You've done the hard part. You lost the weight, changed your habits, and probably put up with more discomfort than others around you recognize. Then you look in the mirror, or try on fitted clothes, or exercise without a compression layer, and the next problem becomes obvious. The scale changed, but your skin didn't always follow.
That's why so many people search for excess skin removal before and after. They aren't only looking for dramatic photos. They're trying to answer practical questions. Will surgery help with rashes, movement, and clothing fit? Can non-surgical tightening work instead? How visible will scars be, and is the recovery worth it?
Cleveland Clinic notes that excess skin removal is most commonly discussed after major weight loss, and that some patients may need body contouring after losing 100 pounds or more. It also explains why these procedures are often framed as the final step in a major weight-loss journey. They can improve appearance, comfort, and how clothing fits.
If your weight loss came with muscle loss too, this guide pairs well with advice on combatting muscle loss on GLP-1 drugs.
Table of Contents
- 1. Dr. Connie Hiers
- 2. American Society of Plastic Surgeons ASPS Body Contouring Photos
- 3. Cleveland Clinic Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery Photo Galleries
- 4. The Aesthetic Society Plastic Surgery After Weight Loss Before and After Photos
- 5. Colorado Plastic Surgery Center Body Lift Before and After
- 6. South Bay Plastic Surgeons Los Angeles Area After Massive Weight Loss Gallery
- 7. Dr. Thomas Jeneby San Antonio TX Tummy Tuck and Mommy Makeover Gallery
- Excess Skin Removal: 7 Before & After Comparisons
- Your Next Step Planning a Transformation with Confidence
1. Dr. Connie Hiers
A typical excess skin case in San Antonio does not start with a photo. It starts with a patient who has done the hard part already, lost a major amount of weight, stabilized there, and now finds that the abdomen still hangs over clothing, the bra line bunches, and exercise no longer changes the contour. That is the kind of case where Dr. Connie Hiers' long experience matters. The decision is no longer about weight loss. It is about choosing the right operation, in the right order, for skin that has lost its ability to retract.
Consider a composite patient: a woman in her 40s after major weight loss, healthy, weight stable, bothered most by a lower abdominal apron and side-to-side looseness around the waist. She may arrive asking for liposuction because it sounds smaller and simpler. In many cases like this, liposuction alone would miss the underlying problem. Fat can be reduced, but hanging skin and stretched fascial support usually require excision if the goal is a flatter, cleaner lower torso shape. A surgeon with a broad body contouring practice has to separate what can improve with suction, what needs a tummy tuck, and what should wait for a second stage.
Dr. Hiers practices at Chrysalis Cosmetic Surgery Center in Stone Oak and offers procedures that matter in this decision tree, including liposuction, mini and full tummy tuck options, and broader body contouring. For a patient with true excess skin, the useful question is not which procedure sounds easiest. It is which plan matches the anatomy and the patient's recovery capacity.
A realistic planning path
For the composite patient above, the consultation would usually focus on four points:
- where the excess skin sits, lower abdomen only or circumferentially into the flanks and back
- how much residual fat remains versus lax skin
- whether muscle separation is part of the contour problem
- whether the patient can safely recover from a larger operation now or would do better with staging
That last point gets overlooked in before and after browsing. Some patients are technically candidates for a bigger contouring procedure, but not logistically ready for the recovery, scar care, time off work, and lifting restrictions. Good surgical planning accounts for home support, job demands, and tolerance for trade-offs, not just the anatomy.
A smaller operation can be the right choice. It can also under-treat the problem.
Why this matters in excess skin removal before and after analysis
The value in reviewing a surgeon like Dr. Hiers is not just the practice profile. It is the clinical judgment behind case selection. A patient with hanging lower abdominal skin may see dramatic improvement from a full tummy tuck, while a patient with looseness extending around the hips may feel disappointed if the procedure stops too far short laterally. Before and after photos often show the result. They do not always show the reasoning that produced it.
That is why the stronger way to read this source is as a case study framework:
- Primary complaint: overhanging abdominal skin after weight loss
- Likely surgical question: liposuction versus skin excision versus a combined approach
- Key trade-off: longer scar and longer recovery in exchange for better contour correction
- Recovery reality: swelling, limited activity, and a staged return to normal movement
- Success marker: the result fits both the body and the patient's ability to heal through the process
As noted by Gold Coast Plastic Surgery on body contouring, less invasive options may offer modest tightening, while substantial hanging skin usually requires surgery. That matches what experienced body contouring surgeons see in practice. If the skin folds, shifts, and pools, the fix is usually excision, not a device treatment.
Where this source is strongest
Dr. Hiers is most useful here as a practitioner example for readers who want to understand how an experienced surgeon might approach a post-weight-loss body contouring plan in real life. The practical advantage is range. A patient can be evaluated for a limited abdominal procedure, a fuller contouring operation, or an adjunctive liposuction plan rather than being pushed into one preset answer.
The limitations should be stated plainly. Public materials can show scope of practice and general approach, but they cannot tell you whether your tissue quality, scar placement goals, or medical history make you a good candidate. Fees, timing, anesthesia details, and final recommendations still have to be confirmed in consultation.
For readers studying excess skin removal before and after, this source works best if you treat it as the start of a patient journey analysis. The useful question is not "Do I like this surgeon?" It is "If I presented with this pattern of excess skin, what operation would solve it, what scar would that require, and what recovery would I be agreeing to?"
2. American Society of Plastic Surgeons ASPS Body Contouring Photos
Some people don't need a single surgeon's gallery first. They need range. ASPS body contouring photos are useful for that because they aggregate examples from board-certified plastic surgeons across the country. If you're still figuring out whether your issue looks more like panniculectomy, lower body lift, tummy tuck, arm lift, or thigh lift territory, this is a strong comparison tool.
The gallery's biggest strength is breadth. You can see different body types, different scar patterns, and different levels of complexity without being locked into one practice's visual style. For patients researching excess skin removal before and after, that broad exposure helps calibrate expectations quickly.
Best use case
Use ASPS early, before your consultation, when you're trying to identify which procedures keep appearing in results that resemble your body. Don't focus only on the flattest abdomen. Look at waistline improvement, side views, lower abdominal overhang, and whether the surgeon addressed adjacent areas like flanks or arms.
That comparison work matters because many patients assume one procedure should fix the whole torso. Often it won't.
Strong galleries don't just show better shape. They show what was left alone, what was tightened, and where the scars had to go to make that change possible.
What the gallery does well and where it falls short
The trust signal is strong because the contributors are ASPS member surgeons. The practical downside is inconsistency. Angles, lighting, posture, and timing after surgery can vary across practices, which makes apples-to-apples comparison harder.
- Best feature: National scope with multiple body-contouring categories in one place.
- Best for: Patients narrowing down procedure names and likely scar locations.
- Main drawback: No pricing, and no single recovery philosophy because cases come from many practices.
- Second drawback: Mixed photo standards can make one result look better than another even when the surgery quality is comparable.
This is a research gallery, not a replacement for surgeon judgment. It's excellent for pattern recognition, less useful for individualized planning.
3. Cleveland Clinic Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery Photo Galleries
Cleveland Clinic's cosmetic and plastic surgery photo galleries feel different from a marketing-forward gallery. The images tend to be more clinical, more standardized, and paired with educational context that helps patients understand why a procedure was chosen. That tone is valuable when you're trying to read before-and-after photos as medical planning, not just visual proof.
This matters in excess skin removal cases because body contouring after major weight loss often solves both form and function. The same institution notes elsewhere that excess skin procedures can improve comfort and clothing fit, not just appearance. That framing tends to produce better patient expectations.
Why the clinical setting matters
Academic medical centers usually present surgery with less glamour and more context. For many patients, that's an advantage. They're less likely to get distracted by styling and more likely to notice incision placement, contour balance, and healing stages.
Some cases also include timepoints after surgery, which is helpful. A result shown months after surgery tells a different story than a very early postoperative photo. Swelling, scar color, and tissue settling all change the read.
- Clinical consistency: Better for comparing shape and healing without heavy marketing polish.
- Educational value: The surrounding content often helps patients understand indications and recovery.
- Good fit: Patients who want a medically grounded first pass before meeting private practices.
Who should use this gallery first
This is especially useful for patients who are undecided between functional abdominal skin removal and a more aesthetic contouring procedure. It helps clarify the difference between “I want the apron gone” and “I also want waist shaping and a tighter overall silhouette.”
The limitation is volume. You won't always find as many massive-weight-loss or circumferential body lift examples as you would in a dedicated private-practice gallery. Pricing also isn't listed, and hospital-based care may involve cost factors that only come into focus during consultation.
4. The Aesthetic Society Plastic Surgery After Weight Loss Before and After Photos
If your concern is specifically post-weight-loss contouring, The Aesthetic Society's after weight loss photo gallery is one of the cleaner places to stay focused. The cases lean into the actual problem massive-weight-loss patients face. Redundant skin across multiple zones, not just a lower-belly issue.
That concentration makes the gallery useful for patients evaluating lower body lifts, extended abdominoplasty, arm lifts, and thigh lifts as part of one broader transformation. It also pairs well with a more educational explanation of body contouring after weight loss, especially if you're trying to understand why one area often leads to another.
Where this gallery is strongest
Its best feature is surgeon credentialing combined with aesthetic focus. The participating surgeons are board-certified and the gallery doesn't drift away from post-weight-loss realities. You'll see how surgeons handle contour across connected areas, which is often more important than any single front-view photo.
A peer-reviewed study of post-weight-loss body-contouring patients found an overall satisfaction rate of 62.8%, with mammoplasty at 66.6% as the highest-satisfaction procedure in that sample. The same study concluded that body-contouring surgery after weight loss improved psychological and social aspects of patients' lives. That's a useful reminder that “before and after” isn't only about visual change.
The best outcomes often read as relief. Clothes fit better, movement feels easier, and people stop thinking about the skin all day.
The trade-off patients need to understand
The gallery volume depends on surgeon and region. Some markets show more examples than others. You also won't get direct pricing, and that's normal in this category because procedure combinations vary so much.
Still, for someone asking, “What does a real post-weight-loss transformation look like when more than one area is involved?”, this is one of the most targeted resources available.
5. Colorado Plastic Surgery Center Body Lift Before and After
Private-practice galleries can be more revealing than national directories when they go deep on one problem. Colorado Plastic Surgery Center's body lift gallery does that well. It gives you a detailed look at circumferential contouring, including lower body lift logic that many patients don't understand until a surgeon explains it in person.
A body lift case often tells the truth better than an isolated tummy tuck gallery. You can see how the abdomen, hips, waist, lower back, and buttock area relate to one another. That's essential in excess skin removal before and after research, because many post-weight-loss bodies don't carry loose skin in only one place.
Why body lift galleries tell a fuller story
What makes this gallery useful is the narrative context attached to many cases. When a case notes previous bariatric surgery or combined procedures such as arm work or belt lipectomy, patients can map that logic onto their own concerns. They stop asking, “Why can't you just remove this one fold?” and start understanding body contour as a connected system.
The front, side, and back views also matter. Some of the most meaningful improvements in a body lift aren't obvious from the front alone.
- Best educational value: Multi-angle imaging that shows circumferential change.
- Best for: Patients with loose skin wrapping around the torso, not only the lower abdomen.
- Key limitation: It's one practice's perspective, so you're seeing one surgical style and one patient population.
What to notice beyond the abdomen
Look at buttock position, lateral thigh smoothness, and how the waist transitions into the lower back. Those details often separate a merely flatter abdomen from a more balanced result.
The trade-off is practical. There's no posted pricing, and non-local patients may need to factor in travel and follow-up planning. But as a learning gallery for full lower-body contouring, it's stronger than most.
6. South Bay Plastic Surgeons Los Angeles Area After Massive Weight Loss Gallery
South Bay Plastic Surgeons' after massive weight loss gallery is especially good for one reason. It labels procedure combinations clearly. That sounds minor until you've spent an hour looking at body contouring photos and still can't tell whether you're seeing a panniculectomy, extended abdominoplasty, belt lipectomy, thigh lift, or several of them together.
That labeling is useful because patients often search by appearance, not by operation name. They know what bothers them, but they don't know which surgical combination usually addresses it. If you've also been trying to understand what causes loose skin after weight loss, this gallery helps connect anatomy to procedure choice.
Why labeled combinations help patients
The gallery spans abdomen, flanks, back, thighs, and arms, which reflects how excess skin often presents in real life. The standardized photography also makes comparison easier. You're less likely to be misled by flattering angles because the shots are relatively consistent.
That consistency helps patients spot a key reality. Surgeons often combine procedures because the skin problem is continuous across neighboring areas.
Before-and-after photos become far more useful when you know exactly what was done. Otherwise, you may expect a tummy tuck result from a body lift case, or vice versa.
A realistic reading of before and after photos
This is a strong gallery for understanding combinations, but it's still a single geographic market. Los Angeles logistics won't fit everyone, and pricing isn't published. Travel, financing, and time away from home all matter in body-contouring decisions.
Use this gallery when you want procedure names attached to visible outcomes. It won't answer every recovery question, but it will make your consultation questions much sharper.
7. Dr. Thomas Jeneby San Antonio TX Tummy Tuck and Mommy Makeover Gallery
For San Antonio patients whose primary concern is the abdomen, Dr. Thomas Jeneby's tummy tuck and mommy makeover gallery is a practical local resource. The gallery includes mini and full tummy tucks, lipoabdominoplasty-style combinations, and mommy makeover cases that show how abdominal contouring interacts with adjacent procedures.
This is especially useful when the question is not “Do I need a full lower body lift?” but “Can a tummy tuck-based plan solve most of what bothers me?” That's a common distinction in excess skin removal before and after consultations.
Best for abdominal excess skin cases
The gallery works best for people with lower abdominal overhang, postpartum skin laxity, or localized contour concerns after weight changes. You can compare fuller corrections against more limited ones and get a better sense of what extended abdominal contouring can and can't do. If your search has turned up terms like fleur-de-lis tummy tuck, this is the point where discussion with a surgeon becomes important, because scar pattern and skin distribution have to match.
The advantage here is local relevance. Follow-up matters in surgery, and seeing examples from a nearby practice can make planning feel more concrete.
- Best feature: Plenty of abdominal contouring examples in one market.
- Best for: Patients deciding between mini tuck, full tuck, and liposuction-assisted abdominal reshaping.
- Main limitation: The gallery emphasizes abdominal work more than full circumferential body-lift transformations.
Where this gallery fits in the decision process
Use this when you've already narrowed your concern to the midsection and want to compare common San Antonio-style treatment pathways. It's less useful if your loose skin wraps around the torso or extends significantly into thighs and arms.
Pricing isn't shown on case pages, so a consultation is still necessary. But for local patients, convenience and postoperative access can be just as important as the photo library itself.
Excess Skin Removal: 7 Before & After Comparisons
A summary table does not help much at this point. Excess skin removal is too individualized for a quick side by side scorecard, and flattening seven very different galleries into the same template hides the details that matter in practice.
The value in these before and after comparisons comes from studying each case in context. The useful questions are specific. How much skin was present, and where? Was the correction limited to the abdomen, or did it extend around the waist, back, arms, or thighs? Was the patient dealing with postpartum laxity, major weight loss, or a mix of skin excess and residual fat? Those distinctions shape the operation, scar pattern, recovery, and final contour.
That is why the strongest examples in this article work as case studies rather than a rankings chart. A broad society gallery helps patients compare patterns across many surgeons. A hospital-based gallery adds medical framing and a more clinical presentation of recovery. A focused body-lift practice may show the trade-offs of circumferential excision more clearly than a general cosmetic gallery. A local surgeon's photo set can be especially useful when follow-up logistics, revision planning, and access after surgery are part of the decision.
Patients usually do better when they use before and after photos to narrow the right conversation, not to choose a winner based on one dramatic result. The point is to identify which source reflects your anatomy, your goals, and the level of surgery your body may require.
Your Next Step Planning a Transformation with Confidence
The most important thing to understand about excess skin removal before and after photos is this. Great results don't come from chasing the most dramatic image. They come from matching the procedure to the actual problem, choosing a surgeon with sound judgment, and accepting the trade-offs upfront.
Scar placement is one of those trade-offs. So is recovery. Patients often focus first on whether surgery “works,” but the better question is whether the likely improvement in comfort, fit, movement, and confidence justifies the incision pattern and healing timeline for their specific body. In real practice, that answer is often yes for major weight-loss patients with true redundant skin. It's less convincing for mild laxity that might respond, at least partially, to less invasive options.
The strongest galleries on this list help in different ways. ASPS gives you breadth. Cleveland Clinic gives you medical context. The Aesthetic Society stays focused on post-weight-loss contouring. Colorado Plastic Surgery Center and South Bay Plastic Surgeons help patients understand combination procedures and circumferential change. Dr. Thomas Jeneby's gallery is useful for local abdominal cases. Dr. Connie Hiers stands out because she offers not just photos or procedure menus, but a practitioner's framework for deciding what's realistic.
That distinction matters. Body contouring after weight loss is often staged, not solved in one session. Non-surgical tightening can help some patients with mild laxity, but it won't replace surgery when the issue is substantial hanging skin. Weight stability also matters in planning, because timing influences healing and long-term shape.
If you're in San Antonio and want individualized guidance, Dr. Connie Hiers brings 39 years of private-practice experience to Chrysalis Cosmetic Surgery Center in Stone Oak, where she works alongside Dr. Thomas Jeneby. For patients considering tummy tuck surgery, liposuction, or broader body contouring after major weight loss, a personalized consultation is the next logical step. That's where photo research turns into a safe surgical plan.
If you're ready to move from browsing photos to getting real answers about your body, schedule a consultation with Dr. Connie Hiers. You'll get a personalized discussion about whether surgery, a staged approach, or a less invasive option makes sense for your goals, anatomy, and recovery needs.