How Gaining Weight After a Tummy Tuck Can Affect Your Results

 

Tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, is a surgical procedure that helps to eliminate excess skin and fat from the abdomen area, giving patients a slimmer and more toned appearance. While a tummy tuck can help to improve your body shape, it is important to remember that it is not a permanent solution to weight loss.

If you have undergone a tummy tuck and have gained weight afterward, it can have a negative impact on the results you achieved from the procedure. Here are some ways that weight gain can affect your tummy tuck results:

Stretching of the Skin

When you gain weight after a tummy tuck, your skin can stretch, which can result in the re-appearance of loose or saggy skin. The skin that was tightened during the tummy tuck procedure will lose its elasticity with weight gain, and you may see a reversal of the results achieved with the surgery.

Fat Accumulation

The purpose of a tummy tuck is to remove excess fat from the abdomen area, but weight gain after the procedure can cause new fat to accumulate in the treated area, resulting in the reappearance of a protruding abdomen. This can also happen in other areas of your body, which can further detract from the results of your tummy tuck.

While tummy tucks are effective at reducing belly fat, recent studies suggest that patients may experience an increase in visceral fat after the surgery.

Visceral fat is a type of fat that surrounds the organs in the abdominal cavity. Unlike subcutaneous fat, which lies just beneath the skin, visceral fat is more dangerous to health as it increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

Several factors may contribute to the increase in visceral fat following a tummy tuck. One possibility is that the removal of subcutaneous fat during the surgery may trigger the body to compensate by producing more visceral fat. Another possibility is that the surgery may cause changes in hormone levels, which can lead to an increase in visceral fat.

A study published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2019 found that patients who underwent tummy tucks experienced an increase in visceral fat one year after the surgery. The study included 40 women who underwent tummy tucks and compared their visceral fat levels before and after the surgery using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

The study found that the average visceral fat volume increased by 12% one year after the surgery. The researchers suggested that the increase in visceral fat may be due to changes in hormone levels that occur after the surgery.

It is not possible to remove visceral fat with liposuction since it lies in and around the organs. To reduce the risk of visceral fat increase after a tummy tuck, patients should maintain a healthy diet and exercise regularly as this is the only means to address this type of fat.

Muscle Separation

During a tummy tuck, the abdominal muscles are tightened to give you a more toned appearance. However, if you gain weight after the procedure, the abdominal muscles can become separated again, resulting in a loss of muscle tone and definition.

Additional Surgery

If you gain a significant amount of weight after a tummy tuck, you may require additional surgery to restore the original results. This can be both costly and time-consuming, and may not be covered by insurance.

To prevent weight gain from negatively impacting your tummy tuck results, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise and a balanced diet. If you do gain weight, it is important to address it promptly and work to lose the extra pounds.

In conclusion, gaining weight after a tummy tuck can have a negative impact on the results achieved from the procedure. It is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle to avoid the complications associated with weight gain, and to ensure that your tummy tuck results remain optimal.