The Next Step After Weight Loss


Having gastric bypass weight-loss surgery or experiencing a significant weight loss brings about many things: new confidence, improved health and feeling better about your appearance.

Losing a lot of weight can also leave you with excess skin, which can also mean unwanted bulging, rashes or sweating in certain areas. Dealing with unwanted excess skin can translate to feelings of self-consciousness and frustration with your appearance all over again when clothes don’t fit how you want or how they’re supposed to because the skin is sagging.

Some individuals also experience sagging skin on the face and neck when they lose weight, which can cause feelings of insecurity, impacting your ability to live your best life.

But, bulging, unwanted skin is not something you have to accept. You can get the body you want after significant weight loss with body contouring, body-lift surgery and skin-tightening treatments.

Target That Unwanted Skin

First, we want to congratulate you on achieving your goal weight. This is a significant feat and is important for how you feel about yourself. Next, let’s talk about unwanted, sagging skin that you may be experiencing due to rapid weight loss.

There are several regions of the body where you may experience sagging skin. Some people have one or two areas affected, while others experience loose skin all over.

Upper Body.When you lose a lot of weight quickly, the upper body may experience loose skin and sagging tissue. This can happen in several areas of the upper part of the body, including the chest area for both men and women and the arms.

Men who previously had breast tissue in the pectoral region are often left with sagging skin, and women generally see changes to their breasts after achieving their goal weight that cause the breasts to droop and sag.

Treatments that can address this area include:

Breast-Lift. A breast-lift can correct sagging breasts or correct dissatisfaction with breast shape by removing sagging skin. 

Breast Reduction.The breast reduction removes excess skin along with mammary(breast) tissue to give you breasts that are more in proportion to your new, post-weight-loss body.

Breast Implants/Augmentation.Breast augmentation can be performed simultaneously with a breast-lift to restore your breasts to a more youthful appearance after significant weight loss.

Arm Lift. The upper arms can also be affected, leaving you with “bat wings” that flap when you wave your arms. The procedure to correct sagging upper arms is the arm-lift/brachioplasty procedure. This treatment can eradicate excess, hanging skin of the upper arms to reduce their size significantly.

Lower Body. Like the upper body, the lower body can experience many changes with rapid weight loss. These changes can affect the insert abdomen thighs and buttocks, causing drooping and sagging skin, affecting your appearance in shorts, pants and swimwear.

Treatments to address this area include

Thigh Lift Treatments to reduce unwanted tissue of the thighs include the thigh-lift procedure, which can target excess skin and tissue and tighten either the inner or outer thigh

Buttock lift which helps to lift and tighten the skin of the buttocks with a surgical incision to a more appealing position.

Brazilian Butt-lift. We also offer patients the Brazilian Butt-Lift, (also called BBL- is a liposuction with fat transfer ) that can help fill out the buttocks after significant weight loss, replacing volume that have lost shape or size.

Abdominoplasty Many individuals also have sagging skin over their abdomen. Those with this condition may benefit from the abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck, procedure to remove unwanted skin and stubborn fat that you may not have lost with weight-loss procedures.

How Weight Loss Affects the Face

Your face also changes when you lose weight. Many people experience sagging jowls after weight loss, which can cause the face to look older. This situation happens because when the facial fat volume is lost, your skin sags over your skull, causing deep lines, wrinkles and folds. To correct this situation, we offer patients a few options:

FaceTite ™. FaceTite ™ is a non-surgical technology that has revolutionized facial contouring and skin tightening with minimal scars and recovery time. It accomplishes these significant, long-lasting results in a procedure utilizing radiofrequency-assisted lipolysis (RFAL), which melts the fat and induces collagen production. FaceTite can help appropriate patients who struggle with a double chin and loose skin at the jowl line in a safe and minimally invasive procedure.

Face-Lift. Some patients with significant sagging of the face, jowls and neck may see better results to correct sagging skin with a surgical face-lift. This procedure pulls sagging skin tight, giving you back a more youthful appearance.

Are you looking to get rid of unwanted skin after significant weight loss? Call us today to learn more about your options and schedule a consultation with Dr. Peterson.