[misspiggy408]

I HATE MY BELLY, I really do It's almost kind of discouraging. Even at my smallest (smallest POST baby) I was a size 7 pants still with an ugly belly. I've had 2 c-sections, so there is some loose skin underneath my belly button that sorta looks like hanging curtains (LOL Ewww!) And I can live with that. But what bugs me is the top portion of my belly kind of sticks out like i'm pregnant. I'ts gone down a little since i've dropped 30 lbs, but is still noticable. I'm 149lbs right now and always tell myself how I would be ok with the size of my legs/arms, etc. if only my belly would go down

For years I did old fashion sit ups/crunches, so my workout buddy thinks maybe I worked out my ab muscles to where they stick OUT and not in... is that even possible? Another buddy of mine says maybe my abdominal wall was stretched out during both of my pregnancies, being that my belly got so huge ....? I dunno, whatever the case it really frusterates me, especially when i'm losing weight everywhere else BUT there.

Anyone have this same problem? Any suggestions on how to beat belly bloating/baby belly/whatever it is!? LOL

[rachiebach]

Hmmm, well I've never had the same problem. But I've also never heard of anyone working out to make their ab muscles stick out and not in. Unless of course we're talking about uber-defined six packs or something...some people just have a harder time losing weight in certian areas of their body. For me it's my butt and thighs. For one of my friends, it's her stomach. Like she's a size 0 in all regards except her stomach and she's forever complaining that it looks like she's pregnant. It's just genetics for her. For you it's entirely possible that you stretched out your ab muscles during your pregnancy and it's taking them a while to snap back into shape.

Just work on cardio and ab exercies and hopefully it will pay off!

[cb1]

My belly muscles stick out a bit from pregnancy but it's going down over time (last baby is 18 months old now). I had a tilted uterus so it pushed my stomach wall further forward then it should have which did stress my abdominals (and massive ugly stretch marks to show!!) However they are way better than they were a few months postpartum, so i'm optimistic that it'll look okay (except for the stretch marks) after i lose the chubs there.

The only way to find out for sure if it's because of pregnancy would be to see a doctor and find out if you have either separated abdominals (can happen if you have twins etc), or massively stretched ones. The other possibility is that you just accumulate more chubs there genetically, and it's one of the last places your body decides to burn fat from. and the only way to get rid of that is to continue to lose weight since it's pretty impossible to spot reduce.

[aneleh]

Maybe your belly area is just the last place fat hangs on to as you're losing? It could be that it won't show a significant difference until you are closer to goal. For me, that area is the hips!