Body types following obesity surgery and skin re-contouring: A secondary level of analysis

Abstract

Purpose: To identify body types and normative transformation after obesity surgery and body re-contouring. Methods: A qualitative secondary analysis was conducted involving 20 transcripts, extracted from one primary dataset containing interview data. A model of empirically grounded type construction was employed and adapted to analyse data. Results: Four emerging body types were revealed including type 1 ‘identity disruption’, type 2 ‘overcoming identity lag’, type 3 ‘refining appearance’ and type 4 ‘transformed new me’. The findings shed light on the normative transformation process and the huge challenges that patients encounter. It is crucial to acknowledge that body types 1 and 2 experienced identity disruption and emotional turmoil, post body recontouring surgery. Contrastingly, types 3 and 4 showed strong determination and resilience throughout the transformation process despite embodied turbulence.