‘Lifting from head to toe’: Weight-loss drugs boost popularity of surgeries to remove extra skin

Thanks to effective and popular new drugs for weight loss and diabetes – an estimated 1 in 8 adults in the US has used Ozempic or a similar GLP-1 medication – demand for procedures to lift and tighten skin has surged.

Leah Rae Russell lost more than 200 pounds over a decade, but she says she wasn’t able to fully appreciate her accomplishment until she took a final step: tightening and removing about 3 pounds of skin hanging from her chest and stomach. The change has been so dramatic, she often doesn’t recognize herself when she looks in the mirror. “I find myself looking in mirrors a lot, and I feel like it comes off very conceited, but it’s really just kind of trying to accept the fact that what you’re seeing in the mirror, that’s your body. That’s not someone else,” said Russell, 31, who lives in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Russell had two procedures to tighten and lift loose and sagging skin on her breasts and abdomen about two months ago. Although she’s still healing, she has already seen big improvements. The surgeries were necessary for her self-esteem but also because the apron of skin hanging from her midsection would rub and cause rashes. A second roll of skin above that was also causing problems. “My belly button would be bleeding and raw all the time,” she said. “No matter how often you’re showering or powdering or anything like that, it gets to a point you have so much excess skin, there’s a limitation to how much you could just treat it without getting rid of it.”