t can seem nearly impossible to get rid of excess fat or skin on the stomach area. Due to factors outside of a person’s control—such as genetics and hormones—some people naturally tend to put on more weight in in their midsection, even when the rest of their body is slender. Pregnancy or major weight loss can also cause the skin and muscles on the belly area to become stretched out, resulting in a baggy or flabby look. Abdominoplasty, which our Philadelphia-area plastic surgeon, Dr. Scott Chapin, performs frequently, is an ideal body contouring procedure for creating a flatter stomach and narrower waistline.
In this post, we debunk three of the most common myths that have spread about tummy tucks:
1. YOU CAN GET THE SAME RESULTS FROM EXERCISE
Many people are made to feel guilty about having a tummy tuck because of the belief that it would be lazy to have plastic surgery instead of using exercise and a healthy diet to get the same results. However, the truth is that even though exercise can help to reduce some fat and tone muscle, it can’t help you improve resistant fat, sagging skin, and weakened or separated stomach muscles. Removing resistant fat and skin requires surgery, as does repairing a damaged abdominal wall.
2. TUMMY TUCKS HELP YOU LOSE A LOT OF WEIGHT
Weight loss and surgical fat reduction are completely different, and patients should not expect a tummy tuck to help them lose a significant amount of weight, nor be a replacement for traditional weight loss techniques. When you reduce weight by burning calories, your fat cells simply become smaller—but they don’t go anywhere. The liposuction used for a tummy tuck removes the fat cells themselves. Due to the fat and skin removal, patients may better fit into a slimmer pair of pants, but they won’t lose a large amount of weight.
3. TUMMY TUCKS AND LIPOSUCTION ARE THE SAME THING
Although liposuction and tummy tucks are often used for the same purpose—to make the stomach area slimmer—they aren’t the same. Liposuction involves extracting unwanted fat alone, while a tummy tuck can involve fat reduction as well as skin removal and tightening at the same time, in addition to muscle repair.
To find out more about abdominoplasty, contact Chapin Aesthetics and have your questions answered. Call (267) 880-0810, or fill out a contact form.