Stomach after 2 c sections (pic)

[mystomachisrumbling]

I had my second c section 7 months ago. My stomach is a bit of a mess now and I'm wondering if anything will help. I'm 51kg and trying to lose weight, I know some weight loss will help the handles on my sides.

Do you think exercise like Pilates will do anything or is this just my stomach now? Any recommendations to help stretch marks?

I'm not too devastated and I wouldn't have a tummy tuck. I have two beautiful kids so I know I'm lucky. It would be nice though to wear a dress or a tight fitting T-shirt without my loose stomach needing control pants.

51kg is about eight and a half stone, isn't it? I doubt you need to lose weight. Control pants will obviously help you under clothing, but I don't think you will get proper medical/dietary advice by posting in Style & Beauty. Perhaps try the health or fitness boards (which you'll find under Topics)?

Beautiful belly I have worse and I have no kids
Beautiful babies
And as you have said yourself your lucky 😘

Pilates/yoga/core exercise will help strengthen and tone. You're unlikely to be able to change the crepey skin around the umbilicis.

@BitOfFun yes I think so. I'm petite. 51kgs is noticeable on me. I'll try the other boards thanks. I thought I might get a bit more traffic here and I've had so much help in the past on S&B

Don't get me wrong: S&B is brilliant for advice on this topic, but I think you are perhaps looking more for exercise-type sggestions?

fasting, autophagy will help tighten the skin, look it up!

If you can afford it, get a tummy tuck! Best decision I have ever made. My tummy was worst, but now it's lovely a flat and he sowed my 4 inch separation together. I finally had my waist back after 3 years.

@BitOfFun I'm honestly not sure what I'm looking for I didn't know if my stomach was worse than others or normal. All my friends have had vagina births and are bigger than me, their stomachs don't look anything like mine. I have no idea if weight loss, exercise, magic creams, surgery or 'nothing can be done' is the answer.

@missperegrinespeculiar I'll look it up thanks. I already do 16:8.

@rhowton I'm worried about the recovery from a tummy tuck though. I know I may need my muscles stitched up at some point as I do have separation. But I thought a tuck would really add to recovery and make lifting difficult? Which might be hard with a baby/toddler.

If you have a separation until that is closed only control pants will really help you. Depending on the degree of separation there are exercises that can helpyou will need to see a women's physiobut a large separation will require a surgical closure. You really need to be careful, though--traditional abdominal work can make a separation worse.

My sister got rid of her belly and now has abs through pilates. Me on the other hand has a stomach that is huge as lazy at exercise when my kids were young as I did lose my stomach a bit but now find it bigger as never exercised!

16:8 is great, especially since you don't really have much weight to lose, if at all, but for autophagy you need longer fasts, the science is still sketchy on just how long unfortunately, but it seems that 36/48 hours can get you there, for longer fasts though, check with your GP, to be safe!

I have had great results, I didn't have loose skin but had a few scars that are much improved, including my C-section scar, which was red and tight and now is basically a white, flat line! good luck!

Dermarolling!

Once every 4 weeks, it makes a huge difference.

I've always had loose skin, from weight gain then loss. My c section gave me a pouch to go with it, and I thought it would never go but dermarolling really has helped.

@Couchbettato that's interesting! Did you buy your own or do you have it done in a clinic?

@mystomachisrumbling I bought my own off Amazon for about £10, and have noticed a serious improvement

Yours looks similar to mine, rumbling only mine is more...deflated looking? I had vaginal births but I've almost got a 'c-section shelf' because for some reason is the very lowest part of my stomach that sags the most!
I assume my stomach muscles were destroyed 15 years ago during my first pregnancy as it's always been wobbly ever since regardless of weight loss/exercise/weight gain.....sorry I'm not giving much hope!

That's interesting about the dermaroller. I use one on my face, might give my belly a go.

@Couchbettato please can you link the dermaroller you bought? Thanks 😊

I’d look for a woman’s physio too.

It's only been 7 months. Mine was like that until around 18 months after.

51kg is very light. How tall are you?

If you have a separation then Pilates will definitely help- it almost completely fixed mine. I went from about 3 cm to half a cm. make sure that you find one that physio-led and the instructor knows what they're doing for post-natal Pilates though. I haven't been to a Pilates class since lockdown started and I can definitely see the difference to my stomach.

I'm around your weight (48kg) and after two c-sections, my stomach looks quite similar.

Tracy Anderson ab floor mat workout. It is AMAZING - it only takes about 4 minutes but if you do it every day you will notice a massive difference. I did it for 6 weeks and ended up with definition like you see on a magazine after two v large babies.
If you look online it is the last section to that workout. You need to watch it a few times first as she moves through it v quickly and while it looks easy it is v v hard but within a week you will fly through it