What is the Recovery Process like for Body Lift Surgery? - Cosmetic Surgery Guide


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Everybody will experience a different level of recovery after the Body Lift surgery. Typically though, you will be expected to stay in the hospital between 1 – 7 days after the procedure. After this, you will be given a list of recommendations and a lot of advice to ensure that you are doing everything you can to incur a speedy and successful recovery. It is essential that you follow all the advice given to you by your surgeon or the medical staff tending to you during your stay to try and prevent any unnecessary risks and complications.

The initial hospital stay

After the surgery, you are likely to feel exhausted and maybe in a little bit of pain, but probably just slightly uncomfortable. You will be required to stay over in the hospital for at least 1 day and night after the completion of the procedure; however, depending on the extent of the surgery that you had done and whether or not you suffered from any complications, you may be required to stay up to about a week in total. This is generally nothing to worry about, and is primarily required of you as an extra safety procedure.

Whilst you are in the hospital, the surgeon will normally visit it you to see how you're getting on post-op. After this, either the surgeon or other medical professionals will advise you how to best look after yourself once you leave and get home. It is very important that you listen and follow their advice implicitly. The kind of advice given will be based around keeping your wounds clean, the kinds of activity you can be expected to be restricted from and other points that will all in all help to ensure you avoid infection or any detrimental issues to your health and recovery.

Secondary hospital visits

As you will have been stitched up during the surgery, it will be necessary to return to the hospital to have your stiches or staples removed. The most common forms of surgical closures used are sutures and staples. The amount of time after your surgery that you will have to wait will entirely depend on you, and how your body is coping with recovering from the surgery. Typically you will have to wait between 3 – 10 days, but this is only an average. After the surgery, you will have to visit your surgeon a couple of times in the first couple of weeks – again, this is nothing to worry about, and is just to ensure that everything is going the way that it should be. After the first post-op consultation, your surgeon will be able to tell you when they would like to take the stitches out. With particularly long incisions like those incurred in the Body Lift surgery, your surgeon might decide to remove your stitches or sutures in two different visits.

Some people do suffer from bursting their stitches in the first few days after the surgery. This is generally because they will have been placing too much stress on the still very fresh wounds on their bodies. It is absolutely vital that you limit the amount on activity you are doing in the first few days and take it as easy as possible. Gentle walks a couple of times a day are a good way of getting your blood circulating whilst not placing too much strain on the still quite tender parts of your body.

Getting back to normal, everyday life

Initially you will feel quite sore all over your body, and possibly experience slight pain. This should subside fairly quickly, usually after around 1 week. If you are experiencing unbearable pain or any other worrying symptoms, it is essential that you contact your surgeon as soon as you can, as this can indicate a development of a couple of dangers.

You will be asked to rest for the first 2 – 4 weeks after the surgery. Some peoples' bodies react a lot better than others in the recovery process, so the amount of time you are going to need to take off work cannot be determined until the time. This may be quite inconvenient to many people, so it is worth talking to your boss or the people that you work with to ensure that they know how much time you may need off. Most people need around 3 weeks before they can return to work, though this is with restrictions.

You are recommended to avoid any straining or strenuous activities for up to 8 weeks after the initial procedure. Although this may seem like a very long time to avoid certain activities, it is important that you follow these guidelines, as you may feel as if you can do everything that you did before the surgery after only 4 weeks, but your body most likely will not be healed to a suitable standard yet. As you will have a firmer, more sculpted, and generally lighter body, you may be tempted even further to throw yourself back into everyday life, but this can serve to be extremely detrimental to your ultimate health and recovery.

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