Today’s society is more aware of the importance of health and fitness today than ever before, inspiring a great many people to work towards a healthy body weight. For many people, this means taking off a significant amount of weight, a goal that can take months or even years of hard work and unwavering determination to achieve. Unfortunately, many people get to the end of that long, hard road only to find their well-deserved sense of accomplishment marred by a very common side-effect of substantial weight loss – loose, hanging abdominal skin, a frustrating issue can generally be resolved with a tummy tuck procedure.
Losing a substantial amount of weight requires an extraordinary level of commitment, determination and hard work. Success requires more than just counting calories and skipping desert. People who lose a great deal of weight and keep it off have typically made significant, long-term lifestyle changes in terms of both dietary habits and activity levels, working steadfastly towards their health and fitness goals each and every day. Unfortunately, many people who lose a lot of weight find that the skin in the abdominal region, stretched by that previous weight gain, hasn’t snapped back, leaving areas of loose, sagging skin that spoils that slim, trim waistline they’ve been working so hard to achieve. This sort of situation is exactly why tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty procedures were developed.
Abdominoplasty is a cosmetic surgery procedure that removes excess skin and fat from the abdominal region and tightens loose abdominal muscles. In the process of doing that, cosmetic surgeons can often remove stretch marks that formed as weight gain occurred, further enhancing appearance. The result is a tighter, slimmer waistline and a flat, youthful tummy. People who in good general health and are at or near their ideal body-weight, yet have a protruding abdomen due to loose skin or weakened abdominal muscles, are the best candidates for tummy tuck surgery. Individuals who are still working towards their weight-loss goals or have a significant deposits of fat in the abdominal region may be better served by a two step approach, having liposuction done first, then proceeding with abdominoplasty after a healing period of several months.
So if you’ve been working hard to change your life and your figure, but those lost pounds haven’t helped you find that slim, trim waistline you’ve been looking for, don’t get discouraged. Once you’ve toned and tightened as much as you can with diet and exercise, a tummy tuck can give you just the nudge you need to clear that last, stubborn hurdle that stands between you and a figure that reflects the hard work you’ve put into reaching your fitness goals.