Possible to Fix Baggy Stomach Skin Without Muscle Repair?

Based on the photograph you appear to be an excellent candidate for a tummy tuck procedure. A tummy tuck allows the surgeon to remove the loose, hanging skin, repair the muscle (and hernia if present) and perform liposuction to finely contour the abdominal region. If you choose to address only the 'baggy' skin and not correct the muscle bulging I strongly believe that you are getting a suboptimal result. You may be left with abdominal skin that appears more taut, however, you... more

I would not recommend that just by looking at your photos. Yes you do have a lot of loose skin and stretch marks and would have good results just by removing the skin, but you will still have the bulge and will likely be disappointed with your results. If you are investing the money and the risk of the surgery, I would recommend getting it done RIGHT and having done what needs to be. Yes you would need to set a side about 2 weeks time for the surgery and down time. Good luck.... more

Although it would be possible for you to have a tummy tuck with skin removal only, your results would be underwhelming. From your picture, it's readily apparent that you have significant laxity of the midline abominal wall muscles. This is the major contributing factor to the bulging of your abominal wall. Removal of skin without tightening this layer would result in only minor differences in appearance. So, although it is possible for you to have a skin-only tummy tuck, it would almost... more

Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty) is an operation designed to improve the contour and shape of the abdomen. Often pregnancy or significant weight gain can stretch not only the skin of the abdomen but also the muscle layer as well. A typical abdominoplasty not only removes the excess skin but also tightens the abdominal wall in those cases when it is necessary. Commonly, we perform some limited liposuction of the abdomen along with the abdominoplasty to further improve the contour and ensure that... more

If you are getting a tummy tuck and the doctor does the correct operation, fixing the muscles will need to be done. It appears as if you have a SIGNIGICANT diastasis of the recti muscles. Get them repaired, in order to remove all the excess skin you have, you surgeon will be right there. Look at some of my photos and see how flat the stomach can be after a tummy tuck, if you only have the skin excised, you may still have a protruding abdomen.

The most common reason for doing tummy tucks is prior pregnancy, which causes stretching of the skin and pushes the muscles apart (called a diastasis.) Because the muscles contract in a vertical direction, no amount of exercise will pull them back together when they are separated laterally. For this reason, it is usually a good idea to correct the problem when doing a tummy tuck. The disadvantage is that it makes the recovery longer, since it is analogous to doing a hernia repair. Every... more