Ive lost a fair bit of weight and im wanting a tummy tuck to get rid of the 'apron'

I absolutly hate it - its about 5-10kg at least and it looks horrible.

Has anyone else had this surgery done before? whats the costs? whens the best time to do it?
Any regrets or side effects?

well i think the only way is to exercise its kind of dangerous...

Hi Wishes! Congratulations on your weight loss, you are doing a fantastic job. Correct me if I am wrong, but your curent weight is CW:111.2kg/245.2lb and you are planning on loosing more weight, right? I understand how you would want to get some plastic surgery on your tummy, but I would strongly suggest to wait intil you loose more weight and will be at a healthy weight point. The reasons being:

1. Let's say, you will go for tummy surgery now and then continue with your weight loss again. If you would have to loose only 5-10lb I would say - go ahead, but not when you are looking at 20-30lb. weight loss. You will find yourself at exactly the same place, only this time you woud have to consider one more surgery.

2. I was thinking of getting liposaction this past August and went for consultation with a very fancy plastic surgent who had his practice for the past 20 years on Park Avene in New York. He refused to do surgery and told me to come back when I will be at my healthy weight of 130-135 lb. It is very important to be very critical and realistic in your expectations.

3. What I would suggest is finding plastic surgant and go for consultation. Don't forget to prepare to ask as many questions as you need (I had a long list with me ). This way you will know exactly where you stand, what to expect, what would be your doctors recomendations as to when and at what weight you should be doing your surgery.

At last, I feel your pain - you are loosing weight and watching your body transform. Some things about this transformation are fantastic, some - not so fantastic. Keep going and make an educated decision at the end.

I dont think you know what you're talking about.

Im talking about something that will *NEVER* be gone no matter how much you exercise or workout.

Coco: Im not talking about doing it now - im talking about doing it when i get to my goal weight.

I am sorry.

Hun, just remember that when you are asking someone what they think; you are not always going to hear what you want.

I agree w/ cocoa...just find someone professional and get their insite on the matter

wishes... and this will show how little I know about how other countries operate... Doesnt New Zealand have a national healthcare where you don't pay for necessary medical procedures.

What you are talking about having done isn't a face lift or a boob job, but what you might be able to find a doctor or two to say that it's necessary for your health and well being. (though having anose job could be beneficial to my health and wellbeing )

It's really not a cosmetic procedure, so why wouldn't it be covered under your national healthcare...

If you were to have it done though, I'd strongly reccommend investigating the doctor and not going for the cheapest procedure, but the most qualified surgeon.. this could be considered major surgery and I'd be scaredof complications... (the news magazine shows do stories occassionally on the store front cosmetic surgery places and how they often come out with botched procedures or in a body bag.)

newbride: i wasnt having a problem with their opinion - thats what i asked for. I was correcting them on the thought that i was going to do it immediatly now. Im aiming for the long term but thought i should look at it now so when the time comes i have the nessary information about it.

Mal: I was indeed hopeing it would be clasified as 'nessary' for health reasons and i could get it free, but im prepared to pay for it if it comes down to it
It really is a cosmetic procedure i think, though if my mental health is affected by it then im sure i can wangle it as nessary

I have a way to go yet anyway, early next year is my major goal. Im not setting lots of little goals - i feel they will give me false sense of security. Im setting one kickass goal of 120lb/55kg loss, and im over halfway there already!
Once i get to that goal i will have to go under the knife for my brother then take a few weeks out to reasses things and regain health before going for the last stretch.

I don't know anything about the procedure, except my grandmother did it. It stayed off her for a while then came back probably because she went back to eating the same as before. We live in the US so it wasn't cheap.

Personally, I think it's kind of expensive and invasive--the kind of thing anyone should give much thought and research to before doing (which you are). Whether you should go through with it or not partially depends on why you have an apron. If it came after child-birth, it may help to have surgury as abdominal muscles on some women can split or tear during pregnancy. If it's genetic, you may not want to get the tummy tuck until you stick with some sort of athletic activity for a year--one that works on your abs. I had a positive experience with it.

I had an apron for all my adult (and teen) life. It's genetic. My mom has it, and my sister had it--even when she was underweight. Then I became really heavy when on meds... The first time I lost a lot of weight weight (70 pounds) I got skinny (but healthy) but still couldn't lose that ab fat.

Well, I wanted to do something unusual so I trained for a marathon. While the running didn't do anything for my abs, the required twice-a-week cross/weight training made the apron disappear--and it stayed off.

Even when I got sick last year and gained a bunch of weight back, the apron didn't return as bad. I do have fat deposits on my belly...but this time it's distributed (rather than all on front) and there is muscle definition that was never there before I worked on my stomach. It seems to be going away on it's own with weight management this time.

I think you are mistaken, i am NOT talking about fat, there is no fat involved at all.
I am talking about removing the saggy piece of skin that hangs down about 10"
This is NOT fat, it is skin. Its a by product of having 5 pregnancies and being overweight and loosing it.
Its not something you can inherit, and it is not fat.

Well, I did have a tummy tuck done apx 20 yrs ago, about 4 yrs after my last pregnancy, as I had what looked like a tire hanging from my belly, and I have not regret it at all, it stayed the same, although I am like 65 lbs overweight, the weight there has never come back, I am flat as a board on my belly, now if I could only do the rest of my back bakery (rolls), ....LOL.... it would be great, but if your question is about the tummy tuck is still like the first year, is great, this was done like 20 yrs ago, so things, money wise and procedure wise have changed quiet a lot as I hear now they go under your skin and also fix and pull your stomach muscles so that would even be better yet, but I like mine and if i had to do it all over again I definately would no questions asked...... Now my next question, has anyone had their thighs done?, the sagging loose skin or folds pulled up, and I don't mean lipo, that doesn't work, I also had it done in my thighs which is the reason now the skin hangs and is loose and bumpy, I mean real plastic surgery, that is my next problem......I hope I was of some help ....Wishes.......

Cheers loly, that was the most helpful post yet

I was getting frustrated because everyone was thinkin i meant something about fat reduction surgery rather than skin removal :/

I knew exactly what you meant Wishes, you have done great loosing the weight and of course as you already know you first should loose the complete amount of weight you want, then after, go ahead with the surgery, but I DO NOT regret it one bit.... Good luck.....

Unfortunatly, now i have a belly button infection because of all the excess skin hanging - wtf?! who the heck ever heard of a belly button infection!

wishes i have the apron belly thing too, and the more i loose the worse it looks, i feel like i have the gut of an 80 year old!!!!! and no amount of exercise or weight loss will help, my aunt had it done after she lost some majior weight and she had a breast lift at the same time.........she now looks like she's 20 yrs younger and she loves her body now!!! i plan to do the same hell or high water!!!!