Has anyone had a c-section overhang and got rid of it completely with diet and exercise?

[SloanyPony]

If so, what diet and what exercise? How much do you weigh and how tall are you? (ideally you'd tell me your body fat percentage but not many people know that)

They say if a woman can get to under 20% body fat then things like loose skin and overhangs etc will go - as they are really fat, not skin, if it was just skin, it woud be paper thin not a grab a handful situation but I'm not sure to what extent I am convinced!

Can you ever truly get rid of it without surgery?

Tell me what works!! Am willing to have tummy tuck if I can't get rid by other means...

Looks like a cornish pasty!

I've bought 30 day shred, might get up early and do it 3 times a week...

20% body fat is ambitious but do-able - I've achieved it before, only about 5 years ago with half an hour walking a day, weight training 3 times a week and a lowish carb diet of about 1700 calories

Have since developed more of a need for wine than I used to have. Someone should have warned me that children = alcohol dependance...

You're right though, the chance of achieving and maintaining that forevermore simply to stave off an overhang, even in middle age etc, is unlikely. I'll most probably learn to live with some kind of compromise or, if I can't or wont, have a little nip and tuck once I see how bad the damage really is!

i live with my overhang too, girls - 5 ft 4 and 55 kg and not bothered really - i have just taken to wearing rather, um, bigger pants than pre-two-CS's, i confess!!! and just suck my tummy in a bit more than i used to. i know that even if i wanted to lose weight (which as i have hit forty, eek, would be a v bad idea due to the dreaded scrawn factor) it would make no difference. have read that our good old NHS is particularly prone to creating the overhang look so many of us now display...but not sure if that's just misplaced continental superiority!

I hadn't thought of that. Mine was done in SE Asia and the incision was only 4 inches. But my friends' back in UK were all much longer.

I've given up worrying too much about my shelf....if I loose weight it gets even flabbier, so I'm never sure whether to put up with a bigger but firm-ish shelf, or loose weight and have a smaller but very flabby one! I've got really awful deep stretch marks that will never go, and they look worse with the flabby shelf. It still makes me really peed off, though - and paranoid because it is visable in some clothes.

I had two sections, 17 months apart, 2nd one didn't heal for 8 weeks (I'm talking 3 inches of gaping wound) and GP/midwife refused to refer me back to get it re-stitched.

By the time DS was 7 months, I had a massive hernia, and have since had two repairs. But the bloody thing has come back and I now have three smaller hernias along the scar.

My stomach muscles are shot, I struggle to lift anything heavier than a shopping bag, can't sit up in bed unless I roll onto my side first, even just walking up hill is painful, so exercising has to be nonexistent gentle.

I just live in support knickers now, to keep it under control (and they help with the pain) but I am also living in hope that the lycra will have a binding effect!!

Am currently awaiting a CT scan to see exactly what is going on. Anyone else get a lot of pain with their scar? Even before the hernias had come back I was still in a lot of pain....

pinkiepunksmummy - sorry to hear you are having such a rough time of it. I haven't had a c-section but I have just had a tummy tuck including hernia repair, so I can empathise somewhat with the general post-op recovery issues.

I wonder if the Tupler method might help with your abs? Someone has already mentioned it on this thread. It is very gentle but effective, working the oblique muscles which wrap around your middle - providing you with a stronger "corset". Much better for knackered tummy muscles than crunches (which are often done incorrectly thus causing more bulging and weakness). I had massive separation of the abs and used the Tupler method for a year. I reduced the gap by a centimetre or so but was still left with a gap - mostly, I think, due to hernia - so I had muscle repair as part of my tuck.

Also, the Plank is allegedly the most effective method to tone the abs. Look on google or youtube for a demo.

In terms of your scar pain, I too have some pain around my scar - although I am only 4 weeks post-op. It tends to be a stinging or pulling sensation and I have been told it isn't unusual. Not enough to make me take pain relief but still unpleasant. Scar pain isn't uncommon but some GPs will try and tell you it is psychological - which of course it can be but it isn't necessarily the case every time.

GL with CT scan and hope you get the help you need to remedy your pain.