When’s the right time to have a Tummy Tuck after weight loss?
Aurora is now part of The Private Clinic, a nationwide group of clinics with over 35 years of experience specialising in Cosmetic Surgery and Skin and a Trust Pilot 5 star rating. For comprehensive information, before and after photos and costs on Tummy Tuck procedures click here
Our expert Plastic Surgeon Aurora Clinics Founder is the Medical Director for The Private Clinic. Clinics are located in Birmingham, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Glasgow, London Harley Street, Leeds, Manchester and Northampton.
If you’re looking into tummy tuck surgery, you’ve probably heard the advice to wait until you’ve reached your goal weight first. But with excess skin distorting the figure on the scales, and weight loss plateaus, it’s not always that simple.
So how do you know when it’s the ‘right’ time?
Deciding when the time is right is ultimately something your Plastic Surgeon is responsible for. They’ll have treated multiple patients of various body shapes and weights – and seen first-hand their results from surgery.
But that said, you don’t want to leave it all in their hands and take a back seat. For your own peace of mind, you’ll want to go into surgery feeling as confident as you can about your potential results.
So to be clear in your own mind about whether it’s the right time, there are two questions you can ask yourself before you approach a surgeon.
Two questions to ask yourself before tummy tuck surgery
1. Am I still actively losing weight, or have I plateaued?
Be really honest with yourself about the way your weight loss is currently going. Are you still experiencing a steady loss from week to week, or has it ground to a halt – and been that way for a while, despite sticking to your diet/exercise plan?
While you’re continuing to lose weight, your best bet is to keep going. Get as close to your goal weight as you can before having tummy tuck surgery, and you’ll get the most satisfying results.
If you’re not quite at your ideal weight, but within sight of it, and your weight has stabilised and been fairly constant over several months, then it may be ok to go ahead with surgery.
It could be that your initial weight loss target was overly ambitious, and you want to be at a weight that’s easy to maintain after surgery, rather than something you’ll struggle with.
Which leads us on to the second important question….
2. Is my goal weight realistic?
When you’re carrying a lot of extra weight, and you’re just starting out on losing it, it’s easy to set a goal weight that’s unrealistic. Setting ambitious targets is great, but there are a couple of reasons why your goal weight might need to be reconsidered.
If it’s a weight you’ve never been as an adult, it might be too ambitious. Our bodies usually have a weight that they settle at, and it becomes hard to get beyond that without severely restricting food intake or dramatically increasing exercise levels. If you find your body reaches a weight where it wants to stay when you’re eating healthily but realistically, that’s probably a better goal weight than the one you’ve chosen – even though it may be quite a few pounds out.
Also, if you’re carrying lots of loose skin because of your weight loss, bear in mind it’ll be heavy! So inevitably it’s going to bump up the number on the scales. And that’s weight you can’t physically lose without surgery.
If either of the above are true for you, it may be that you’re being too harsh on yourself and setting yourself an impossible task before tummy tuck surgery.
You don’t want to compromise your results by being impatient and having surgery too soon, but equally you don’t want to carry on in discomfort for longer than you need to in pursuit of an unrealistic goal.
If you’re still uncertain after considering the above, seek advice. A great surgeon who specialises in the procedure will be able to assess you and let you know whether you’re likely to get good results from tummy tuck surgery.
Aurora Clinics are a nationwide plastic and cosmetic surgery group with clinics throughout the UK. We have an expert team of BAAPS and BAPRAS registered Plastic Surgeons, many of whom specialise in abdominoplasty surgery. For advice on tummy tuck surgery, or to book a consultation, please call us on 01324 578290, email mailto:info@aurora-clinics.co.uk or fill in our quick contact form and we’ll be in touch.