forgetmenot

I had my sleeve done Jan '17 and then a tummy tuck exactly a year later. At that time, I was also considering a breast lift, inner thigh lift and an arm lift (with the skin tightening extending down to the arm pits). For the most part my feelings are mixed. The stomach area looks great and I have been able to squeeze into size 00 pants. I get plenty of compliments about my figure when wearing a figure hugging outfit. Having said that, there were some complications with the surgery with a somewhat disfigured belly button so I don't usually wear bikini/crop tops. There is another aspect that I didn't anticipate. When you are overweight and/or you have extra skin, an extra inch doesn't make too much difference. Now that I have a tiny 24'' waist, a "little" extra, whether it's from just bloating or a ever-so-slight relaxation of my diet, will eliminate the possibility of wearing something that clings to that area. Finally, the surgery and ensuing complications took me out of commission exercise-wise for at least three months and even now I still do not have much core strength at least relative to my other muscles. As for the other areas that I did not get surgery on, a diligent weight routine combined with intermittent fasting has helped. There is still loose skin in the upper arms but muscle has filled out most of the space such that when I wear sleeveless tops it looks comparable to an "average" female. The part of the legs that would show past a skirt or shorts are very toned with no trace of loose skin. For both the arms and legs, I would say that it would not be worthwhile to get the additional aesthetic benefits from the surgery when you consider the resulting scars. The only problematic area remains the under arms. If I raise my arms above my head, you can see the muscle definition (again from doing a high amount of resistance training on the back muscles) but in a normal position the loose skin bunches. As a result, I still don't wear anything that reveals the area like spaghetti strap or strapless tops.

You bet, mostly in the mid-section. I just had the tummy tuck last month.

You bet, mostly in the mid-section. I just had the tummy tuck last month.

I'm 5' exactly. One year post-op I went under 115 for the first time and I'm still losing. It looks like I will end up 105-110.

I am one month out post lower body lift so there is quite a bit of swelling left still. I was size 4 pre-op and I fit into size 2 or 0 depending on brand even with the swelling, compression garment and the gauzes/dressings tacked on to dam some belly button leakage so I think I'll end up 2 sizes smaller. Of course, I also had a butt lift but I started out so small there that even with the enlarged butt it still doesn't put a restriction pant-wise.

Hmm, my experience was different. I was only given general guidelines for the liver shrinking diet, like lots of protein. Egg drop soup was definitely ok along with steak, etc. Of course the liquid diet was a different story but I only started that in the day before surgery. Also OP- I started with similar height/weight as you and even with the (apparently lax) rules I was given, I am pretty sure much of the unhealthy junk I was eating in the few weeks before surgery was not considered liver shrinking. So I definitely knew that there was a risk that my liver could be too fatty to do the surgery safely but according to the surgeon's notes, everything was completely fine so I assume that I wasn't sufficiently obese to have a fatty liver. Of course I am not recommending that you play fast and loose with the rules like I did but I also wouldn't be paranoid about the liver either.

I just had the TT done with plans to have kids down the road. Most Plastics Surgeons will tell you that they have many patients who have the procedure and go on to have children without undoing the TT results but obviously these guys have an incentive to tell you that. Of course, medically the procedure has no effect on the soundness of your pregnancy. Given the TT is not easily performed a second time, I guess it will just have to come down to how you feel about your ability to recover (though having good genes, exercise, diet, etc) from the skin stretching that comes with pregnancy.

I just had this done in conjunction with a tummy tuck. If you've gone to a PS consultation already, they they probably already told you that it's one of the procedures with wildly variable results.

I think it's just called an extended brachioplasty. Here's a post from real self with before and after pictures. https://www.realself.com/review/el-paso-tx-30-yr-extended-arm-lift-breast-lift-amp-augmentation-separate-review?tags=9580&offset=0&sle=0# Let me know how it goes. I am considering the exact same procedure myself.

Re: pricing - my LBL procedure is costing around $14k including a comparable level of hospital stay and the post-op nurse care, food, meds, etc. I also did a consultation with a surgeon in Miami and the all-inclusive price came to around $12K. It looks like the Mexico option is cheaper, but the dollar difference is smaller than I had thought.

I had a very similar issue (10lb weight gain at 6 weeks). It turns out that I gained 14lbs of water weight, 1lb of muscle and lost 5lbs of fat. IMO, there's no need to do any adjustments diet-wise. You might consider investing in a scale that measures water and fat mass separately. They run for ~$40 on Amazon.

If the extra assurance helps, you can get a ~$30 scale off of Amazon that tracks fat and water weight separately.

Is your friend finding that squats without weights or even with dumbbells sufficiently challenging? My tiny 5ft frame is working up to 100 lb squats, I wouldn't be able to hang on to a dumbbell that size. OP - I invested in some basic home equipment: a bench for ~50, a squat rack for ~70, barbell for ~30 and weight set for ~100. All the items I bought off Amazon and they are enough to work out all the major muscle groups unless I develop aspirations to be a fitness model or something.

I drink Protein2O and Dymatize ISO-100 Clear 100% Whey Protein Isolate RTD which can also be purchased on Amazon. The latter has the best protein to calories ratio. Unfortunately, I do not like their taste so I consider it a medicinal drink.

I like both Quest and Isopure unflavored protein powder.