GLP medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide have changed the world of aesthetics forever. One of the areas that this has affected is tummy tucks.
There are a couple of questions that we get when we’re talking about tummy tucks and weight loss, especially from patients who have experienced rapid weight loss after using their GLP-1 medications. For most of the patients who start their weight loss journey, their biggest concern is getting healthy, getting fit and fabulous, and getting to their ideal weight. So, they’re not so worried about the skin laxity and how their tummy is going to look until afterwards.
Most people feel and look much better after weight loss, and the tummy tuck becomes the finishing touch on their transformation and total journey.
Candidates for Surgery After Weight Loss
Typically, when we’re talking to people about their aesthetic appearance—especially when we’re talking about skin health and laxity during their GLP treatments or weight loss journey—from a surgical standpoint, we typically want people to be stable at their weight for a period of about 6 months if they lose a significant amount of weight (which is anywhere over 30 to 60 pounds). Once they’re stable and at a good, healthy weight, then we can proceed with surgery.
If we do a tummy tuck and then you proceed to lose another 30, 40, 50, 60 pounds, you could have some residual skin laxity, and the tummy tuck may not look as ideal. No question—getting to your ideal weight before performing the tummy tuck is going to help your overall results.
I always tell people, the better shape you are going into the surgery, the better you’re going to come out.
About Visceral Fat
A couple of things that the GLP-1 medications have helped with in preparation for a tummy tuck are that they not only help you lose overall weight, but they can also really help with some of that difficult-to-lose visceral or internal fat.
The visceral internal fat cannot really be addressed during a tummy tuck, which really limits the placation or tightening of the muscles, which limits how flat we can make the tummy after your abdominoplasty. So being able to get you at least within 10 lbs of your goal weight prior to the surgery is going to be super helpful to make sure that you achieve the results that you want and results that are going to last for years and years to come!
A couple of other things to think about if you’re on your weight loss journey with GLP-1 medications:
- Many patients are on some type of maintenance dose of GLP medications even once they’ve reached their goal weight. It’s important to discuss this with your plastic surgeon, as many centers have protocols in terms of when to come off the weight loss medications.
- Currently, our protocol is for patients to come off the GLP medications two weeks prior to their tummy tuck or abdominoplasty. This ensures that the patient is in a good spot from an anesthesia standpoint.
- We also want to make sure that the patients have good nutrition and good protein intake.
Final Thoughts
Communicate: I think it’s important to have a conversation with your plastic surgeon about where you are on your weight loss journey and whether you’re taking the GLP-1 medications. They can help guide you with a plan that’s going to make the most sense for you, keep you the safest, and ultimately give you the best results.
Prepare: If we can get you to your ideal weight prior to your tummy tuck, it’s ultimately going to help you get the best results and also going to keep you super safe. No question that patients can resume a maintenance dose after their tummy tuck, but you typically want to make sure that you’re cleared by your plastic surgeon to be able to do that.
The future of body contouring: I think the combination of tummy tucks and GLP-1 medications is going to become synonymous. Now, we can actually treat that visceral internal fat like we’ve never been able to in the past, which is going to allow our tummy tucks to look only better and better and better.
We are super excited about what the future holds. Tummy tucks and GLP-1 medications are a combination that can really give you an incredible transformation.
