The Reason a Tummy Tuck Won’t Help Your Love Handles

Many men and women believe that a tummy tuck should give them a more slender waistline, love handles and all. Unfortunately, the nature of abdominoplasty surgery isn’t quite that all-encompassing. While getting rid of your love handles with a tummy tuck isn’t impossible, it does mean including liposuction to eliminate excess fat that abdominoplasty alone would leave behind.*

A Tummy Tuck Primer

It’s useful to think of a tummy tuck as a 180-degree approach to waistline reduction. During surgery, excess fat, skin and loose abdominal muscles between the hips and across the front of the trunk are targeted. A tummy tuck alone can make a tremendous improvement in the appearance of the belly itself.* However, for those patients who struggle with love handles—that pesky excess fat extending around the sides of the waist—additional contouring using liposuction can be added for a more full-spectrum approach to body contouring.*

Tummy Tuck with Liposuction

Including liposuction with a tummy tuck offers two primary benefits:*

1. Lipo can get rid of love handles at the same time as a tummy tuck, without the need for a second surgery and separate recovery time.*
2. Liposuction also helps create beautiful, natural tummy tuck results that don’t look too “flat” or surgical.*

While both procedures contour the body, each approach has its inherent strengths. When used together, we can tighten and restore tone to loose skin and muscles in the abdomen while reducing localized fat from the flanks and love handles for a leaner look overall.*

*This information is for education only, and is not meant as a guarantee of results. Your results may vary.