to ask is anyone else dead skinny but with a fat belly?

[MoodyDidIt]

i swear sometimes i look 6 months pregnant :(

today is one of those days

am just over 8 stone and 5 foot 2 so clearly not overweight. BMI is only about 21/22 i think. and got skinny arms and skinny legs but a right pot belly. i eat a good diet - eat less than about 1600 calories every day but then have one day at the weekend when i let it go a bit. AND, and i do sit ups and push ups regularly but i feel like not fecking bothering for all the good it does :(

its not like i have a baby, youngest dc is 3 ffs

am ttc dc3 atm and i dread to think if am successfull what the state of it will be like after.

is anyone else like me? and is there anything i can do?? other than be 10 years younger and never have had dc help me

Regarding testing for wheat intolerance
Coeliac is very a specific and serious diagnosis- so that's why you should test for it as a cause of gluten intolerance. If you go gluten free then the coeliac test can go negative even though you actually have coeliac
But it seems that some people still can't tolerate gluten, but don't have coeliac. There isn't a blood test to confirm the diagnosis, it's more what you observe yourself. It seems to be a growth area of interest in Medicine
Gluten and wheat are linked, but not the same. It's maybe worth reading up on. It's probably too long to explain here

frustrated my friend is exactly lack that...not coeliac but through her own observations has worked it out. She's sick when she eats wheat as well as bloating out. Took her years to work out what it was.

Try yoga. And transverse abdominal exercises, which you can do anywhere. Breathe in, relax. Now, suck your belly in to your spine and blow out one LONG breath - count to 8. Even when you think your lungs are empty, blow some more til you have to gasp your next breath in. Be really strict, make sure you don't breathe in tiny bits halfway through. You can feel it working. If you do these breathing exercises Whilst Doing sit ups or plank, it makes them MUCH more effective - you WILL feel the difference!
The transverse abdominals hold the 6pack in place, pulling everything in like a girdle.

Thanks Alisvolatpropiis - it took me years too!
Just thought it was after too many babies and not enough exercise.
I have no issue avoiding wheat because it's completely worth it not to have the pain or bloating

does avoiding wheat mean avoiding bread?

if so i honestly think i'd rather have the preggy belly :o

diana thats interesting re the transverse abs exercise, i used to do pilates after the birth of dc1 and they were the kind of exercises they would get us doing. and it definitely flattened my tummy - shame i now have neither the time or the energy to go again now i have dc2!

OMG

diana i just did that exercise you suggested.....it made me go all light headed, spots appeared before my eyes and i had this like, weird sensation in my nose is this NORMAL??

Hmm, not sure about the weird sensation in your nose, but yeah, you may have held your breath a bit long there to make the spots appear. :) Sit down before you start :)

How can you say you don't have time to do breathing exercises?? :)

They really do work, esp when coupled with abdominal exercises - think of trying to force out every single molecule of air out of your lungs as you breathe out on the effort of a sit up, sucking your belly into your spine and visualise getting the bottom rib to touch your hip bones.

You see big muscle men with a 6 pack but still have a big poky-out pregnant looking belly, that's because they have worked the rectus abominis (6 pack) but not the transverse abdominis

yeah just tried and its definitely easier sitting down :o

thank you! it really FEELS like its working, where sit ups never did IYSWIM

Yay! :)

I'm really pleased for you!

Now do the breathing whilst doing full sit ups - bend knees (don't anchor them under any furniture, that's cheating!) and peel all your spine off the floor nice and slowly, blowing out all the way up, and keep blowing out as you SLOWLY return shoulders to the floor, vertebrae by vertebrae (NOTE: Do NOT pant/breathe in at the top!)
Don't come up TOO far, once you are sitting upright, you aren't using your abs anymore.
Visualise getting the ribs to touch the hips and the belly button to touch the spine, and every last molecule of breath out of your body.
It should KILL after just a few reps :)