Finalize Your Transformation: Skin Tightening After Weight Loss

Weight loss procedures and services are more popular than ever. While losing weight may have given you the figure you’ve always wanted, excess skin can leave you one step away from your aesthetic goals. Sagging skin in your arms, legs, and stomach could impact your self-esteem and prevent you from fully enjoying your results.

Skin tightening procedures after weight loss will tauten the sagging areas that you’re not happy with. Learn why this loose skin develops after significant weight loss and how you can resolve it.

What Causes Loose Skin After Weight Loss Procedures?

Loose skin after weight loss surgery procedures or other weight loss services occurs because your skin has lost some elasticity and cannot return to its original shape.

When you gain weight, especially a significant amount, your skin stretches to accommodate the extra pounds. Over time, the elastin and collagen fibers that are responsible for your skin’s elasticity can suffer damage.

If you lose a large amount of weight, you will not have the support of those collagen and elastin fibers to help your skin tighten on its own. Instead of shrinking to fit your slimmer body, your skin will sag.

Rapid weight loss is most likely to cause flaps of loose skin. It’s also more common among people who lose weight later in life. Collagen and elastin production drop rapidly after your 20s, so it’s normal to see a bit of extra skin after losing weight.

Options for Skin Tightening Procedures After Weight Loss

If you have lost a significant amount of weight and want to optimize your results by getting rid of sagging skin, you have options. Several different cosmetic services could give the look you’re going for. Learn more about each option and whether you’re a good candidate for it.

Tummy Tuck

A tummy tuck is a common after-weight-loss surgery procedure. Also called abdominoplasty, this procedure improves the shape of your abdomen by removing fat and excess skin in your stomach area.

In some abdominoplasties, the surgeon tightens abdominal muscles that have separated. This is especially common in tummy tucks after childbirth.

There are numerous types of tummy tucks, including full abdominoplasty procedures, which typically require a larger incision. Mini tummy tucks, in contrast, are often recommended for patients who don’t have a large amount of excess skin to remove.

A tummy tuck is not the same as a panniculectomy. The latter is a skin removal procedure that focuses on excess skin in your abdomen but doesn’t address fat pockets. If you’re happy with the amount of fat you’ve lost in your abdomen, you might undergo a panniculectomy instead of a tummy tuck.

Best Candidates for Tummy Tuck Procedures

To be able to get a tummy tuck after losing a lot of weight, you’ll need to be in good overall health and be at a stable weight.

Women who plan to become pregnant should not have this surgery until they have finished having children. If you smoke, you will have to quit before scheduling a tummy tuck. Using nicotine can affect your health during surgical procedures, and it will slow down your healing and recovery.

You must also have realistic expectations and be committed to maintaining a healthy lifestyle so that your results can last.

What to Expect From the Tummy Tuck Procedure

The first step to getting cosmetic procedures after weight loss is a consultation with a cosmetic surgeon. Your provider will look at your medical history and ask you about your ideal results.

Then, they’ll make some recommendations and discuss potential outcomes and side effects.

If you’re a good candidate for a tummy tuck, you can schedule the surgery. Your provider will give you some instructions about what to do during the weeks leading up to the procedure. For example, you might be asked to avoid certain supplements.

After you are prepped for surgery, you will receive general anesthesia. Your surgeon will make the incision as planned into your abdominal area and pull down your upper abdominal skin. The skin removal process will start, along with the tightening of your muscles. The surgeon may place a temporary drainage tube to get rid of excess fluids. They’ll close the incision and bandage the area.

To support your healing after this body contouring surgery, you need to follow all post-operative instructions, including getting enough rest and avoiding strenuous activity.

Arm Lift

An arm lift, which is called a brachioplasty, is another of the most common cosmetic procedures after weight loss. This surgery targets excess arm skin.

With an arm lift procedure, your surgeon can tighten lax skin that has prevented you from wearing sleeveless clothes out of self-consciousness. They can also remove pockets of fat, if needed, and tighten supportive tissues.

Best Candidates for Arm Lift Procedures

To qualify for this skin tightening treatment, you must have sagging skin in your arms that you’re not happy with. You should also understand that surgical scars will likely be visible after you heal.

You should be at a stable weight and be ready to take time to recover. You must be in good overall health, too, and have no blood clotting issues that could complicate the procedure. Your aesthetic goals should also be realistic.

What to Expect From the Arm Lift Procedure

If you’re interested in skin removal through an arm lift, you will need to get a consultation so that your surgeon can decide whether you’re a good candidate. You must avoid alcohol and other blood-thinning substances in the days leading up to the procedure. If you smoke, you’ll have to quit.

For a brachioplasty, you’ll be under general anesthesia. Your surgeon will make an incision in the back or inside of your arm. For more moderate skin laxity issues, the incision may not be that large. Your surgeon will then remove excess skin and apply sutures to support muscles and other tissues.

You’ll need to take it easy during your recovery time. Your surgeon will probably ask you to wear a compression garment and to avoid certain activities for several weeks.

Thigh Lift Procedure

Another of the most popular options available post weight loss is a thigh lift procedure, or thighplasty. This body contouring procedure can improve the way your thighs look after losing a significant amount of weight by removing excess skin folds and excess fat via liposuction.

Best Candidates for Thigh Lift Procedures

You may be a good candidate if you’d like to regain some skin firmness in your outer thigh area or if the excess skin around your thighs is causing rashes or chafing.

Because this is a cosmetic surgery, you will need to be in good overall health and be ready to take time off to recover. If you smoke, you must quit in order to be eligible.

What to Expect From the Thigh Lift Procedure

Like all surgical options, you can’t undergo a thigh lift without consulting with a surgeon and following all of the instructions they give you. The surgery requires general anesthesia, so you will have to bring someone who can drive you home.

For a thigh lift, your surgeon will probably make an incision near your groin. The incision may then extend around the back of your thigh, around your hip and back, or down toward your knee.

Your surgeon will then remove fat and excess skin while tightening nearby muscles. They’ll also use sutures to support your new thigh shape.

You’ll need to avoid moving around after the procedure. If you get plenty of rest and follow all of your surgeon’s post-operative instructions, the result could be the lower body you’ve been wishing for.

Non-Surgical Skin Tightening Options

If you’re not ready for surgery, you can try less invasive skin tightening procedures that require minimal downtime. Many of these treatments offer good results for people who have moderate skin laxity issues.

Microneedling is one effective option, especially if it’s combined with radiofrequency therapy. During this procedure, microneedles create small wounds that cause your body to boost its collagen production, and the heat from the radiofrequency energy improves those results.

Laser skin tightening is another popular solution for skin rejuvenation. A provider uses a specialized laser device to apply heat energy, which causes collagen fibers to tighten and contract. After multiple treatments, you could see very noticeable results.

Get the Aesthetic Results You’re Looking for With Help From a Plastic Surgeon

If you have lost a significant amount of weight after bariatric surgery or for any other reason, you may be struggling with excess skin. After you’ve reached your weight loss goals, it can be disheartening to still be unhappy with your silhouette.

Fortunately, there is help. With surgical and non-surgical skin tightening, you could finally look and feel your best.

At New Look New Life, we want to help you get rid of sagging skin in your upper arms, stomach, thighs, and other areas. Contact the New Look New Life team of doctors to get started.

We also offer a pricing estimate to get you started!