Why Surgery is Not the Answer

For a time after the birth of my second child I thought that I may have to resign to the bigger and fatter mommy body that I have. For the most part I look fine, but most of my fat seems to be located in the belly region. For a short while I even thought of surgery as a solution (once I am sure I am done having children), until I found out:

The cost of a tummy tuck and liposuction 

Tummy tuck usually costs between $5,000 and $9,000 for a single procedure, and liposuction costs between $3,000 to $8,000.

There is a general correspondence between the size of a body part and the cost for lipo, so with the stomach being a fairly large area it tends to be priced higher on the scale than some other lipo procedures.”

The downtime
The downtime for tummy tuck is 2-4 week, with full recovery being 4-8 weeks. For liposuction the time is less, a week of downtime and 3 weeks for recovery. I have two young children and the family would spin into chaos if I was down for 2 days, let alone weeks!

The fat grows back!

“… the outcome did not depend on the surgeon. It depended on the biology of fat. And obesity researchers say they are not surprised that the women’s fat came back. The body, they say “defends” its fat. If you lose weight, even by dieting, it comes back. And, the study showed, if you suck out the fat with liposuction, even if it’s only a few pounds — it was about 5.8 pounds for subjects in the study — it still comes back.”

You can only safely remove a maximum of 6-8 pounds of fat with liposuction. 
For all that money you spend, the fat that can be removed is only 6-8 pounds MAX. I have lost more than that amount of weight before without even trying, so knowing how little fat would be removed made the whole thing seem so pointless.

The scar
Just google the term “tummy tuck scar” and look at the images on Google — scary! The thing about scars is that even if it is not something that other people notice, it is something that I would know is there and see everyday. I have trouble enough dealing with minor acne scars that something major like that would really bother me.

The biggest reason of all for not getting plastic surgery for my belly is: It wouldn’t make me any healthier.

Having a tummy tuck and liposuction out the extra fat would not give me more energy, make me healthier, or make me a better mom.

Now that I have spent a good amount of time working on myself and setting healthy habits, I am certain that I would never entertain the idea of a tummy tuck or liposuction again!