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Taming Your Tummy After Weight Loss

Congratulations! You’ve lost weight. It’s a great accomplishment to get back to a healthy weight after you’ve carried some extra pounds— great for your overall health and excellent for your self-esteem. But if you’re like most people who’ve lost weight, you may have some hard-to-get-rid-of bulges, especially on your belly. And if you’ve lost a lot of weight, you may have loose skin and weakened abdominal muscles. Here are some ways to get your tummy looking flat and fit after weight loss.

How to Get Rid of Lingering Bulges of Fat

It would be satisfying if the fat you shed came off all over your body in equal amounts. But it rarely does. Different people are left with different areas of diet- and exercise-resistant fat, but one of the most common is your midsection— on your tummy and around your waist.

Exercise: Changing up your exercise routine can help shed that stubborn belly fat. Healthy eating and cardio exercises work wonders for overall weight, but to trim down those final bulges, you may need to use targeted resistance and strength-training exercises. The idea is to build muscle where the fat is. The more muscle on your body, the faster your metabolism and the better it burns remaining fat. For abdominal flab, try planks and crunches. It might be worth a session with a trainer to learn specific exercises to build muscle where you need it most. Muscle can also add bulk to fill out areas with mild skin laxity.

Liposuction: If exercise and diet aren’t getting you where you want to be and you still have more flab on your stomach than you want, liposuction may be a solution for you. Liposuction is a body-contouring procedure, not a weight-loss method. If you’re close to your ideal weight, a single liposuction procedure can flatten your abdomen to an amazing degree. Take a look at some actual tummy-flattening results in our before-and-after gallery.

Exercise and liposuction are options for getting rid of stubborn pockets of fat. They aren’t the solution if you’ve lost a lot of weight and have a significant problem with loose skin.

How to Tighten Loose Skin and Repair Stretched Muscles

If you’ve lost a significant amount of weight, your skin may have stretched past the point where it can spring back to its former shape. That can also happen as a result of pregnancy, which can weaken and separate the abdominal muscles, leaving a permanent bulge where your tummy was once flat and firm. For very loose skin and weakened abdominal muscles, surgery may be the best solution.

A tummy tuck or abdominoplasty is a surgical procedure that removes excess skin and fat from your abdomen and also tightens weakened or separated abdominal muscles. It restores a tighter, flatter stomach, with better muscle tone while also pulling in the waist’s contours. Take a look at our gallery of before-and-after pictures of actual patients to get an idea of the changes a tummy tuck can make.

Learn More in a Personal Consultation in Annapolis

Dr. Claire Duggal has extensive experience in body-contouring treatments and procedures. She is known for her beautiful results and her caring attention to patients’ health. Contact us today to schedule a consultation in Annapolis.