Your Guide to Surgical & Non-Surgical Solutions After Weight-Loss
If you’ve recently lost a significant amount of weight (whether through lifestyle changes or bariatric surgery) you may now be facing a new challenge: excess skin, stubborn pockets of fat, or areas that don’t reflect how far you’ve come.
After all the hard work it took to reach a healthier weight, it can feel frustrating when your shape doesn’t match your effort. You may be close to (or already at) your goal weight, yet still feel like your body doesn’t fully reflect your progress.
At this stage, your body and your goals are unique. Refining your shape after weight loss requires a personalized approach designed to address excess skin, contour concerns, and overall balance.
Let’s walk through a few surgical and non-surgical options in Knoxville designed specifically for patients who have already achieved significant weight loss and are looking to refine their results.
Surgical Options in Knoxville After Weight Loss
The surgical options available depend on how much excess skin or stubborn fat remains after you’ve reached a stable, healthier weight. These popular, effective surgeries available locally in Knoxville may help you achieve your desired size and shape:
Liposuction
If you’re at or near your goal weight but still struggling to get rid of stubborn “pockets” of excess fat that didn’t respond to diet and exercise, liposuction may be a great option. For this procedure, Dr. Lucas makes a small incision in a very specific area you’d like to target, then removes excess fat cells from that area. One version of liposuction, Lipo 360, allows you to slim and smooth your entire midsection at once.
Tummy Tuck (aka Abdominoplasty)
After weight loss, many patients are concerned about loose or sagging skin around the stomach area — something that cannot be corrected with additional dieting or exercise. In these cases, abdominoplasty may be a better fit.
Commonly called the tummy tuck, this procedure also removes excess fat, but involves larger incisions in order to also remove excess skin around your middle. While any scars will be larger than with liposuction alone, they are expertly placed to be hidden by your underwear or bathing suit.
Post-Bariatric Body Contouring
If you’ve already been successful at losing and keeping off unwanted weight, especially after bariatric surgery, post-bariatric body contouring may be the next step in your transformation.
Although plastic surgeons do not perform bariatric surgery, Dr. Lucas has helped many patients with post-bariatric body contouring — a procedure that removes excess skin after major weight loss and helps patients feel more confident and comfortable with their new size and shape.
Non-Surgical Options in Knoxville After Weight Loss
Of course, surgery is not the only way to go. If you’ve reached a stable weight and are simply looking for subtle contour refinement, some non-surgical options that may help include:
Body Sculpting Treatments
If you’ve already reached your ideal number on the scale, but you’re still not content with the shape of your physique, non-surgical body sculpting (also called body contouring) may be an option to target your areas of concern. While surgical body contouring is generally considered more effective, non-surgical techniques can offer a less invasive, lower-recovery route to take.
A variety of non-surgical body sculpting services are offered in East Tennessee. Some of the techniques and technologies can include:
- Lasers
- Cryo services (cold temperatures)
- Injections
- Radiofrequency
Nutritional Guidance
Maintaining your results after significant weight loss is just as important as achieving them. While diet alone cannot remove excess skin or reshape certain areas, it plays an important role in helping you preserve your surgical or non-surgical outcomes.
Still, deciding what and how much to consume (then putting that diet plan into action) can be a daunting task. For nutritional guidance in Knoxville, try finding:
- A registered dietitian
- A weight-loss clinic
- A health coach
- An online weight-loss program or app (sometimes free with employee benefits)
- A local weight-loss group
Professional guidance in this area can help you avoid falling prey to fad diets, short-lived trends, or unhealthy approaches to eating. Plus, connecting with others in the community who are also navigating nutrition after major weight loss can provide accountability and solidarity along the way.
Your Best Chance for Confidence & Success
No matter which method you choose to refine your results (surgical or non-surgical), maintaining a relatively stable weight afterward will give you the best long-term results.
Wondering Where to Start?
If you are still actively losing weight, your first priority should be reaching a stable, healthy weight before considering body contouring procedures.
Depending on your current health, perhaps your next step is simply to speak with your primary care provider about the safest and most effective timing for post-weight-loss procedures.
Or, if you’re ready to learn more about your surgical options after weight loss, an initial consultation with Dr. Lucas is a great starting point. He’ll take the time to answer your questions, learn about your desired results, and give personalized recommendations based on your goals.
Give us a call at (865) 217-0572 or schedule online today. Our team here at The Lucas Center can’t wait to help you complete your transformation and feel confident in your results.
