Will I ever get my pre-pregancy body back?

[Coolbreezee]

Today I ran a 10k race. I did better than I expected with a time of 50:57. Quite a bit slower than my pre-pregancy days but I've only been running for the last 3 months after around a year off. I was so happy until I saw the race photos...

I'm not joking. I looked like a heffalump, with huge boobs and a resting bitch face (inside I was having a great time!). My hair was a mess and my baggy t shirt was so unflattering.

I used to be a size 6, athletic build. Now I am a size 10 with 32GG breasts (one several cup sizes bigger than the other). I eat healthy, last month I ran 150 miles. I walk 20k + steps every day. I feel fit and healthy. But the weight is just sticking to me. I am eating more than normal if I'm honest but not a crazy amount. I lost a few kgs by going on a 1200 cal diet, which was fine but is just not sustainable with my exercise and breastfeeding. DD is 8 months. I thought I'd be back in my pre-pregancy jeans by I'm not even close.

Day to day I don't really mind my body, it's done an amazing thing but whenever I see a photo I am absolutely disgusted.

I want to get back into shape, but honestly I am struggling to loose the weight. I know it's all diet. I only eat healthy food (obviously too much of it) but at the same time I'm listening to my hunger cues. I'm eating because my body is asking for it not because I'm bored or stressed or anything like that.

Pleas tell me it's just part of the process, or am I deluding myself. Should I be working harder to diet and lose weight. At first I was all for lets take the pressure off and focus on DD but now I'm getting frustrated and want my body back.

I got close-ish within six weeks, but the remainder clung to me until I significantly reduced breastfeeding at 18 months to one feed a day. Then the weight fell off without me changing much at all.

Thank you for all the supportive comments. You are all making me feel a lot better. I'm going to go back to being happy that I finished my run today - it was the first thing I've done for myself since having DD, and while my face didn't show it, I had a great time.

@Wonderlust233 I had the female wrestler look down in my run photos!

I lost tons when breastfeeding, was slimmer 4months pp than before I got pregnant. But my body wasn't the same. My boobs didn't really go back to normal until 1 year after I finished breastfeeding and they're definitely not quite the same as before.
My ribs/ waist/ hips stayed wider when though I weighed less.
At only 8 months post partum I'd be nice to yourself and relax your diet completely. It's a massive life change you don't need the stress of worrying about your body too. I bet you're not getting half as much sleep/ downtime as you did pre baby and that can really effect weight/ appetite.

This is a side of being a mum I’ve found difficult too at times. Your body changes, and I think while breastfeeding, there can be a limit to how much you can do about it.

One thing I wonder is whether you need to take more rest days and stop calorie restriction. I think (based on my experience and nothing scientific) that sometimes my body panics a bit when I’m doing a lot of exercise and holds onto weight. I then find if I take a few days off exercise I lose a bit of weight.

You sound super fit and healthy and that’s the main thing. Your body will continue to change a lot over the next year or so.

Aside from what everyone else is saying, you know race photos are notoriously terrible, right? You've just run for miles and miles, your body is stressed to the max, your face is sweaty and red, and you're mid-motion... Hardly glam!

loads of people said to me that breastfeeding made them loose the weight, but it didn’t happen that way for me, I seemed to have random fat pockets all over when I was bf!! it wasn’t until after DC1 weaned that the weight fell off me despite me not changing my diet much at that time. Tbh I did get my size 8 pre pregnancy body back more or less after DC1, hips a bit wider and boobs a bit bigger but other than that I was happy. We won’t talk about what DC 2 has done to my body since then!!

Yes you can get your body back but yes, you probably will need to do some kind of calorie counting. Probably not 1200 because with breast feeding that’s kind of insane. Your boobs will not get smaller until you’re done breast feeding. I am currently about 10lbs less than I was pre DC and in great shape. Like you, I’ve always been slim and athletic. It took a couple rounds of calorie counting but once I was there, maintaining wasn’t hard. I do weigh myself pretty regularly though because I am into the perimenopause danger zone and fuck me if I’m just going to accept going squidgy!!

Thanks!! Except this was at the start of the race 🥴 honestly, it could have been a meme. I now understand why people wear dedicated sportswear. I just chucked on a baggy t-shirt that I sometimes wear to bed (it was clean at least). It made me look twice the size 😅

I did lose the weight calorie counting and have pretty much kept it off. I know it's what I need to do but I'm struggling to stick at it long term. The progress is sooooo slow whereas before the weight would have dropped off. I just get so bored with weighing out every cherry tomato and grain of rice. That said, the only thing I always weigh is my peanut butter... It's dangerous otherwise.

OP, it sounds like you are no stranger to the race photo. They can be utterly AWFUL!
I race a lot. Honestly, some of the pics make me want to hide under my bed until the end of my days! I am in good shape, yet in some photos my thighs look enormous (they are not), and I'm pulling a face that wouldn't look out of place in a horror movie. Because you're not happy with your shape at the moment I imagine you are being super critical of yourself.

Some women don't lose the last bit of weight until they stop breastfeeding. It's likely your breasts won't be so large. I bet the baggy t.shirt wasn't the most flattering. If it was caught in the wind it likely ballooned around you.

8 months is still really early on to be back to true race form.

FWIW, I was stronger and faster in my 40s after 2 kids (which I had at 28 and 38). I was fortunate in that I didn't cling on to extra weight, but everyone's experience and bodies are different. Many of my running club friends who've had children really struggled (physically and emotionally) to get back to where they were. But it does come - you just need to be patient and don't be too hard on yourself. Your body will be prioritising nourishing your baby.

50 mins is a great time BTW, well done. You said you enjoyed it, and that really is the main thing.

Oh please be kind to yourself. I always felt like a whale when I was breastfeeding as my boobs were enormous!!

I held onto a load of excess weight until I stopped and then my boobs went back to normal and I felt SO much better about myself.

I found after my first once I quit breastfeeding completely (she was 1) the weight fell off over about 4 months I was almost back to pre pregnancy weight after a 2or more stone weight gain. I stayed between 8/9 stone until I had my second which fingers crossed the same will happen although I'm 10 years older than I was then 😂.

You are a size 10.

Now that may feel big to you if you used to be a size 6 but you are substantially smaller than the majority of the UK population.

You are 8 months post partum. Don't restrict your diet that's not healthy. Relax.

Honestly, yes and no. Some aspects of your body will be changed permanently by pregnancy, breast feeding and age, but there's nothing stopping you from getting back a healthy, fit body.

8 months postpartum and breastfeeding? Be patient.

50 mins is an awesome time for a 10k. 💪

I lost shitloads of weight whilst breastfeeding. I just sat around eating chocolate all day and lost two stone in about two months. However, my boobs have always been much bigger since pregnancy.

Give yourself time, but if you feel you are slipping towards disordered eating of exercise, please do speak to your GP.💐

Give yourself time (it took me three years). And lift some bloody weights!

OP I'm still traumatised by a photo my DP recently took of me on holiday and I'm nearly 2 years post partum 😭 still breastfeeding though so hopefully all my excess weight magically melts away when I stop and I look gorgeous again because right now I feel and look horrible!

Sorry op but given your update I do think you're in the danger zone for relapsing into an ED..please for god's sake don't calorie count. No one should be weighing cherry tomatoes, least of all a woman whose running 10ks whilst basically exclusively breastfeeding! That's just ridiculous. You are no where near overweight and no where near having to worry about your weight. I hope at some point you can find peace with your amazing body and care about it's health foremost. There really is more to life. I don't think anyone is going to be lying on their deathbed wishing they'd been a bit thinner.

Thank you for the validation! The race photos was objectively terrible (no matter how much my best friend tries to reassure me, 'im sure they're not as bad as you think')You are right about the t-shirt ballooning...kind of like when boys trunks inflate in the swimming pool 🤦
I'm about 10 mins slower on my race time than 3 years ago. If I had run my pb I would have placed 2nd today in my category. Still got a very long way to go to get back to form BUT I'm enjoying my runs with DD in the pushchair. It gives me an energy boost for the day.

I held onto about 10ib when I was breast feeding and it wouldn't budge until I stopped.

I've have 3 kids now. My body is completely different after csections, breast feeding etc. saggy boobs, c section scar/pouch but I'm the smallest I've ever been now.

Just give it time it's early days and i imagine if you are anything like me, those final few pounds will fall off once you've stopped breast feeding.

I think it depends on what pregnancy has done to your body tbh!

I'm never going to be a size 6-8 like I was pre kids because my hips are wider and my rib cage moved out both pregnancies and only went partway back!
I'm the same weight I was pre 2 kids but my body shape is completely different so I wear a size 10-12 (shop depending as we all know no 2 shops sizes are the same!)

I would say something that's helped me feel more me is wearing the shapewear vest top body suits so hey shape or similar. I absolutely love the figure it gives me and now wear them under most clothes. I feel much more confident.

Find that thing which gives you a confidence boost and I'm sure you look amazing in a cross wrap dress!

OP you sound very similar to me. I was a size 6-8 before I had children. Now I'm closer to a 10 with 32 G boobs and I'm very into fitness but my excess skin is still there 3 years on. I will say 8 months is not a long time and it did taken me nearly three years to get back to where I am now.

It wasn’t until a few months after stopping breastfeeding (at 15 months) and sleeping more that I got my normal shape back. I was a size 8 before and went back to that without too much stress. You sound like an active person and you’ll get back to where you want to be x

I hated how I looked post the birth of my second baby in May and was incredibly depressed with how much weight I put on. Six months on I've shifted it by upping my exercise and religiously sticking to a 1200 calorie diet.

BUT

I'm not breastfeeding. I think you need to go a bit easier on yourself as you're literally sustaining a small human!

...

Is it possible to get back to a size six? I don't know. I hope so. I'm happier now but I still don't feel like 'me' so I understand what you're saying.

Check your pelvic tilt!

You can find videos on YouTube. If it’s out it changes everything. I looked 6 months pregnant but was whittling away at the wrists (ie. It wasn’t fat!). It was all my internal organs rolling round like being in a shopping bag and bloating as my transverse abdominis sleeve was not engaged anymore. It’s a huge set of internal muscles running all the way from the pelvic floor to the diaphragm and pretty much holds all your organs together. When your pelvic tilt shifts in pregnancy your back muscles tighten and this disengages the whole system. It literally affects everything. How you stand, how you walk, what muscles are engaging, how you are using energy in your body, how your breathing, pissing, digesting. Incredible.

It’s super easily corrected as well. Takes about 6 weeks to fix and 3 months - 6 months to stabilise from slipping back.

Goodluck