Tummy Tuck or Abdominoplasty is a procedure that reduces excess fat and skin while also tightening the muscles in your stomach. Losing weight for surgery and being at an ideal weight for tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) is important to maximise the surgical outcome and reduce surgical risks. Let’s discuss ways to lose weight for surgery.
Despite following strict diets and performing heavy exercises, losing excess skin can be a difficult task. While you may have good muscle mass, you may also have excess fat and skin surrounding the muscle underneath. Abdominoplasty surgery can help to reduce the excess skin.
If you have experienced pregnancy or major weight loss before, you may have stretch marks due to skin and muscle stretching. Many topical treatments, skin tightening tools and scar removal creams are available, but are not really effective in severe cases. Abdominoplasty or Tummy Tuck after weight loss can be a suitable option for you if you are seeking to tighten your abdomen or treat diastasis recti after pregnancy.
Specialist plastic surgeons highly recommend that their patients be near their ideal weight or Body Mass Index (BMI) before the surgery.
Benefits of A Recommended BMI for Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty)
- Your ideal weight helps with faster recovery because obesity impedes wound healing
- Low surgical complications
- Less postoperative pain and infection
- More likely to maintain results long after the surgery
Consider that BMI is not enough to evaluate if you’re a good candidate for a tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty). Since BMI does not take into account muscle mass, body proportions, age, and sex, it is sometimes not accurate for measuring body fat.
What BMI Is Good for a Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty)?
A BMI below 30 is considered an ideal BMI for tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty), but you may have good results even if you are overweight. A BMI of 35 is the maximum acceptable BMI for tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty). One thing that you should keep in mind is that the closer you are to your BMI, the better results you can maintain.
Most surgeons would not perform Abdominoplasty if your BMI is greater than 40. However, some surgeons do not operate even if your BMI is greater than 30 due to surgical and anaesthesia risks. If your BMI is between 30 and 40, it’s important to consult your surgeon to determine your suitability for surgery.
If you lose additional weight after surgery, then you may have more excess skin, and you may have to undergo Abdominoplasty again. So, it is advised that you first lose as much weight as possible, then consider undergoing tummy tuck surgery (Abdominoplasty).
Why is BMI Important for Surgery?
Losing and maintaining weight for surgery is important so you have a healthy weight before undergoing plastic surgery, which will improve your surgery results. More importantly, achieving a recommended BMI will reduce the risks associated with both the anaesthesia and the procedure itself.
In fact, patients with a BMI over 30 are at greater risk during any surgery, not just cosmetic procedures. Besides, obese clients often have other health issues, such as diabetes, heart disease, and joint problems, which are further drawbacks for surgery.
What Is the Ideal Weight for a Tummy Tuck Abdominoplasty?
The ideal weight for tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty) is when you are around 5 – 7kg from your goal weight. This is important as weight loss after a tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty) or gaining weight can undo the results achieved through your surgery.
The exact weight can vary based on your height, age and gender, but most plastic surgeons rely on you to be close to your target goal weight as the ideal weight you should be prior to tummy tuck surgery (Abdominoplasty).
What Is BMI and How Does It Affect Surgery Results?
A Body Mass Index or BMI is a value to classify and categorise whether a person lies within a healthy body weight, or in layman’s terms. BMI is a value to characterise a person as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, or obese based on tissue mass and height. The BMI compares your body weight² (kg) over your height² (m²) to gain a value that gives us a general estimate of your health. However, this is not an absolute depiction of your current health status as it doesn’t take your gender, age, existing health conditions, or body type into consideration.
General BMI ranges are as below:
- Underweight – BMI below 18
- Healthy Weight – Between 18 and 25
- Overweight – Between 25 and 30
- Obese – Between 30 and 35
- Severely Obese – Between 35 and 40
- Morbidly Obese – Over 40
Your BMI will help to determine the results from the surgery that including how long your surgery results can be maintained and what the results may look like. The maximum allowed BMI for plastic surgery is 40, Dr Doyle prefers a BMI closer to 30.
Risks of Having Surgery with an Overweight BMI
Anaesthetics are medications that put patients to sleep during surgery. During the administration of anaesthetics, obesity can cause patients the following common problems;
- Figuring out the correct dosage of anaesthetics required.
- Locating the vein used to administer anaesthetics and other emergency medications intravenously.
- The presence of excess fatty tissue can further hinder the administration of the medication.
- Difficulty while inserting the breathing tube.
How to Lose Weight Before Surgery
If your BMI is anywhere from 18 to 30, you can continue with your regular meals before the surgery. However, in cases where the BMI is above 40, the rapid weight loss diet program can be undertaken. In this type of diet, you can lose more than 1 – 2.5 kilograms a week over several weeks.
These diets help you to lose weight for surgery quickly and are less commonly suggested by healthcare providers. As the hormonal and bodily stress caused by rapid weight loss may not be safe for some people to do on their own, they should be closely monitored by a health professional.
*Below you can find some diets for quick weight loss before surgery, but they are usually not recommended for more than a few weeks. Always consult your doctor before beginning any new diets.
Very Low-Calorie Diet (VLCD)
On this pre-surgery diet, you may have as few as 800 calories a day and may lose up to 1.5 to 2 kg a week. The food that you will be ingesting will be mostly meal replacements, such as formulas, soups, shakes, and bars, instead of regular meals. This ensures that you get all of the nutrients while also keeping you on a restricted diet plan.
A VLCD is only recommended for adults who are obese and need to lose weight for health reasons. These diets are often used to lose weight before surgery. You should only use a VLCD under the supervision of your provider and not recommend using it for more than 12 weeks.
Low-Calorie Diet (LCD)
The calorie intake in LCD is 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,200 to 1,600 calories a day for men. However, you should still be overseen by a health provider. An LCD is much more reasonable than VLCD; however, you will not lose weight as fast as VLCD, but you can lose just as much weight with the LCD. The meals are usually a mix of meal replacements and regular food, making it easier to follow than VLCD.
Time-Restricted Eating
Time-restricted eating restricts the number of hours per day that you can eat. One of the most prevalent approaches is ’16/8 Intermittent Fasting’. During this time-restricted eating plan, you can eat your meals only during these 8 hours, say from 10 am to 6 pm. After these 8 hours, you are not allowed to eat anything for the remaining 16 hours. Even though this method can help with rapid weight loss, there is little knowledge about whether the weight loss is maintained.
Fad Diets
Fad diets severely limit calories to achieve rapid weight loss. These diets are not considered safe and do not warrant long-term weight loss. You are at risk of reacquiring the weight you lost if you return to your former eating habits or stop following the diet plan.
FAQs
How Much Weight Can I Lose From Tummy Tuck Surgery (Abdominoplasty)?
If you are seeking an Abdominoplasty or a tummy tuck after weight loss or pregnancy, you will probably lose up to 2 kg of excess skin after the procedure. Some people lose 14 kg or more, while some don’t notice a significant weight loss.
Will My Waist Get Smaller After a Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty)?
Yes, generally an Abdominoplasty will make your waist smaller due to removing excess fat and excess skin. It’s important to consider that only subcutaneous stomach fat can be removed through this surgery. Full Abdominoplasty helps patients lose clothing sizes and inches in their midsection, but weight loss is usually not significant.
Will I Have a Scar After Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty)?
Your tummy tuck scars (Abdominoplasty) will be present generally below the bikini line, which will originally be a smooth, pale pink, linear incision. During the maturation process, which lasts approximately 1 year, the scar will change in colour and appearance. At approximately 2 – 3 months after surgery, the scar may become reddened and slightly raised due to collagen formation in the scar. You can manage the appearance of these scars with various topical and non-surgical treatments.
How Much Weight Can You Lose in a Month?
Rapid weight loss for surgery can be achieved by undertaking pre-surgery diet plans such as the Very Low-Calorie Diet (VLCD) or the Low-Calorie Diet (LCD). You can lose the same amount of weight through either of the plans, but weight loss through LCD is slower when compared to VLCD. You can lose anywhere from 1.5 to 2 kg per week for several weeks through the VLCD plan. This roughly equates to 6 to 8 kg per month. However, VLCD is not recommended for more than 12 weeks.
Is There a Weight Limit for Anesthesia?
Medications that put patients to sleep during the surgery are anaesthetics. The most commonly preferred anesthesia during plastic or cosmetic surgery is general anesthesia. Even though general anesthesia is typically low risk, the excess amount of fat can cause problems for both the patients and the surgeon. During the administration of anesthetics on obese patients, the following common issues are commonly encountered:
- Figuring out the correct dosage of anesthetics required,
- Difficulty locating the vein used to intravenously administer anesthetics and other emergency medications.
- The presence of excess fatty tissue can further prevent the administration of the anaesthetics.
- Difficulty while inserting the breathing tube
There is a higher risk of surgical and anaesthetic complications if you have a BMI over 30. Dr Doyle recommends losing weight for surgery or being on a pre-surgery diet.
Can You Have Surgery if You Are Overweight?
Apart from Bariatric surgery and liposuction, losing weight is necessary for surgery. However, losing 5 – 10% of your weight will help to steer you clear of risks while performing the surgery and allows you to have results that can be better maintained. The preferred BMI for plastic and cosmetic surgery is somewhere near 30, but surgery can be performed up to a BMI of 40.
About Dr Mark Doyle FRACS (Plas) – Queensland Plastic Surgeon
Servicing patients in Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Cairns and New South Wales NSW – Northern Rivers, Byron Bay, Ballina, Lismore and more.
Dr Mark Doyle is a fully qualified Specialist Plastic Surgeon with over 30 years of experience performing breast, body, face and nose surgery. He has completed all required training and only carries out approved surgical practices. There are NO undertrained doctors or cosmetic doctors acting as surgeons at Gold Coast Plastic Surgery.
