abdominoplasty should be fully healed, and results visible. Your inflammation should be gone, and your scar faded.
Generally, it takes two to three months to see results, depending on the tummy tuck technique that was performed, the extent of skin laxity, and the patient's general state of health.
The amount of weight a patient loses after a tummy tuck will vary, depending on the extent of the procedure. In most cases, patients lose a minimal amount, typically under five pounds. Other patients with more extensive loose skin may lose between 5 – 10 pounds, and, sometimes, even more.
Most women lose between 2 and 3 pants sizes after a tuck, but there are patients who lose even more. If you had a lot of loose skin before the procedure, for example, you could go down 4 more pants sizes.
A lower body lift, also known as a 360 tummy tuck, is a procedure that targets excess, loose skin and stubborn fat cells in the lower extremities, such as the flanks, buttocks, thighs, hips, and lower abdomen.
A tummy tuck surgery not only has a big effect on the look of the abdomen, but it can also affect the appearance of other bodily structures. It is not uncommon for patients to report that people believed their breasts looked bigger.
Sometimes people do not have a totally flat abdomen after tummy tuck even though the excess skin and fat is removed due to the fact that the intra-abdominal contents still remain intact and are still behind the tightened abdominal muscles.
Thinned out muscles and their lining causes this muffin top deformity in some patients. This occurs following muscle tightening if the increased tension makes the muscle and lining stretch out again. The medical terminology for thinned out muscles is muscle attenuation.
Some tummy tuck patients experience weight gain after surgery and notice increased abdominal fat as a result. The fat tends to appear in the upper part of the abdomen while the lower abdomen remains relatively flat.
Many people worry that getting a tummy tuck will leave them with a noticeable post-surgical mark across their stomach. In reality, the tummy-tuck procedure does not produce large and noticeable post-surgical marks if the procedure is performed by a skilled surgeon.