34 year old male, 6' tall, 300 lbs to 220 now. Abdominoplasty w/ Liposuction vs Belt Lipectomy? (photo)

  The belt lipectomy will likely produce the best result, but an exam is always necessary to make that determination.Kenneth Hughes, MDLos Angeles, CA

Thank you for the question and photos. At 6' tall, 220lbs your BMI is 30. If you drop another 20lbs, your BMI will be 27 and with surgery it will go down to 26. You would benefit from an abdominoplasty combined with a belt lipectomy and liposuction. You can expect 10-12lbs of skin and fat removed with surgery. In my practice, I do these operations on an outpatient basis in my accredited office surgical suite, under intravenous sedation and epidural anesthesia. See a board certified plastic surgeon experienced in these operations for an in person consultation/evaluation. Good luck, and congratulations on your weight loss.

Your results and risks would be much better if you can loose more weight. Your BMI is 29.8 now you need to decrease weight to near ideal body weight. At that time, re-evaluate and add liposuction to contour the body, will get you a better results and decrease your surgical risks.

Congratulations on your healthy change! Surgery of this nature will have best results when you are at a healthy, maintainable weight. With that being said, your BMI is still near 30. So whatever you've been doing, keep at it. You will have best results if you can safely continue to drop down to a lower weight. Especially if your goals are to "eliminate" your targeted areas. After that, an extended abdominoplasty to remove the excess skin and stretch marks and some liposuction to help with the areas of fat unchanged by diet and exercise might be of benefit. Best of luck.

Great job with the weight loss.  It would be best for you to drop that 10 - 20 pounds and stay at that weight for at least 6 months before surgery.  You need to make sure you can really stay in the groove of diet and exercise to maintain that lighter weight.  It is just so disappointing for patients (and their surgeons) to rush into body contouring surgery and then the weight creeps back and leads to fat deposits in weird places.  Once you are stable, based on your photos, a belt lipectomy would help you a lot.  The scar could be kept low where the sun don't usually shine and your love handles and abdomen would be taken care of and you would have some improvement in you buttocks and thighs.  This operation is a BIG hit and you would need to be in great shape both physically, mentally and socially.Find a good plastic surgeon who can guide you through this life changing process.  Good luck!

For maximum contouring you would want to consider a full abdominoplasty and extend the resection around your flanks and onto the back to encompass the belt lipectomy procedure. With that done I doubt liposuction will be necessary and you will get rid of all the fat and all the excess skin.