Tummy Tucks and Permanent Weight Loss

Tummy Tucks Reduce Stomach Volume and Suppress Appetite because they reduce stomach volume by 50% or more. This means that it is easier for this patient to maintain a figure after a tummy tuck than before. Case 1 (Continued): Notice how pregnancy weakens the abdominal wall support layer (fascia) to create the "halo" of pregnancy. The halo of the weaker fascia extends to where the outward arrows indicate in the before picture. After pregnancy, nature intends for the fascia to remain loose, so that the woman's stomach can be permanently double-sized so that the woman can eat enough for herself and her baby. On the side view you can see that the stomach is double sized in the before picture. Stomach cells that have contact with food, suppress appetite. Stomach cells that do not have contact with food send feed signals to the brain. This means that once the empty stomach is emptier than 50%, the feed signal is stronger than the hold signal and the brain gets a feed signal. The feed signal gets stronger the emptier the stomach becomes. In the before picture, a half-full stomach would initiate a feed signal, but in the tummy tuck stomach, that volume would overflow the smaller stomach. In other words, it takes a lot more will power and medication for this patient to maintain her size 4 figure with with a double-sized stomach (before the tummy tuck) than after a tummy tuck. Case 2: The Indian-American lady shown here had one child,who is in college now. Her body really doesn't care that her baby is an adult, that she exercises and that she diets. The "before" body, is designed to feed the baby, even though there is no longer a baby to feed! The before body is designed to feed more than one person. The tummy tuck body is designed to feed only one person. The fat on the abdomen and flanks are there for milk production, despite the fact that milk production stopped 28 years ago. This fat is very resistant to dieting and exercise. Again, nature is designed to feed the baby. Case 3: Obesity in men and non-pregnant women works the same way as pregnancy. Once enough visceral fat inside the abdomen stretches the fascia permanently, the stomach becomes larger and it becomes harder for the patient to loose weight. Since fascia is not a muscle, it is not designed to be tightened by exercise. It can only be tightened surgically, via tummy tuck. The man shown here is in excellent shape, exercises regularly and has been good with our diet plan. However, he has not been able to tighten his abdomen with sit-ups alone.