Weight

The best thing you can do to reduce your risk of post-operative complications is to reduce your weight. If you can get to a BMI of less than 30, you will reduce your risk of wound healing problems and blood clots in the legs that could travel to the lungs and cause shortness of breath, palpitations and even death. Your BMI is currently 36.4 which places you in the "obese" range. To get your BMI below 30 you would need to weigh less than 164 pounds. So you need to lose 35 pounds. Talk to your doctor about a medically supervised weight loss program. Or consider Weight Watchers, a proven method of safe weight loss. And good luck!

Thank you for sharing your excellent question. In order to minimize the risks of surgery and healing, as well as to maximize your aesthetic result, I would recommend losing weight prior to a tummy tuck. I would advocate reaching approximately 160 pounds or less as this will lower your current BMI to below 30, a threshold used to avoid complications. Hope this helps.

Tummy tucks can provide great benefits, but expectations are occasionally high. In our practice we occasionally see women and men who had a surgeon do a tummy tuck but were disappointed with the limited improvement. Their underlying problem related to excessive subcutaneous and intra-abdominal (internal) body fat. The tummy tuck tightened the lower abdominal skin and removed that fat, but it didn't improve the overall tummy contour. To get a truly reshaped tummy, it was necessary to loose a major amount of weight. Afterward their surgeon could have really improved the abdominal wall, skin and fat. And they would have seen a more dramatic improvement. As the other plastic surgeons have mentioned, for safety and cosmetic reasons, patients in your situation should consider 35-40 pound weight loss before your procedure.

Have to? No. Should you, yes. A tummy tuck should be done to improve your confidence in your appearance. It's a great operation, can help your clothes fit better, brings your muscles back together, uses some liposuction to improve shape, and can get rid or stretch marks. That said we must keep you safe. At your current height and weight you are at much higher risks of things like blood clots and infections and wound break down. You'll look and feel better if you can get the weight off before the tummy tuck. Good luck!

Your expectations and BMI will dictate the need for weight loss. If your BMI is >39, you need to lose weight first. If your BMI is 30 and your weight stable with your daily routines, you can find surgeons that will be willing to do procedures on you if you are realistic about what your outcomes will be and if you are able to keep your weight stable. Surgery is not a procedure for weight loss and if you are truly able to be d more disciplined, it is always to your advantage to lose weight.