Do you wish to lose a considerable amount of weight? Well! you can lose weight by dieting, exercising but shedding excess weight do not mean that you will get in shape and all toned up to flaunt that “Curvilicious” body. Remember, losing weight and body shaping or contouring are two different things.
There are people who are prone to gain weight due to hereditary factors, hormonal imbalances or certain medical problems which do not allow losing weight even by diet or rigorous workout sessions.
And when all your efforts go in vain to either lose weight or contour body, effective surgeries that safely reduce weight and improve patients’ body shape and quality of life are the best rescue.
However, before choosing to undergo any surgery, you must know your requirement and expectations out of it, meaning you want to lose excess weight or you desire to shape and sculpt your body, as the two motives are met through completely different surgery treatment options.
We will help you to understand the difference between weight loss surgery vs. body contouring surgery practice so that you have full-fledged knowledge to select the most suitable treatment for your needs.
Since each individual’s is distinctive and biologically different, it is essential to learn about the options so that you can easily assess which procedures are most appropriate for you.
WHAT IS A WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY?
Weight loss surgery also referred to as bariatric surgery is formulated to reduce excessive weight and fat caused due to obesity.
The weight loss surgery does not shrug off extra thickened skin or create leaner contours on the body, but promotes weight loss.
Before selecting a weight loss surgery, you must first understand the different types of restrictive and mal absorptive weight loss surgeries, and discuss with an expert bariatric surgeon to identify which one is ideal for delivering the desired results.
A gastric bypass makes a small stomach pocket and intercepts the bowel. This is the premium paradigm for bariatric surgeries and has outstanding success rates. Another option, a gastric sleeve also makes for a stomach picket but does not include intercepting the small intestine.
Gastric band like a LAP-BAND is another option that makes a smaller stomach pocket and is a reversible process.
For those with certain underlying medical or health conditions, the bariatric surgeon may suggest duodenal switch surgery.
This kind of gastric bypass includes making a smaller stomach pocket and diverting the bowel guts, which encourages the body to soak up only a fewer calories.
All of the mentioned weight loss surgeries offer optimal results depending upon an individual’s body composition and condition. Typically, by forming a smaller stomach pouch, a person is bound to feast on smaller slabs of meals, and weight loss thus begins.
Each weight loss surgery procedure comes along with potential side effects and complications in lieu of weight loss benefits.
WHAT IS A BODY CONTOURING SURGERY?
Body contouring surgery is not a weight loss technique. It is a cosmetic procedure to help patients improve their figure after they attain a healthy weight. Body contouring surgery involves various surgeries, each formulated to sculpt, contour and reshape specific area/areas of the body.
Usually, after a significant weight loss from diet, exercise, or bariatric surgery, body contouring can be performed with the help of procedures like Cryolipolysis to create perfect contours or silhouettes in order to make a patient’s body more proportionate and leaner.
After a weight loss procedure, you tend to have loosened skin that disguises the shape of your body. To have a shaped figure and a molded appearance, body contouring procedures are performed.
After a reasonable weight loss, patients most often suffer from extra layers of skin in different areas of treatment that may drool down and cause discomfort. To rectify the excess skin, Body contouring procedures include:
- Tummy tuck to eliminate extra fatty tissues, shape the entire abdominal area, remove belly fat pockets, and restore impaired muscles
- Lower body lift to correct sagging in the lower abdomen, buttocks, hips and groin
- Medial thigh lift to minimize sagging and cause shaping on all sides and back of the thighs
- Breast lift to shape droopy or hanging breasts by restoring te damaged tissues
- Arm lift to minimize sagging skin under the upper arms
- Eliminate double chin or flabby cheeks, mid face, jowls or loosen neck
After body contouring surgery, a person can embrace a carved body and face with utmost confidence, along with the recent excess weight loss.
To attain a desirably comprehensive configuration along with signification with weight, bariatric surgeries and body contouring procedures can most often be performed subsequently.
WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY (BARIATRIC) VS. BODY CONTOURING: KEY DIFFERENCES
- Weight loss surgery initiate weight loss; body contouring activate body shaping:-
Weight loss procedures, such as bariatric, gastric sleeve, gastric lap band or bypass surgery, forcibly moderates a patient’s caloric consumption by physically contracting the size of the intestine. This can notably help a severely obese or an overweight person to lose loads of mass safely if they are having trouble regulating your appetite and lifestyle. Whereas on the other hand, body contouring surgery has no any impact on hunger, eating ardor, digestion, assimilation or metabolism and will not cause weight loss beyond the weight of tissues eliminated during the procedure. - Weight loss surgery is a medical procedure; body contouring surgery is typically cosmetic:-
Weight loss surgery is not deliberated towards straightaway enhancing your body shape, lineage configuration, or appearance; its aim is to simply restrict what you eat, control your cravings, thereby enabling you lose weight. On contrary, the principal objective or the idea behind body contouring is to attain a more cosmetically correct external appearance, and not to repair the internal intestinal system, size, weight or physical health. - Bariatric surgery is unable to remove excess skin or correct body proportions, but body contouring balances distribution of body mass:-
Many people end up with excess skin layers, sagged skin following the weight loss surgery due to quick weight loss. Therefore, Body contouring is a usual next-step for patients or women after pregnancy or signs of aging to commonly choose the contouring treatment after achieving a reasonable weight to help them peel off excess skin and gain a physically more pleasing body outline and shape. - Weight loss surgery is anesthetic; body contouring surgery is aesthetic:-
During a Weight loss surgery, many people experience some sort of pain and discomfort due to use of needles, numbing agents, and medicated peptic or pharmaceutics. In contrast, body contouring treatment does not involve any scalpel or anesthesia as no intrusion is done anywhere in the body or skin tissues.
WHO PERFORMS WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY?
Weight loss or Bariatric surgery should be performed by a licensed general surgeon who is specialized and experienced in bariatric surgery.
At present, In India, there is no separate professional certification for bariatric surgery that is authorized by the Board of Medical Specialties.
WHO PERFORMS BODY CONTOURING?
Body contouring surgery should only be performed by a plastic surgeon, dermatologist or skin specialist who is licensed by the Board of Plastic Surgery and specializes and has profuse experience in cosmetic body contouring, reshaping procedures.
“Cosmetic surgeons” typically are not liable to undergo the same extensive plastic surgery training that board authorized plastic surgeons do. Unless a cosmetologist/dermatologist or a skin specialist who has not been trained practically to do so, they usually cannot perform the weight loss surgery.
CAN OBESITY BE TREATED WITH WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY?
Obesity can be treated with particular surgical treatments to activate weight loss and help relieve the problem. By the time surgeons are suggesting bariatric weight loss, gastric or metabolic surgery, you can be assured it is a last resort.
In such situations, it is analyzed that the person is simply not responding well to the conventional weight loss procedures and likely never will.
In extreme cases of obesity, even after following bariatric or metabolic surgery, there is always a probability of those pounds eventually piling up later on.
CAN A PERSON STILL PUT ON WEIGHT AFTER BARIATRIC WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY?
Yes, there are fair chances that you can gain weight back on again. Gastric bypass weight loss surgery is presently one of the most optimal known procedures for obesity, with majority of patients losing large amounts of weight as an outcome.
But in order for the treatment to sustain and be a success over long run, patients must be willing to acquire necessary diet and lifestyle changes that come along with it.
A person undergoing a Gastric bypass or any type of bariatric needs to strictly follow a requisite pattern of meal and workout as instructed by their surgeon, otherwise the surgery may fail to stand successful over long term, specifically in cases of obesity.
Also if you go through a recent clinical statistics, you will find that nearly 50% of all patients have re-gained weight within 2 years of gastric bypass surgery.
While the surgery alters the anatomy and significantly decreases one’s appetite to a certain level, weight gain can be expected if the patient does not adhering to the changed requisite lifestyle, sensible diet and pertains to consume more calories than they burn.
Fortunately, good news is that putting on weight is just a matter of adapting to a realistic diet and exercise combo; otherwise there is no possibility of re-gaining weight post-surgery.
Also note that a second gastric bypass surgery is hardly a way to go because it comes with an increased risk of health hazards, including gushes in the gastrointestinal tract, blood leaks and allergic reactions.
WHAT IS THE COST OF BARIATRIC SURGERY?
Gastric banding carried out a prestigious surgical center under an experienced specialist will cost around 12-20K. That is basically equivalent to the cost of a body contouring tummy tuck procedure and 2-3 area for liposuction.
You only qualify for gastric banding if your BMI is below 35. But bad news is that at this BMI insurance coverage is not possible for the expenses associated with your surgery will not.
CAN I LOSE WEIGHT WITH LIPOSUCTION? IT IS QUICK TOO AS COMPARED TO OTHER FAT LOSS SURGERY?
Nice question, but it is a “NO”. You cannot lose weight by liposuction, as it works to gets rid of fat and fat cells, which do not result in weight loss, and is commonly misinterpreted as a method to rapidly lose extra pounds without having to diet and exercise.
Moreover, only eliminating fat cells have little to no impact on future weight instabilities. Even a comparatively massive level of liposuction too will not result in substantial weight loss—in fact, an average patient typically ends up losing between 2 to 2.5 pounds after liposuction.
Similar logic applies for non-surgical liposuction substitutes like Cooltech, CoolSculpting; no cosmetic fat removal technique is recommended for usual weight loss.
If you derail from the usual eating and exercising regime that you used to follow before liposuction, your remaining fat cells can still develop bigger and you can even now gain weight; may be in somewhat a peculiar pattern.
While liposuction may be encompassed into a body contouring surgery plan, it is only preconceived for treating particular, comparatively portable fat deposits.
LIPOSUCTION VERSUS WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY
Very First, liposuction is not a weight loss surgery procedure; rather, is a body contouring procedures and you may allow for localized fat loss of little mass of weight.
Based upon your weight height and, your BMI should be 35 or a bit higher in order to be eligible for bariatric surgery. For FDA cleared Lap Band gastric, BMI of 30 or higher is fine.
Check here for your best options:
- Loss as much weight as you can by a realistic diet and exercise combo plan. Only then you can go forward with liposuction, tummy tuck or breast lifting body contouring.
- If you still to lose excessive weight, you can take into account a Lap Band surgery to loss up to 50 lbs before going under knife or any plastic surgery.
SHOULD I JUST GET LIPOSUCTION OR DO BARIATRIC SURGERY TO BE SIZE 8?
As an advisor here, I would first like to know what your goal is. Is it primarily weight loss or is it attaining a certain figure. Like for example, if a female of 65 kg at 1.60m of height wishes to have an hour glass figure means to be a size 8, will most likely need to lose around 25-30lbs (approx 15 kg) and keep it off.
Liposuction will enable you to destroy the fat cells from one localized area of fat deposit and not allow for weight control over a long term. At present, bariatric surgery is a gold standard method of sustainable weight loss.
First you need to remove extra pounds, attain a reasonable weight and then go for contouring to achieve size 8. Liposuction and Tummy tuck are body contouring treatments that although they aid in weight loss, they are not long-livable treatment options.
HOW CAN I IMPROVE THE APPEARANCE OF CELLULITE?
Cellulite is formed in extreme conditions of obesity. It can effectively be treated and your area can be shaped using non-surgical, non-invasive body contouring methods. Exilis Elite or Exilis Ultra 360 can significantly help reduce the “matrices folds ” appearance of cellulite and tighten the skin.
As experts, surgeons tend to be inclined to the best information they have and that is often closely in synchronization with the specialty.
A patient needs to understand that cellulite problem is a chronic disease that can be managed by body contouring and a long term program of lifestyle changes in terms of both physical activity and eating habits.
The disease of cellulite does not determine specialty boundaries so the treatment commonly demands for a multidisciplinary approach.
When you do shed weight with gastric bypass surgery, unfortunately you are gravitated to have excess skin that you may want to get rid of. With Exilis Elite body contouring, excess skin is essentially reduced by melting the fatty layers and the treated area starts to form its desired shape.
WHO IS AN IDEAL CANDIDATE FOR BODY CONTOURING SURGERY?
An ideal candidate for body contouring cosmetic surgery is an individual who is close to their ideal or realistic weight based on height and weight but does not seem to lose resistant fat that are not responsive to diet and exercise.
WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL RISK FACTORS OR SIDE EFFECTS OF BARIATRIC WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY?
With bariatric increasing popularity, concerns regarding it safety has also risen. Pre-operative transience with higher rates of long term and acute risk has been noted among patients undergoing the aggressively invasive procedures as compared to banding procedures.
Acute complications after weight loss surgery include anastomotic leaks, bleeding, abdominal pain, cramping, bacterial infections, swelling, sweating, pulmonary emboli and arrhythmias.
Postoperative long-term side effects may include internal hernias, nutritional deficiencies, and anastomotic stenosis.
To have protection against postoperative nutritional deficiencies, particularly after undergoing RYGB, BPD, and SG, patients must feed themselves with A-vitamin, D-vitamin, iron, B12-vitamin, folate, protein, thiamine and calcium, for lifelong.
Anemia can occur due to lack of iron in the body. It is also one of the major concerns after RYGB and BPD, particularly in premenopausal females.
The complications are not definite or long-term in every patient, but still, Postoperative monitoring and medical management is of great significance as all patients may not respond sufficiently to tablet intake and may need intravenous iron supplementation.
Sufficient protein, ideally 60-120 gram/day supplementation is necessitated after bariatric treatment.
It is important to sustain lean body mass and wound healing. Protein deficiency is often complained 1-2 years post surgery and is validated by albumin low levels.
We hope we have cleared up some queries and ambiguity about weight loss vs. body contouring from your mind. You can now discuss your goals and design a treatment plan with your surgeon to achieve them.
You must by now have an idea of a potential solution for your needs and suitability of a procedure in the near future, whether weight loss or body contouring, there’s sure you have answers for questions you’ve been wondering about.