I saw, on TV, a woman with a Body Lift that went horribly wrong. Her thighs and hips were strangely deformed, lumpy, weird indentations. My sense is that she had it too soon. Still had too much body fat. I see so many people talking about having one, and they're still a long ways from goal.

I think in her case, it was they cut out the fat layers and sewed the skin together, but the suturing ended up acting as a tourniqet and the fat layers above and below the suturing weren't connected and they were starved for blood and didn't grow together. If you can imagine a basketball somewhat deflated and then the seams on the ball being drawn inward, that was what she looked like.

Then, because she still had so much body fat it all sagged down again.

She had more surgery done and they overlapped the fat layers and it looked better but it still looked pretty bad.

That sounds dreadful! Poor thing!

A friend of mine had lots of "lifts" done on thighs, arms, belly. I haven't really seen her expose any of the areas, but she looks ok with her clothes on.

There is a web site out there that has pictures of body sculpturing done bad. They were not pretty photos.

I agree, Nancy. A lot of people get the body lift when they still have plenty of body fat left. Much of the sagging would go away if they lost more fat. I also think a lot of people say they have excess skin, when what they really have is a lot of fat and skin. Now it's likely they would need the surgeyr anyway, even after they melt the fat, but still... why go get a surgery when you're still so heavy?

I just don't understand the concept of getting the surgery when you're still heavy and intending to lose more. The only reason I have not gotten mine yet is because I am still trying to settle at a weight and maintain it for a long time. I am terrified of getting surgery and then gaining or having my body redistribute stuff.

Perhaps he was simply trying to sell me into it, but my plastic surgeon seemed ridiculously confident that I would have an amazing result because I am so thin. He was like "oh this will be cake". He said my belief that being heavier makes for a better result was completely backward, and, in fact, those who are obese are much more likely to have cosmetic and health complications due to their size.

If you can find that site again, please post a link. It might help people to understand the risks.

I'm still aways off from my goal, but I will probably want to get some thigh lipo done. Its one spot where I can be skinny as a stick and still be fat. Plus it makes me not fit into pants. I decided though, after seeing that woman, I won't have a thigh lift!

Well, shoot. I got all that for free. No one should have to pay for it.

No, this was seriously worse than anything I've ever seen mother nature do.

Actually, I was looking on the internet and it seems like thigh lifts might not have good long term results.

There is a woman on another lc board that had quite a bit of lifting done. Apparently, it all looks terrible. She says she looked a lot better with saggy skin. How sad!

Wow! That is so sad to work that hard to lose weight and then end up with something bad like that.

I talked to a plastic surgeon about the possibility of a tummy tuck. He must have been the world's most ethical surgeon, because he told me flat-out that I didn't need a tummy tuck, that I could do a little recontouring with lipo and he would not recommend something as drastic as a tuck for someone like me. This kind of goes along with the discussion on the gastric bypass thread - the media makes it look like these surgeries are so simple, and they're not.

I had a tummy tuck 4 months ago, I lost all the weight I could through low carbing but due to yoyo dieting and having four kids my tummy was stretched and just wasnt gonna go - i had this saggy, hanging lump there. so i had it "cut off" and it looks great now.

BUT, it definately wouldnt have worked as a weight-loss exercise - cos I didnt lose any!!

BTW, Jo, I didn't mean to imply that no one should have a tummy tuck. It's an option that I may still consider, depending on what the situation is when I reach goal. Right now my tummy is sort of trying to go back down, but when another 30 pounds is gone, it may look like a deflated balloon.

All I meant to say was, there may be other options to having major surgeries. Then again, for others, there aren't.

My friend who had gastric a couple of years ago has insane skin hanging off her in every direction, and she's only 28 years old. She looks great in clothes but you never see her without long sleeves and pants, because the skin is so loose she's embarrassed to have it show. She's hoping to have a body lift once she's done having children (had her first last year, going to try for her second at some point soon).

It might be the thigh lift is particularly tricky. Shame that. If I were going to lift anything, it'd be the thighs.

[QUOTE=spiritof72]BTW, Jo, I didn't mean to imply that no one should have a tummy tuck. It's an option that I may still consider
QUOTE]


I know Kate, its ok. Having been through the procedure I have to say that it is NOT an easy solution to weight loss - I dont think any of the "fat" removal procedures help with the problem. You have to at least get to a point where you can lose and stay stable by what you eat and exercise.

tummytucks, body lifts, lipo etc are very painful, costly short term fixes in my opinion and I made sure that I had maintained my weight loss for over a year before I had mine done!

What I find strange is that although I had 3lbs of skin removed from my tummy, my weight and inches have remained the same anyway!