Unhappy with Your Love Handles and Lower Abdomen?

Unhappy with Your Love Handles and Lower Abdomen?

Have you tried dieting and exercising but still feel that your love handles and lower abdomen are too full? Or are you at a road block where you know you should be dieting and exercising but can’t get the willpower to put yourself through the cycle of dieting and exercising again.  Do dieting and exercise not seem to work for you?

I am a board certified plastic surgeon, who has done over 600 Smartlipo cases (as of March 2016, so could be much higher by the time you read this) and many tummy tucks, so I have some thoughts on this issue.

I feel there are 3 major options for you and which option is best can vary from person to person. Some patients will benefit from Smartlipo, some from a Tummy Tuck and some patients need to just diet and exercise before they proceed to either of these two options. These are some of the items you should consider. Let me preface my comments by saying that there is no magic (despite Hollywood and TV shows and some unscrupulous advertisements, suggesting otherwise) If you want to look your best, you will still need to lose weight. However, sometime doing either a tummy tuck or Smartlipo, can help motivate you to start dieting and exercising. I have many, many patients, who after doing one of these procedures, get highly motivated and does a great job losing weight and transforms themselves.

1. The first consideration is how much fullness do you have in your lower abdomen and love handles. What is your skin tone like in your lower abdomen? The love handles almost always have good skin tone and will respond well to liposuction or better yet ,Smartlipo. If you have a lot of loose skin in your lower abdomen, you will almost certainly need a tummy tuck.
2. Do you have a lot of bowing to your lower abdomen? Is the fullness due to muscle laxity or fat? If it is due to muscle weakness or fascial weakness (eg from having children) you may need a tummy tuck to tighten these up.
3. Can you take time off from work? If you do Smartlipo, you can return to your job the very next day. If you do a tummy tuck, you should generally plan 10-14 days off from work (though you can get some work done at home)
4. Are you willing to accept a scar?  A tummy tuck scar fades nicely with time but it is long. Usually it is well worth it, in order to get a better shape for your body. Remember, only a select few see your scars, whereas your better shape will be seen by everyone in all of your clothes. The scars from Smartlipo are usually almost invisible.
5. Have you considered supplementing your diet with both vitamins, minerals and maybe a detox program or weight management program. I am impressed with the Designs for Health products which can be found through a link on my web site. They deliver their products to your house, so you don’t need to come by the office to get them.

Nothing is a substitute for a free cosmetic consult so that I can see you person. However, if you live out of the area, you can email me and send me pictures and I can usually do a consult this way.