Preparing for a Post-Bariatric Body Lift: Weight Stability, Smoking and What to Pause

The scale has not moved in eight months. That, oddly, is the good news. Two years after a sleeve gastrectomy, the person standing at the mirror has kept off more than a hundred pounds and is now looking at what the weight left behind: an apron of skin that folds over the waistband, rubs raw by the end of a warm afternoon and refuses to shrink no matter how many planks are done.

Preparing for body lift surgery starts long before a consultation, and most of it has nothing to do with the operating room. It is about proving to a surgeon, and to yourself, that the body has finished changing, that its wounds will have the oxygen and protein they need to heal, and that nothing in the medicine cabinet will complicate an incision that may circle the entire trunk.

This explainer walks through those three jobs, weight stability, smoking and what to pause, and then through the practical weeks that follow, with the honesty most pre-op checklists skip.

What actually happens during a post-bariatric body lift

A body lift is not a weight-loss operation. It is skin surgery for a body that has already lost the weight. After bariatric (weight-loss) surgery, fat disappears faster than skin can shrink, and the loose envelope that remains can chafe, fold, trap moisture and get in the way of movement. A lower body lift, sometimes called a belt lipectomy, removes a band of excess skin and fat around the entire trunk, the abdomen, flanks and lower back, and lifts the buttocks and outer thighs in the same operation. An upper body lift addresses the arms (a brachioplasty is the arm-lift component), the chest and the upper back. A so-called full body lift combines these, often in stages separated by months so the body can recover between them.

The mechanics matter for preparation. The surgeon draws the plan on your skin while you stand, because gravity shows where the excess falls. Under general anesthesia, the incisions typically run around the waistline like a belt, placed as low as the underwear line allows. Skin and fat are removed, the deeper layer is tightened, and the remaining skin is redraped and closed in layers. Thin drainage tubes are usually left in place to carry away fluid that would otherwise pool under the skin, a collection doctors call a seroma. A compression garment then holds everything still.

Why should any of this shape your pre-op work? Because a circumferential wound is long, and every inch of it needs oxygen-rich blood to knit. Anything that starves the wound edge of oxygen (nicotine), pulls on it (a weight that is still moving), or short-changes the raw material for repair (low protein) shows up directly in how the scar heals. Both Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic describe body contouring as elective surgery that is best planned for a body that has stopped changing.

Why weight stability comes first when preparing for body lift surgery

Surgeons tailor the skin they leave behind to the body in front of them on the day. Lose another twenty pounds afterward and fresh laxity appears above and below a scar that cannot be moved. Regain twenty and the closure is pulled tight, which raises the odds of the wound edges separating (a complication called dehiscence) and of wider, thicker scars. That is why weight stability is the first question at almost every consultation, ahead of any discussion of technique.

What counts as stable? Programs generally want to see a plateau rather than a number: a weight that has stopped falling and has stayed within a narrow band through several months of records. Mayo Clinic lists a stable weight among the basic conditions for abdominal contouring, and Cleveland Clinic frames body contouring as surgery for people who have reached and held their goal weight. Your bariatric team, not the calendar, is the best judge of when your particular curve has flattened, because the pace of loss differs by procedure and by person.

Stability is also about how you eat, not only what you weigh. A weight held steady on erratic meals and skipped protein is not the same as a weight held steady on a routine you can keep through six weeks of reduced activity. The recovery period itself tests this: appetite can dip, movement drops, and old patterns surface under stress. Teams often ask to see a food log or a dietitian’s note for exactly this reason.

One more practical point: anyone considering pregnancy is usually asked to wait until after childbearing, since the abdominal wall and skin will change again. Weight stability, in other words, is shorthand for a body and a life that are ready to hold a result.

Who is usually a candidate, and who is asked to wait

The typical candidate is someone in good general health whose weight has plateaued after bariatric surgery, who does not use nicotine, whose nutrition has been checked and corrected, and who has a clear-eyed view of what a long scar can and cannot deliver. Mayo Clinic’s criteria for abdominal contouring, a stable weight, no smoking, realistic expectations and no conditions that impair healing, apply just as well to the broader body lift.

Being asked to wait is common and is not a rejection. Reasons include a weight that is still falling or has recently risen; ongoing nicotine use in any form; diabetes that is not well controlled, because high blood glucose slows healing and raises infection risk; anemia or low protein stores, both frequent after bariatric surgery; active skin infection in the folds (intertrigo), which needs treating first; a planned pregnancy; and a body mass index that the surgeon judges too high for a safe operation of this length. Cleveland Clinic notes that body contouring is generally reserved for people who are near their goal weight rather than a route to reaching it.

There are quieter reasons, too. Body lifts demand weeks of limited activity and help at home, so someone who cannot step away from caregiving or physically demanding work may be asked to plan around a better season. Mental health matters as well: a period of untreated depression or an active eating disorder is a reason to pause, because recovery is emotionally demanding and results take months to settle.

None of this is a checklist you can score yourself. The decision rests with the surgical team, ideally in conversation with the bariatric program and primary care clinician who know your history. A well-run consultation should tell you not only whether you are a candidate, but what would need to change if you are not yet.

Smoking before body lift surgery: what nicotine does to a healing wound

Nicotine narrows small blood vessels. Carbon monoxide from smoke takes the place of oxygen on red blood cells. Put those two effects together at the edge of a wound that already sits at the far end of its blood supply, and skin that should knit instead darkens, blisters and dies back. Plastic surgeons see this in body lifts more than almost anywhere else, because the skin flaps are long and the incision line is far from its nourishing vessels.

The evidence on timing is unusually clear. The World Health Organization, drawing on a joint review with the University of Newcastle, reports that people who stop smoking at least four weeks before surgery have fewer complications than those who continue, and that every additional tobacco-free week beyond that point improves outcomes by about 19 percent, largely through better blood flow to healing tissue. MedlinePlus adds that quitting before surgery lowers the risk of wound infection, pneumonia and slow healing, and that the earlier you stop, the greater the benefit. Many surgical teams ask for a longer nicotine-free period than four weeks for body contouring specifically, and some confirm it with a urine or blood test for cotinine, a breakdown product of nicotine.

The word that matters is nicotine, not cigarettes. Vaping, nicotine pouches, patches, gum and lozenges all deliver the same vessel-narrowing molecule. Nicotine replacement can still have a place in quitting, but the plan for when to taper it before surgery belongs to the prescribing clinician, not to a pre-op leaflet. Smoked cannabis carries its own carbon monoxide load and should be disclosed as well.

Quitting also has to hold through recovery. The wound is most vulnerable in the first weeks after the operation, which is exactly when stress and boredom make a relapse tempting. Line up support before surgery, not after.

Nutrition after bariatric surgery: protein, iron and the labs your team checks

Bariatric procedures work in part by limiting what the gut absorbs, which means the same operation that made weight loss possible can leave the body short of the building blocks for repair. Collagen, the protein scaffold of a healing scar, cannot be made without dietary protein. Iron carries the oxygen that the wound edge depends on. Vitamin B12, folate, vitamin D, zinc and vitamin C each play a role in blood formation, immunity or tissue strength, and deficiencies in several of them are common after sleeve and bypass procedures.

So the pre-op blood work for a body lift tends to be broader than for a typical elective operation. Teams commonly look at a complete blood count for anemia; ferritin and iron studies; albumin and sometimes prealbumin as markers of protein status; B12, folate and vitamin D; and a glucose or hemoglobin A1c reading, the three-month average of blood sugar, because elevated glucose impairs healing. Where results fall short, surgery is usually postponed until they are corrected, whether through diet, oral supplements or, for iron in particular, infusions arranged by the bariatric team.

The NHS pre-surgery guidance is blunt about the basics: eating well and staying active in the weeks before an operation lowers the chance of complications and speeds recovery. After bariatric surgery that advice translates into a protein-forward pattern at every meal, regular fluids, and continuing the vitamin and mineral regimen your bariatric program prescribed rather than dropping it because the weight goal has been reached.

Resist the urge to crash-diet in the final weeks to look leaner on the operating table. It undermines the very stability the surgeon is counting on and drains protein stores right when they are about to be needed. A dietitian who understands post-bariatric nutrition is one of the most useful people to see before a body lift, and many programs make that visit a formal step.

What to pause before surgery: medicines, supplements and who decides

The single most useful thing you can do here is make a complete list, including everything you buy without a prescription, and hand it to the surgical team early. The NHS asks people to bring details of all medicines, including herbal remedies and supplements, to the pre-operative assessment for exactly this reason. What follows describes why certain items come up in that conversation; the decision about each one belongs to the clinician who prescribed it and the anesthesia team, never to the internet.

Medicines that thin the blood or reduce platelet stickiness, including prescription anticoagulants, antiplatelet drugs and over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers, raise the risk of bleeding and of a hematoma, a collection of blood under the skin. Some are safe to hold briefly; others protect a stent or prevent a stroke and cannot simply be stopped. That is a specialist judgment.

Supplements deserve equal attention. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements notes that vitamin E can increase bleeding, particularly alongside anticoagulant medicines. Fish oil, ginkgo, garlic extracts and several other botanicals are commonly reviewed for the same reason. Estrogen-containing contraceptives and hormone therapy come up because they raise the risk of blood clots in the legs and lungs, and a long operation with weeks of reduced mobility already pushes that risk upward. Medicines in the class known as GLP-1 receptor agonists slow stomach emptying, which anesthesia teams need to know about when planning fasting and airway safety. Diabetes medicines, steroids and some weight-management drugs each have their own considerations.

Alcohol is worth pausing on its own merits; it impairs healing and interacts with pain medicines. What you should not do is stop or change anything on your own. Abruptly halting some blood-pressure or heart medicines can be dangerous, and the team can only plan around what it knows.

A preparing for body lift surgery timeline at a glance

Every program writes its own instructions, and those override anything here. Still, most pre-op journeys follow a similar shape, and seeing it laid out helps you notice what should already be under way. The timeframes below are typical ranges drawn from the sources cited in this article, not promises.

When	What is usually happening	Why it matters
Many months before	Weight plateau documented; bariatric team confirms stability; nutrition labs drawn and corrected	Skin removal is fitted to a finished body; deficiencies slow healing
At least 4 weeks before	All nicotine stopped (WHO benchmark); medicine and supplement list reviewed with surgical and anesthesia teams	Blood flow to the wound edge recovers; bleeding and clot risks are planned for
2 to 3 weeks before	Team-directed holds on specific supplements or medicines begin; helpers, time off and equipment arranged	Bleeding-related items need time to clear; recovery logistics cannot be improvised
Final week	Skin in the folds kept clean and dry; no self-shaving of the surgical area; compression garments and loose clothing ready	Reduces infection risk; small nicks in skin can harbor bacteria
Night before and day of	Fasting per the anesthesia team; no jewelry or lotions; someone confirmed to drive and stay	Empty stomach for anesthesia safety; safe first night at home or on the ward

Two details in that table trip people up. The first is shaving: the NHS advises against removing hair from the operative area yourself in the days before surgery, because tiny cuts become entry points for bacteria; the surgical team will clip if needed. The second is fasting, which is not one rule but a set of them, with different cut-offs for solid food and clear fluids, and which can be adjusted for people taking medicines that slow stomach emptying. Follow the written instruction you are given rather than a friend’s memory of theirs.

Fitness and prehab: why walking matters more than crunches

People often arrive at body lift preparation determined to sculpt what lies under the skin. That instinct is understandable but slightly misplaced. The muscles you will lean on most in the first two weeks are the ones that get you from lying to sitting to standing without pulling on a waistline incision, and the systems that matter most are your lungs and your leg veins.

Prehabilitation, or prehab, is the term for building fitness before an operation so that recovery begins from a higher baseline. The NHS pre-surgery guidance links regular activity beforehand to fewer complications afterward. For a body lift, the most useful program is unglamorous: daily walking that steadily lengthens, gentle strengthening of the thighs and arms so you can rise from a chair using your legs and push up from a bed using your forearms, and a habit of deep breathing exercises, which help clear the lungs after anesthesia and lower the chance of pneumonia.

Leg veins deserve a mention of their own. Long operations and reduced movement afterward raise the risk of deep vein thrombosis, a clot in a deep leg vein that can travel to the lungs. Teams manage that risk with compression stockings, sometimes with clot-preventing injections, and above all with early walking. Arriving with legs already accustomed to regular movement makes those first shuffles down the hallway easier and safer.

What to avoid is equally practical. Do not start an aggressive new program in the final weeks; a strained back or a twisted knee can postpone surgery or complicate recovery. Skip anything that inflames the skin folds, such as long, sweaty sessions without drying and changing afterward, because raw or infected skin at the incision site is a reason to delay. Consistency beats intensity, right up to the day of surgery.

Setting up your home and your support for the first two weeks

A body lift leaves you bent slightly forward at the waist for days, unable to twist freely, and tethered to drains that need emptying and recording. Picture doing ordinary tasks in that posture and the shopping list writes itself. A recliner or a wedge of pillows lets you sleep with knees bent and hips flexed, which takes tension off a waistline incision. A raised toilet seat or a sturdy grab bar spares the abdomen. A reacher-grabber retrieves the things that will inevitably drop. A shower chair and a handheld shower head make washing possible once the team clears it. Front-opening, oversized clothing goes on without lifting the arms overhead, which matters even more after a brachioplasty.

Mayo Clinic’s guidance for abdominal contouring asks that someone drive you home and stay with you at least the first night; many body lift teams ask for round-the-clock help for longer, given the size of the operation. That person will be helping with drains, watching for warning signs, managing medicines on schedule and, frankly, lifting things. Talk through the drain routine before surgery, not in the fog of the first evening home.

Think through the rest of the household. Arrange care for young children and pets, who do not understand that a lap is off-limits. Prepare and freeze protein-rich meals, because appetite tends to fall while the body’s need for protein rises. Move daily essentials to counter height so nothing requires bending or reaching. If there are stairs, plan to stay on one level for the first days.

Finally, plan your time. Recovery from a body lift is measured in weeks, and rushing it risks the result. Confirm leave from work, hand off responsibilities, and give yourself permission to do very little except walk, eat, drink and rest.

How painful is a body lift? What is normal and what is not

Honest answer: the first few days are uncomfortable, and the discomfort is different from what most people expect. Rather than sharp pain, people describe a deep, wrapping tightness across the trunk, as though wearing a belt cinched two sizes too small, together with soreness where tissue was tightened and a tugging, burning sensation along the incision. The drains add their own pinch. Standing fully upright feels impossible on day one and gradually returns over the first week or two as the skin relaxes. Where an arm lift or thigh lift is part of the plan, those sites tend to ache with movement more than at rest.

Pain typically peaks in the first two or three days and then eases, though swelling, bruising and numbness along the incision persist for weeks; Mayo Clinic notes that swelling and soreness after abdominal contouring can last for several weeks. Numb patches are common because small skin nerves are cut and take months to regrow, and some never fully return.

Modern pain plans are layered. Teams combine several classes of medicine, sometimes with long-acting local anesthetic placed during surgery, and use opioid painkillers as sparingly as possible because they cause constipation, nausea and drowsiness that keep people in bed. Which medicines, in what schedule, is a decision for your prescribers, and it should be written down before you leave.

Two things you can control matter as much as any prescription. Moving early, even a few steps every hour, reduces stiffness and clot risk and, counterintuitively, lessens pain over the following days. And a well-fitted compression garment steadies the tissues so that every shift in position does not tug at the wound. Pain that climbs rather than falls after day three, or that is sharply one-sided, is not normal and is covered in the red-flag section below.

Body lift recovery timeline: the days and weeks that usually follow

Most people spend at least one night in hospital after a lower body lift, and longer stays are common when several areas are treated. The first days are about three things: walking short distances often, keeping fluids and protein coming in, and learning the drain routine. Drains are removed when the fluid they collect drops below a threshold set by the surgeon; Mayo Clinic describes drains after abdominal contouring staying in for several days, and some body lift patients keep one or more for a few weeks. Compression garments are usually worn around the clock at first and then for a longer stretch as instructed.

By the end of the second week, many people are standing straighter, sleeping more comfortably and managing without stronger pain medicines. Driving usually waits until you are off sedating medicines and can brake hard and twist to look behind without pain. Return to a desk job often happens somewhere in this window; work that involves lifting or long periods on your feet takes longer. Mayo Clinic advises avoiding strenuous activity and heavy lifting for about six weeks after abdominal contouring, and body lift teams generally apply a similar or longer restriction because of the circumferential incision.

Swelling settles unevenly. The lower abdomen, buttocks and thighs can stay puffy for months, and clothing may fit differently from week to week. Scars follow their own slower clock: they are typically at their reddest and most raised in the early months and then soften and fade over the following year or more, a pattern both Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic describe.

Staged procedures add another layer, with a recovery gap between operations that the surgeon sets based on how the first heals. Throughout, the follow-up schedule the team gives you is not optional; it is how problems get caught while they are still small.

What people often get wrong about preparing for a body lift

The most common misunderstanding is that a body lift will take off the last stubborn pounds. It will not, and a surgeon who hears that expectation will, rightly, press pause. The tissue removed weighs something, but the goal is contour and comfort, and the weight on the scale afterward is not a measure of success.

A second myth is that liposuction can do the same job with smaller scars. Liposuction removes fat; it does nothing for skin that has lost its elasticity, and in a post-bariatric body it can leave more looseness, not less. Some surgeons combine limited liposuction with a lift, but it does not replace one.

Third: vaping, patches and pouches are not loopholes. The vessel-narrowing effect belongs to nicotine itself, whichever way it arrives. The WHO’s four-week benchmark refers to stopping, not switching.

Fourth, people underestimate the operation because it is described as removing skin. A full lower body lift is a long procedure under general anesthesia with a wound that may run all the way around the body. Treating it like a minor cosmetic touch-up, with a weekend off and no help at home, is how avoidable problems begin.

Fifth, the belief that scars fade to nothing. They do not. A good result is a thin, flat, pale line placed where clothing hides it, and reaching that stage takes a year or more of healing and sun protection.

Sixth, that doing everything in one session is always better. Staging trades a second recovery for a shorter anesthesia time and a lower complication risk in each operation; which approach fits you depends on your health and the areas involved, and that is a surgeon’s call.

Last, that preparation ends when the anesthesia begins. Nicotine abstinence, protein intake, weight stability and follow-up visits matter just as much in the weeks after the operation as in the months before it.

Questions to ask your care team before a body lift

A good consultation should leave you with fewer unknowns, not more. These questions are a starting point; write down the answers, and bring a second person who will remember what you forget.

On readiness: How do you judge whether my weight is stable enough, and what records would you like to see? Which blood tests will you order, and what results would cause you to postpone? How long do you want me nicotine-free before and after surgery, and will you test for it? Should I see the bariatric dietitian first?

On the plan itself: Which areas would you treat, in what order, and would you stage them? Where exactly will the incisions run, and can you show me photographs of scars at different stages of healing, including ones that healed poorly? How long will the operation take, and how many nights should I expect to stay?

On medicines and supplements: Which items on my list would you want paused, from when, and who will make each of those decisions? How will my diabetes, blood-pressure or hormone medicines be handled around surgery? What is the plan for preventing blood clots?

On recovery: What will my pain plan look like, and what do I do if it is not working? How are drains managed at home, and who do I call at 2 a.m.? When can I shower, drive, lift a child, return to work, exercise and sleep on my side? What complications do you see most often after this operation, and how are they treated?

On alternatives: What would happen if I did nothing? Are there smaller procedures, such as a panniculectomy, the removal of the overhanging abdominal apron alone, that might address my main problem? What would you advise if my weight changes after surgery?

The answers you receive are the beginning of a shared decision. The final call on whether and when to proceed sits with the treating team.

When to call your doctor: red-flag signs after a body lift

Most recoveries are uneventful, but a body lift’s long incision and reduced mobility create a short list of problems that need prompt attention. Your team will give you a phone number and written instructions; use them freely. It is always better to call about something that turns out to be nothing than to wait on something that is not.

Call the surgical team the same day if you notice a fever or chills; redness spreading outward from the incision, or skin that becomes hot, hard or increasingly painful; wound edges pulling apart or an area of skin along the incision turning dark, dusky or black; cloudy, foul-smelling or increasing drainage from the wound or drain sites; a sudden, one-sided swelling or a tense, purple bruise, which can signal a hematoma; a soft, sloshing fullness under the skin that grows, which can signal a seroma; persistent vomiting or an inability to keep fluids down; very dark urine or dizziness on standing, which suggest dehydration; pain that rises after the first few days instead of easing or that is not controlled by the plan you were given; or numbness, tingling and skin discoloration under a garment that feels too tight.

Seek emergency care immediately, by calling emergency services rather than driving yourself, if you develop chest pain, sudden shortness of breath, coughing up blood, a racing heartbeat, or fainting, because these can be signs of a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that has traveled to the lungs. Pain, warmth, swelling or redness in one calf can signal a deep vein thrombosis and also needs urgent assessment. Heavy bleeding that soaks through dressings, or confusion and extreme drowsiness, are likewise emergencies.

Keep the list of your medicines and the name of your surgeon with you. Any clinician who sees you in an emergency will want to know exactly what was done, and when.

Frequently asked questions

How painful is a full body lift?

The first two or three days are the hardest, with deep tightness around the trunk, soreness at tightened areas and a burning tug along the incision, easing steadily after that. Swelling and numbness last weeks. Teams use layered pain plans and encourage early walking, which reduces stiffness. Pain that increases after day three, or that is sharply one-sided, should be reported to your surgical team promptly.

What should I do 2 weeks before a body lift or facelift?

By two weeks out, nicotine should already be long gone, and this is when team-directed holds on certain supplements and medicines usually begin, never on your own initiative. Confirm your helpers, time off and equipment, keep skin folds clean and dry, and avoid new strenuous exercise that could cause injury. The same logic applies before a facelift, since both depend on healthy blood flow to long skin flaps.

When can I start sleeping on my side after brachioplasty?

Most surgeons ask people to sleep on their back with arms slightly elevated and supported on pillows for the first few weeks after an arm lift, so pressure and pulling on the incisions are avoided while the tissues seal. The exact point at which side-sleeping is allowed varies with how the wounds are healing, so ask your surgical team at each follow-up rather than following a fixed date.

Do they cover your privates during surgery?

Yes. Operating rooms follow a practice of exposing only the area being operated on and covering everything else with sterile drapes and warming blankets, both for dignity and to prevent heat loss and infection. For a lower body lift the drapes are wider than for most operations because the incision circles the trunk, but the genital area is covered unless a specific step requires access, and staff are trained to minimize exposure.

How long do I need to be weight stable before a body lift?

There is no single number that applies to everyone; surgeons look for a documented plateau, a weight that has stopped falling and has held within a narrow band for a sustained period, confirmed by your bariatric team. Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic both list stable weight near your goal as a basic condition for body contouring. Ask your surgeon what records they want to see and what would make them postpone.

Does vaping count as smoking before body lift surgery?

Yes, for the purpose that matters. Nicotine, whether from cigarettes, vapes, pouches, gum or patches, narrows the small blood vessels that feed a healing wound edge, so most surgical teams require complete nicotine abstinence rather than a switch to another product. Some confirm it with a cotinine test. If you use nicotine replacement to quit, the plan for tapering it before surgery belongs to the clinician who prescribed it.

How is lower body lift preparation different from an upper body lift?

The core preparation is identical: stable weight, no nicotine, corrected nutrition and a reviewed medicine list. The practical differences are in home setup. A lower body lift means limited bending and twisting, so plan a recliner, raised seating and drain management. An upper body lift, including brachioplasty, limits reaching and lifting the arms, so choose front-opening clothing and place essentials at chest height. Both usually restrict strenuous activity for about six weeks.

Can I keep taking my bariatric vitamins before surgery?

Usually the prescribed bariatric multivitamin, iron, B12 and vitamin D regimen continues, because deficiencies slow healing and your surgeon wants them corrected, not abandoned. Certain extras are a different matter: the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements notes vitamin E can increase bleeding, and fish oil and several botanicals are commonly reviewed for the same reason. Bring every bottle to your pre-operative assessment and let the team decide.

What is the body lift recovery timeline for going back to work?

It depends on the job and on how many areas were treated. Desk-based work is often possible after a couple of weeks once you are off sedating medicines and can sit comfortably; physically demanding roles wait longer. Mayo Clinic advises avoiding strenuous activity and heavy lifting for about six weeks after abdominal contouring, and body lift teams generally apply a similar or longer limit. Your surgeon will set your specific timeline.

What happens if I lose or gain weight after a body lift?

Modest fluctuations are normal and tolerated well. Larger losses can create fresh loose skin above or below the scar, while significant regain stretches the closure and can widen scars or produce new folds. That is why stability before surgery is emphasized so heavily, and why continuing your bariatric program’s follow-up, protein-forward eating and regular activity matters afterward. Discuss any planned weight change with your surgeon before the operation.

References

• World Health Organization: Smoking greatly increases risk of complications after surgery
• NHS: Having an operation (surgery): Preparation
• MedlinePlus: Smoking and surgery

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.