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Feel pressured to get pre baby body back

41 replies

JadeJaunt · 12/06/2025 16:16

Is it me or is this quite challenging to navigate? I see loads of it on social media, women who have effortlessly fitted back in to their exercise routine and look so slim just weeks after birth. I gave birth a few months ago and have struggled to get back in to any sort of routine with exercise. I was in a shop with my partner earlier and we walked past a woman in leggings, great figure and clearly just been/ going to the gym. My partner recognised her from his gym and said that she gave birth at the start of this year ‘so it shows it can be done with some dedication’ - I just can’t escape it!!

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anitarielleliphe · 13/06/2025 14:27

JadeJaunt · 12/06/2025 17:21

DH works in a gym, so does exercise more or less daily. I do have some free time each day but it’s usually little more than an hour and there’s a lot I’d rather do than regular gym sessions if I’m honest.

Why is it that you only have a little more than an hour of free time to yourself? Does your partner help at all with your child? Is he unable to take your child for more than an hour? There is a huge imbalance between you in expectations for parenting, free time, and recovery from birth. This is a baseline problem that will only get worse with time. When the baby is more difficult and you have real parenting problems to manage, if he is involved this little, you will be shouldering it all, and with "HIS" expectations that you look smashing as you do.

Didimum · 12/06/2025 22:06

No, I didn’t feel much pressure and there is no way in hell my DH would have said anything like that to me.

Mum2jenny · 12/06/2025 21:54

My body bounced back quickly after baby 1. Baby 2 was a very different kettle of fish.
If I could get my weight down to what it was just before I gave birth to baby 1, I’d be absolutely delighted.
Your partner is a twat, hth

Throwntothewolves · 12/06/2025 21:50

Your partner is a dick! Ignore him.

I was 8.5 stone, nearly a stone lighter than I’d been pre-baby, about 8 weeks after giving birth. With the milk filled boobs and slim waist etc I looked pretty good on the surface, but I felt horrendous. Part of the reason for the quick weight loss was that my chronic illness had kicked in, exacerbated by lack of sleep and feeding a baby. So others may have thought ‘how did she do it?’ but hey really wouldn’t have wanted to swap places with me.

Don’t judge yourself against others, you don’t know their story. If you want to lose weight do it for you.

Zezet · 12/06/2025 18:34

I walked out if hospital literally directly to the clothes shop to get a pair one jeans one size below my normal size.

It wasn't dedication. It was sickness throughout pregnancy and a sign of lack of health.

By which I am just demonstrating that yes, some women lost the weight, but it's not necessarily dedication, it's that bodies are fucking weird.

Your husband, on the other hand, is not so much weird as just an ass.

GoodQueenBess · 12/06/2025 18:16

You have a DP issue. I hope your baby didn't inherit your DP's lack of tact and sensitivity. Presumably your fanny slammed shut at that comment.

Charliebear322 · 12/06/2025 18:13

Your partners a twat

WonderingWanda · 12/06/2025 18:13

Honestly I could never be with someone who placed so much value on physical perfection. My dh recognises that my body grew two babies and that life takes its toll. I am 12 years post partum and a couple of stone heavier and signifiicantly saggier than pre pregnancy but my dh tells me I am beautiful every day.

WaltzingWaters · 12/06/2025 18:12

Firstly your partner is an absolute dickhead for making that comment.
Secondly, I found it far more difficult than I thought it would be to shift the baby weight and I don’t think I ever really got my full pre baby body back. I fit into most of my pre pregnancy clothes after about 5-6 months, but my body was never really the same as before despite regular exercise and a generally healthy diet.

amberisola · 12/06/2025 18:11

Wow.

I'm 8.5m PP and just about starting to be able to fit into some of my more forgiving pre-preg clothes after losing 12kg. It was NOT easy. It was 4-5 months before I felt physically recovered, never mind thinking about weight.

Fwiw losing it had little to do with exercise but watching what I eat and intermittent fasting. I hardly ever sit still, but it's not like I have time to go to the gym (or do anything for myself....) plus I'm shattered from broken sleep.

If some man was pressuring me to fit in exercise sessions to look better I would probably explode with rage.

Sheknowsaboutme · 12/06/2025 18:10

ive realised i will never get it back.

just taken me 17 yrs to realise it

he’s s right dickhead.

heavenisaplaceonearth · 12/06/2025 18:07

Are you breast feeding?

HiddenInCubeOfCheese · 12/06/2025 18:06

But to answer your first sentence, yes, I have so far found it hard to navigate…and I’m only in my second trimester of a first pregnancy. I’m a real gym bunny. Have been for 15 years. Incredibly disciplined, and for the last 4 months, have been an absolute slob potato. I get inundated on IG with videos of “let me show you my 8 month bump!” and it’s like she’s just got some trapped wind. I don’t want to shame the slim builds/small bumps etc, but a HUGE angle of this stuff is “oh, I’m so teeny tiny and tanned and rested and my body has barely changed! A ha ha ha”.

It’s not real. Your body did something bloody amazing. It sometimes needs time to recover.

HiddenInCubeOfCheese · 12/06/2025 18:03

If he wants a trophy wife, then you can trade: tell him, if he put his mind to it, he could be a trophy husband that was fabulously wealthy so that you could have nannies and chefs and PTs.

QuickFawn · 12/06/2025 18:02

What a prize pr!ck, the only weight you need to loose from your life is him

MsRosewater · 12/06/2025 17:59

Your husband is an arse

And for what it’s worth, despite being very active and very careful about food it took me a couple of years to shift the not-particularly-vast amount of baby weight I gained. It only shifted when I stopped breastfeeding.

So it’s not necessarily a matter of determination…

But mostly- your husband is an arse

Amba1998 · 12/06/2025 17:48

Honestly, no. I see so much on social media these days and amongst friends and family about taking care of yourself and not putting yourself under any pressure and you’ve grown a baby etc etc

so really the issue here is your husband

Topjoe19 · 12/06/2025 17:46

What a prick!!!

mybrainpills · 12/06/2025 17:40

I worked out at home after i had my son i was a single mum so did not have time or money for the gym.
I had a C-section so had a good 4 week rest pottering about.
When i was healed i started working out on the floor.
I knew if i didnt do now i would struggle as i got older to shift it.

daff0di1 · 12/06/2025 17:39

JadeJaunt · 12/06/2025 17:21

DH works in a gym, so does exercise more or less daily. I do have some free time each day but it’s usually little more than an hour and there’s a lot I’d rather do than regular gym sessions if I’m honest.

Most days it's a good day if I've managed to brush my hair!! Gym is the last place on my mind lol

Crushed23 · 12/06/2025 17:38

JadeJaunt · 12/06/2025 17:21

DH works in a gym, so does exercise more or less daily. I do have some free time each day but it’s usually little more than an hour and there’s a lot I’d rather do than regular gym sessions if I’m honest.

Can’t the other parent step up so you get more than 1 hour free each day?

Blobbitymacblob · 12/06/2025 17:35

Those influencers and celebrities are trying to make a living off their bodies and while I don’t begrudge them, I was very grateful that I wasn’t in that position and could let my babies enjoy their mummy’s squishy cuddly belly and boobs instead.

Once you’re up chasing them around as toddlers, the extra weight will fall away anyway.

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 12/06/2025 17:25

JadeJaunt · 12/06/2025 17:21

DH works in a gym, so does exercise more or less daily. I do have some free time each day but it’s usually little more than an hour and there’s a lot I’d rather do than regular gym sessions if I’m honest.

Why are you only getting an hour of free time a day?

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 12/06/2025 17:25

HenDoNot · 12/06/2025 16:27

My partner recognised her from his gym and said that she gave birth at the start of this year ‘so it shows it can be done with some dedication’ - I just can’t escape it!!

I take it your partner is doing his bit to make sure you have plenty of free time to go to the gym? No, probably not. I’m sure he manages to get there a good number of times a week though, without a second thought about leaving you at home with the baby.

This.

Digdongdoo · 12/06/2025 17:24

Presumably he's helping you prep healthy meals every day, doing his share of night wakings so you're properly rested and making sure you adequate time to rest and exercise? If not he can get fucked. And even if he is, he can get fucked. It isn't possible to get back a pre baby body post baby without a time machine.
I'd steer clear of social media, it isn't healthy. In the real world women come in all shapes and sizes, pre or post baby.
Next time he has a baby, he can show you how he bounces back can't he?

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