Photo from iStockphotoWelcome to the inaugural edition of the Friday Figure Fix! Today's topic: batwings, flag wavers, hi-helen's, or simply, flabby arms.
Now that it's the new year, everyone's an optimist about warmer weather coming soon. And warmer weather means we can dust off the tank tops, spaghetti straps, and sundresses that have been languishing in our closets all winter (all of us in the Bay Area could use a little airing out, after hiding out from this deluge all week). And cute tops = bare arms = uh-oh?
It's a near-universal problem for us ladies (more so than men) - we get to a certain age, and suddenly all the definition we may have had in our triceps has disappeared, leaving us with a little looser arm than we'd like. Sometimes there is a perfectly good explanation for the new-onset flabbiness hanging from our humeri - a lack of devotion at the gym, massive weight loss... but often it's a problem that seems to have materialized overnight.
Flabby arms - what's there to do? The first thing to try is the simplest, although not always the easiest: make sure your weight is where it ought to be, and get back to the gym for some arm-toning workouts. For inspiration, look at what amazing things Madonna has done with her arms - no batwing problems there.
Oftentimes, though, all the triceps curls in the world won't do the trick. And that's when you talk to your friendly female plastic surgeon. Hello!
Arms are a tricky thing for plastic surgeons and their patients, especially if the goal is to wear those cute tank tops. If you're lucky, the flab waving is a moderate bit of fat buried beneath good, resilient skin. An illustrative cross section of what I'm talking about, from the inside (muscle) - out (epidermis):
If this is the case, liposuction can be a great solution. A small (1/2 inch) incision, which usually heals to become fairly unnoticeable, allows some of that thick subcutaneous fat layer to be removed, leaving a more proportioned arm.
Liposuction is not magic, however; it is still surgery, and it requires the proper patient, good health, strict postoperative compliance, and patience. Although the procedure itself may be relatively short (often an hour to ninety minutes) and can be done as an outpatient, the care after the surgery is critical. Compressive garments need to be worn on the arms around the clock to ensure optimum results.
Bottom line: after liposuction alone, it'll be at least 4-6 more weeks before you can shed those rather unfashionable garments and replace them with those cute tank tops.
So that's Option One - liposuction for the lucky patient whose flabby arms are the "right" type (again, it's not the solution for everyone). Next Friday, I'll discuss some of the other plastic surgery options for addressing that extra skin hanging off the upper arm; we're talking serious, we're talking brachioplasty.
