Sep 01, 2014

The drive to encourage individuals across the nation to lose weight continues but as thousands plan to shed multiple pounds, many more worry about the effects of excess or the folds of skin left behind.

Excess or loose skin is often the result of those who have lost a large proportion of their body weight and is particularly common for those who have undergone surgery such as bariatric or gastric band surgery, and where weight loss has occurred over a comparatively short period.

Bariatric surgery causes fast, massive weight loss in morbidly obese patients. However, results have shown that individuals who choose not to combine surgery with some post-operative body contouring can end up regaining much of their body weight in the years after surgery, putting them back at increased risk of obesity-related health problems. In contrast, those patients who do undergo body contouring surgery in order to remove excess skin achieved an average weight of 12st 5lbs, compared to those choosing bariatric surgery alone who averaged 15st 7lbs. Post-surgery reports revealed that patients who underwent body contouring had regained about four percent of their initial body weight, compared to eleven percent for those who had bariatric surgery only.

The most common areas for excess skin are the abdomen, chest, upper arms and inner thighs. If not cared for properly other issues and skin complaints such as intertrigo; a bacterial, fungal, or viral infection can occur, often due to the difficulty in keeping these folds of excess skin clean and dry.

Body contouring encapsulates a range of procedures including abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), an operation used to remove the excess fat and skin from the lower part of the abdomen and tighten the abdomen muscles; arm reduction or brachiaplasty (removing excess fat and skin form the arms); thigh reduction (removing excess fat and skin from the inner thighs); liposuction (a method used to remove excess fat in areas in other to sculpt it); excision of excess skin folds from the back, breast lift  in females (mastopexy) and gynaecomastia correction (male breast reduction). At Austingraces, our surgeon, Mr Fortune Iwuagwu can offer all these body contouring options.

For more information about Austingraces body contouring procedures, please click here or call us today for a consultation on 08456 020 621