To feel ashamed, embarrassed and not know how to fix this?

[Avatarthewayofwater]

I've taken the image from Google as I'm far to embarrassed to take a picture of myself.

Any weight I gain goes on my stomach and due to emotional binge eating I find myself here.

I did have ultrasound scans to check nothing underlying was going on, but no its visceral fat and only I can get rid if it.

The problem is I've changed my diet completely and calorie counting and eating healthy along with exercise. Yet nothing has changed stomach wise.

I'm so self conscious and I can't wear normal clothes because I constantly look pregnant.

Even at the gym I hide in a big hoodie so no one can see.

It's making me depressed and I don't know how to get rid of the stomach fat.

Has anyone else been like this and managed? I had a c section years ago and have an underactive thyroid if that makes any difference.

Please be kind...

When you say ‘mixed veg’, can I ask what you mean, please? As the term could cover everything fro leafy greens to sweetcorn and peas.

Nonsense. I did this for years. Loads of fitness people do low carb and workout.

I am the same but in my 50’s, I’ve been doing the Fast 800 diet but I’m not losing much at all. I have PCOS, the symptoms are the same even though I had a total hysterectomy 20 years ago. I have been told that once the abdominal muscles have been cut through surgery it is impossible to get the tummy flat, not sure if this is right. It’s interesting reading that so many others are like this. I’ve always been a curvy 10 but now an apple shaped 14. Getting quite down about it tbh 😒

The trick to loosing it is you must drink 2/3L of water a day. It definitely helped me.

It’s a diastisis recti! I had exactly the same thing and I’m a size 6. Only a full tummy tuck can fix it, where the muscles are sewn back together. Life flat on your back anc lift your shoulders, of your stomach peaks onto a point it’s a DR. Also if you lie flat and suck on you will see a split through the muscles. Mine was 4 fingers wide 😩

Correct. It’s called a diastisis recti. I had exactly the same thing anc only a tummy tuck fixed it. NEVER do sit ups when you have one, even getting up from lying down you should roll onto your side. So many women have this but don’t realise, they just think they’re fat round the middle.

Grapes are very high in sugar, as are most berries, I would skip them

Sorry to chime back in here, but ignore this nonsense. It's complete bollocks. As long as you are in a deficit, and you are having a solid amount of protein (aim for 100-120g of protein) and good carbs and fats, you will lose. Get rid of the yogurt in the morning. You need something better than that to fuel your body. Something like porridge with mixed berries or fruit is a good choice. You can even mix a cup of Whey protein into it as I do. Easy way to get your protein in.

See this is the issue. There’s not actually one size fits all.

I agree about the berries.

However, completely disagree with the oats. Especially with whey protein. I have PCOS and some other things and present like Op.

Oats and/or protein powder cause me all sorts of stomach problems. As someone who did weights/PT sessions for years, my stomach improves if I drop the oats and or protein in favour for something like greek yoghurt and fruit. Or eggs. Or even rye sour dough toast.

All our advice may help op it may not as she is not entirely sure of the issue.

Keep going with the healthy eating.
Good start with the walking on treadmill but I suspect you’d get better results from doing something that really gets your heart rate up - can you do something high intensity in the middle of your workout for 10 mins and increase it gradually.

Rowing or step machine would be my choice.. both are excellent full body workouts and will help target your middle.
Stay away from the bike as this won’t help your stomach much. Running also good but wearing on the knees. Most effective for weight loss for me was working very hard with exercise - push yourself- high intensity gym workouts every other day and then days in between I went for a 40 min power walk.

Keep going.. you’ll get there. Up the exercise so it is really pushing yourself. Good luck! Xxx

The blood test isn't great, false negatives. My gastroenterologist said you need a biopsy to definitely rule it out.

@Funkytuna if you have a sudden abdominal weight gain then please get a scan like the OP, it’s essential to rule out ovarian issues

I am so sick of peoples inability to believe that fruits are not always good for you.
grapes have a higher than usual sugar content .
sugar is bad for us. Especially if you are trying to loose weight.
I see people do this all the time, where they are dieting and dieting and loosing nothing because they are under the impression that fruits and berries are nothing but healthy.

also portions, people assume that since fruits and berries are healthy they can eat as many as they want but 1 serving of grapes is liken 10-15, any more than that is far too much sugar for a person living normally and exercising. Again, for anyone dieting there is just no reason to add sugar full stop.
why make it harder for yourself?

This!!! Getting test done by NHS is a nightmare (I too had to fight for over a year for something that could have been diagnosed within a week if they’d sent me for a blood test… which they do in same practice!)
anyway, you can get bold & hormone tests done online now & while they aren’t official you can take the results to your GP and demand they rule out anything raised by online test
Pilates and strength training will be excellent progressions to your treadmill (have you tried the 12:3:30?) and you can get free apps/videos (I use fiton but there are plenty of others) online

good luck - from a fellow preggo belly warrior

You are 100% wrong. Once you have adjusted your body to burn its own fat for long-term sustainable energy as opposed to it relying on short term sugar (carbs) your body becomes a constant source of energy that does not diminish. I can work out very intensely, whether it be running or heavyweights in a fully fasted state without any food inside me at all, and I still do not feel hungry after the workout and you get no dips in energy throughout the day and no sugar cravings. Please feel free to research if the topic interests you. My post earlier, explains it in a little bit more detail on how to achieve this. Humans were not designed to be sugar burners but society seems to have turned us into them as opposed to fat burners with sugary cereals and various myths such as 3 meals per day with snacks… inadvertently creating the type 2 diabetes pandemic.

I am aware, I have Graves' Disease. A bit of digging will find the NICE guidelines which can be used to talk to your GP. It may not have anything to do with the OP's issues, but lots of people seem to be on tiny doses of levothyroxine and have woefully low thyroid hormones as a result.

I have no advice, OP, except to say I don't recommend planks, Pilates is excellent for ab muscles, and Lucy Wyndham Reed's standing ab workouts are excellent too.

OP I’d be wary of trying to change too much at once, there’s loads of good advice on this thread but if you try lots of things all at once you may be overwhelmed and setting yourself up for failure.

I have the same issue. I think I have DR but I’m also carrying probably a couple of stone more than I would like and it’s round my middle.

I’m another fan of Team RH and while I agree it’s not for everyone I do recommend it to people as if it suits you it works really well. In particular the rules are really simple and they go back to the fundamentals of sensible (but not oppressive) macros and movement.

The other thing OP, is that if your stomach is like mine and like the photo in the OP the DR thing is a cause but also maybe a distraction to the real issue, which is the layer of fat sitting on top of and hanging off it.

i can live with the DR, it’s the fat I want to shift - I don’t really care if my stomach still sticks out a bit at the end of that process. I just want to be healthy and not be so squishy.

And I'm sick of people's inability to know the difference between what's good and what's not. Fruit is not bad for you. It's a natural sugar - i.e. fructose. It is broken down differently than refined sugar, i.e. - sucrose. Does that mean I would suggest the OP should ate 10-20 pieces a day? No. But as long as she's in a calorific deficit then she should lose. Period.

@Hayliebells "Your body cannot access the energy it needs quickly during exercise from fat alone. You cannot workout intensely and rely on fat to provide that energy. You can do low intensity exercise, but not strength training, or a spin class."

Nonsense. I have trained for and ran several marathons and numerous quarter marathons while very very low carb. As long as your body has turned into and is acclimatised to fat burning and not sugar burning there is plenty of easy access energy.

Sucrose is a disaccaride, which breaks down into glucose and fructose which are monosaccarides. All of these 3 sugars can be found in fruits. Too much fructose is not a good thing despite it being “natural”.

Nuts carry lots of calories. Try something else. Chicken is good.

So I got up at 4am and went to the gym. I managed 30 minutes on the treadmill doing rolling hills and 15 minutes spinning. I'm going to try and go everyday and up the intensity bit by bit before my PT session on Sunday.

To eat I've had:
Breakfast
1 cup of grapes
2 low fat yoghurt
1 handful of cashew nuts

Lunch
Cottage cheese
2 eggs scrambled
Steam bag of mixed veg
1 tin of tuna

For tea my partner is cooking tacos with low fat minced beef.

I've also tried really hard to up my water intake.