“Tummy tuck for men (with lateral thigh lift)”

I am 19 years old, 6'3". I weighed 315 in July 2007. By July 2008 I had reduced my weight to 165 lbs. Needless to say I have a tun of lose skin, and it discourages me so much. I have been lifting weights the past 4 months to try and help, but I only get discouraged more to see my weight increase (from lifting weights) and not seeing results (because of skin). I have my weight up to 180 now, and part of me just wants to give up and drop my weight back down, because it's so hard to watch that number rise - and see nothing from the muscle gains..

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150 lbs in just one year? That's incredible. Having an increase in weight from lifting weights is a good thing. You not only got strong, you got healthy and you probably feel better. When you look at the scale, as long as the increase is due to muscle buildup and not fat I would be very happy. You will see some of the sag disappear from your arms and upper body with increasing muscle mass (I did). Unfortunately muscle building doesn't seem to help saggy skin at the midsection (and other ares). Because you are so young, I don't know if your skin will have the elasticty to shrink with time and good nutrition. At my age there was no way, so surgery was my only option. I tried all sorts of skin creams and moisturizers to help my skin spring back but they did not seem to work. The only thing I can suggest is to ask your family doctor if he thinks your sagging skin will reduce in time because of your age. Good luck.

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I am a 49 year old male and have lost almost 100 pounds over the last 18 months going from 260 to 160lbs. I have been able to firm up the arms, chest, thighs and buttocks with a combination of rigorous weight and cardio exercise and although I am not quite there, I am pleased with the results so far. The abdomen area is my real concern because it has lost the fat but there seems to be nothing I can do with exersize to diminish the extra shin tissue. I've been to several PS's and some have recommended an abdominoplasty while others said that lipo might help some with the skin tightening. I researched and found no real evidence that lipo can tighten that much loose skin. My alternative is the tummy tuck however I am really concerned about the scarring. Can you share your experience with this.

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I have never heard of lipo tightening skin either. Tummy tuck was the only real way that I found for that. As far as the scarring goes, the scars are hid beneath the swimsuit or underwear line and fade with time. But it does take a long time. It has been over 13 months for me and mine are still quite noticeable - but are still fading. To me, the scars are not a big deal. Getting rid of the sagging skin was. After it's gone you feel "tighter" and don't have to worry about the sagging skin swaying when you move or exercise. Clothes fit much better too. I have documented my healing and scarring over time with photographs and have posted them on the web. I don't think I can name my website here but you can probably find it by doing a Google search using the title of my post. It will show you what to expect if you decide to proceed with the operation. Also, the scars associated with the lateral thigh lift portion of my operation are far more noticable than the tummy tuck scars. If you do look at the pictures on the website don't let them scare you off. Some are quite ugly with the stiches and swelling just after surgery. By the way, congratulations on the weight loss and exercising. I know how hard it is.

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Hi Tanner- I've followed your blogs posted on this site and others pre-op & post-op. You certainly made me feel better going into this by documenting your progress. I'm now seven weeks post-op and just yesterday i resumed my workout activity. Like you i had to have the full body lift because of the amount of damage that i did to my body during my twenties. I believe you indicated that you started working out on your 4-5th week post-op and that some of swelling did surface from it. Can you tell me - what kind of workouts were you doing? I started with my Wii Active program at Low Impact for begginers and it kicked my butt! lol This comes from a person that ran for 5-8 miles, hiked 2 miles steep rocks, did a spin class for an hour and finished off by doing yoga for another hour... my weekends workout would last all morning about 4hours min. Now, I can't handle (20 mins)because of my surgery and sentsive muscles! Wow! I look forward to hearing from you. Btw, do you have any recent pictures of your progress?

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Marisabella, I started out doing any type of exercise that did not "pull" at my mid-section area. I was very careful not to harm the sugical area in any way. Initial exercises (1/2 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon) consisted of stretches and using light weight dumb bells concentrating on my arms, shoulders and legs. Side arm twirls, forward arm twirls, pushups, neck/head turning, various dumb bell exercises and a variety of stretches were some exercises in my routine. I don't remember having any swelling resulting from my exercises. I always exercised to music. I never pushed myself too hard. For me (like a lot of people) if I exercise too hard or too long I will eventualy stop doing it. I tried to keep it easy and enjoyable. I always wore my compression garment when exercising. It was a constant reminder for me to be careful. I never experienced any fatigue or pain from my post operation exercises. I also eat only healthy foods. I haven't had any junk food for many years. The healthy food combined with the exercise seems to do wonders for cholesterol and blood pressure. I don't have any recent photos right now to post. Good luck.

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