Woman, 41, Was Tired of ‘Hiding’ Excess Skin After Losing 180 Lbs. on a GLP-1. Then She Got an ‘Awake’ Arm Lift (Exclusive)

One woman is going viral for wanting to end the stigma around weight loss-related plastic surgeries.

Jen, 41, began sharing her body transformation journey on TikTok in 2025 after losing 180 lbs. on a GLP-1. The increasingly popular medication, which is short for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, is used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity.

After her extreme weight loss resulted in excess skin, Jen sought out a brachioplasty, or an arm lift, to have it removed. In her videos, she’s taken viewers through the surgery and recovery processes, providing updates every step of the way.

In an interview with PEOPLE, she explains that getting the surgery wasn’t purely for vanity.

“The excess skin is uncomfortable, too,” she says. “It’s hard to describe it. It almost doesn’t feel like it’s a part of your body. You’re hiding it behind clothes. I met my goal weight, I’m at where I’m happiest and feel the best in my body, but it’s almost like my outward appearance doesn’t match it.”

Jen has also been transparent about one very important aspect of the procedure — she was awake the entire time. “Awake” plastic surgeries allow patients to forgo general anesthesia (and all of its risks and side effects) and instead rely on local anesthesia, laughing gas and other medications to manage pain and discomfort.

“Your body is numbed, so you really don’t feel anything,” Jen tells PEOPLE. “If you have any type of pain, there is laughing gas that you can take during it. But I only have positive memories from the surgery.”

She recalls that the surgery “wasn’t scary at all” and that she was “awake and talking” throughout the four-to-five-hour procedure, which took place in October.

To ensure she would get the best care, Jen sought out Dr. Zachary Willis of Willis Cosmetic Surgery & MedSpa in Ellisville, Mo. The cosmetic surgeon has built much of his practice around awake procedures, specializing in weight loss patients, and in 2025 performed 87 awake arm lifts. He also offers other procedures such as awake tummy tucks, breast lifts and medial thigh lifts.

“It is just all under local numbing,” Dr. Willis tells PEOPLE. “So you take what’s called tumescent, [which is] basically just a bag of saline like you would get at the ER if you’re dehydrated or something. You just put a small amount of lidocaine in the bag and then you mix it up with a couple other things and then you inject it into the area. So then it kind of blocks that area.”

“We also give [patients] a relaxation medication when they first come in,” he continues. “It allows them to just be nice and chill, but we don’t ever give them anything that puts them asleep.”

While the technology for awake procedures has “been around for awhile,” Dr. Willis says physicians are not usually trained in it.

“I’m private practice, but a lot of these hospitals are stuck in what they’re allowed to do,” he explains, adding that he often sees patients who have been turned away by other local surgeons because they don’t have the capabilities for awake procedures.

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“His work really speaks for itself,” Jen says of Dr. Willis. In March, she’s going back to him for an awake breast lift.

Jen believes that awake procedures will only continue to surge in popularity due to the newfound accessibility of GLP-1s. As the new frontier of plastic surgery unfolds, Jen is on a mission to end the stigma around weight loss medication and subsequent skin-tightening procedures.

“I get so many comments of people being like, ‘You’re vain, you’re self-absorbed, you’re a horrible person. You should just live with the excess skin,'” she says.

She adds, “The more research comes out about the benefits of being on [GLP-1s], I hope more people are open. I hope that people see how it’s been a miracle for a lot of us out there.”

Read the original article on People