Losing Weight After Facelift

This all depends on your pattern and distribution of weight loss. However, losing more weight can give you a more gaunt or aged appearance and in certain cases aggravate facial laxity.

Each person loses weight differently, so it is
difficult to say what kind of effect losing weight would have on your face. It’s definitely better to lose weight before any cosmetic
procedures, but you shouldn’t let fears of affecting your facelift results prevent
you from being healthy. If you lose volume in your face from weight loss, it
may be possible to correct this with facial fillers rather than needing a
second facelift.

If there is a choice between losing some weight before or after a facelift, then before is definitely the correct answer.Everyone is different in how they carry weight in their face and neck and also in how those areas fluctuate with changes in overall weight.Losing some weight works well before a facelift because it leads to looser skin that is more easily redraped and contoured along with tightening the underlying muscle support.  Even if some of the weight comes back (happens to the best of us!) that is not necessarily a bad thing.However, losing weight AFTER a facelift causes some additional skin laxity and volume loss.  While it does not reverse the good results from the facelift, it does contribute to an aged look.  This often can be improved with fillers if needed.

 

Stable weight best for most cosmetic surgery including facelifts
In general it is best to be at your stable long term weight to reduce the probability for revision surgery. It makes little or no sense to loose or gain weight for a surgical procedure including Facelift unless you can maintain that weight for many years or it is a relatively small amount (plus or minus 5 pounds). This is because if you lose fat that is supporting your facial skin it will tend to sag especially if you don't have good skin elasticity (most facelift patients). In your case if you tend to lose fat in your face with weight loss than indeed there may will be some additional sag of your skin. On the other hand losing weight to a healthier one makes sense and you can always refresh your results in the future.

If you are planning to lose more weight, you may want to wait to have the facelift so that nay further laxity or deflation can be tackled.

Significant weight loss has an unpredictable effect on the amount of fat lost from the face. Some areas of the face, such as the cheek fat, usually maintain their volume, but the overall appearance of the face may change with overall weight reduction.

Regarding: " Losing Weight After Facelift
I had a SMAS facelift last year with outstanding results. Now I want to lose 15-20 pounds. I have read that losing weight at my age (55) can dramatically age a person due to fat loss in the face. I am almost at the normal weight for my height after losing 35 pounds before the facelift. Will this weight loss effect my facelift in any way?"

Cosmetic surgery and especially that involving body contouring (Facelift, breast Lift, Tummy Tuck etc) is best done when all the weight is lost and has been stable for 6 months. These procedures are similar to a custom tailoring job. Imagine taking an expensive suite to a tailor to be taken in because it just hangs and is not body fitting after your lost weight. If you them proceed to lose MORE weight, the suit (IE skin) may not be tight and may hang requiring ANOTHER costly re-tailoring.

THE question that no one can answer is how much fat can you lose before such changes become visibly? No one can answer it and I'm sure it varies from person to person.

Dr. Peter Aldea

Depending on your body habitus 15-20 pounds is a significant weight loss. Facial fat is an important contribution to a young looking face. Loss of fat after weight loss can age the mid face and cheek area and there is risk of return of skin laxity.

However, losing weight is healthy, you will feel better and if your active these factors will make your skin look younger.

So in balance start losing and evaluate your face after 10 lbs are lost. If you still look refreshed continue with the next 5 pounds.

Don't let worries about your face keep you from doing the healthy thing that will make you feel better and live longer.

The problem you might encounter is either new laxity of the skin or volume loss looking gaunt.  If you don't like it you could gain some of the weight back (as happens to most of us anyway :)!)

Congratulations for losing weight before your facelift. Although it may be heathy to lose another 15-20 pounds, it is impossible to predict if there will be a significant decrease in facial fat with this additional weight loss; everyone is different. You might proceed slowly and see what happens.