Any chance my 'apron' will disappear?!

[JustPickleRick]

After having my son several years ago via c section, i've had a lovely tummy that hangs over. It's got bigger as i've got bigger to the point I can't even see my you know what anymore 😂 any chance this will disappear as the weight comes off or am I stuck with it forever? My stomach is very round and seems to be where all my weight goes to. I've been on mounjaro for 3 jabs so far and lost 17lbs. I'm hopeful it will have a difference to my overall body but feeling skeptical about the hang bit. Anyone able to share any success stories?

Yes it’s done wonders for mine.

For those on the thread who have had tummy tucks - how long were you out of action? How was the pain immediately after and recovery?

No, but if you lose the fat and exercise then you can lose the apron belly. It’s a simple fact. You can. I’m living proof; you need to drop the weight though which the op is doing with wli.

It depends. I lost 35 kg on MJ and my apron was horrific. Really sore skin.. no clothes fitted properly. I had a PT twice a week and went to the gym 6x a week. I certainly got fitter but no change to the loose skin. I had the additional issue that my actus recti muscles had separated in my final pregnancy 25 years ago. So I had a tummy tuck. It is the best decision I ever made. I am 60 next month and I finally love my body..

If you lose the fat, yes. Exercise has very little to do with weight loss and nothing to do with shrinking an apron belly.

Thankyou! Felt like a lone voice there. Love it when someone tells me something is impossible when I’m literally sat here with it nearly gone 😂

Sorry but exercise is key. Weight loss on its own will just leave it loose. I’ve been doing the 30 day shred for 6 months now and mine is nearly gone.

But the op is asking if she can lose her apron belly when she loses weight or destined to forever have it, people are responding and saying yes if you do core exercises, strength training, eat protein etc. then yes you can shrink it hugely. No one is suggesting you can stay fat and exercise your way out of an apron belly, of course you can’t,].

Absolutely. I even posted a pic of mine, I’m in my fifties, had a c section and lost 6 and a half stone, my stomach was huge, genuinely. With work, I got rid of mine as I lost the weight, had I not done the work at rhe same time it would still be hanging down and loose due to no muscle tone.

My C-section overhang shrunk massively with both the 6 stone weight loss and strength training, to the point it isn’t visible in clothes. Naked I still have a smallish overhang although nothing like what it was, but I can wear a high waist bikini and no one would have any idea it was there.

Sorry it won’t. I had a Caesarian and I’ve always had an overhang despite being a size 10 and going to the gym regularly.

Same as for me, my apron felt like it wasn’t part of me and now it’s gone forever.

@Wildgoat how does muscle tone shrink over-streched skin? How do you know for absolutely certain that it was your exercise regime that made your skin reduce in size and shrink, rather than luck of the draw with genetics and retaining decent skin elasticity into your 50s?

I think it depends on what it looks like now. Some people have an overhang which, when they lose weight, it does pull up a lot and can almost disappear.
An apron which hangs very low loosely even when full of fat and covers the pubic area is much less likely to go back and when fat is lost the skin stays loose and hanging.
I have lost about 7 stone and my stomach, although not flat, has massively gone down and in clothes it’s not noticeable at all. I have loose skin but it doesn’t hang down, when I was very overweight it was much bigger but still didn’t cover my public area it was just a larger overhang and it has pulled up a lot.
I could say I had an apron and I lost weight and it went but I don’t think it was a true apron.

I was a healthy weight but I could almost swing it around. It was empty and literally excess skin. I worked out 5 times a week and had a lovely figure apart from the apron.

I guess two things, firstly I posted a pic up thread, you can see rhe muscle tone. I’m one hundred percent convinced if I had not done the work my stomach wouldn’t look like that. I don’t think anyone would look at my stomach after six and a half stone weight loss and say that was genetics.

The question I think I’d ask in return, is why would you at least not put the effort in, to try to shrink it back?

This. For goodness sake, it's not physiologically possible to 'tone' saggy fat and loose skin with exercise. All you people who lost your aprons by dieting and doing crunches - the crunches were completely irrelevant to the result, you lost the belly because you lost fat. And no, you don't need to exercise to lose fat and exercising underlying muscles will not reduce the fat in any area of the body.

Your abs look amazing! But you can see them only because you lost fat. If you hadn't lost fat the abs would still be there but not visible. The abs had nothing to do with losing your panniculus/apron.

@Wildgoat I would certainly say that genetics has a lot to do with skin elasticity, looking at your photo. I can see the muscle tone, but you're not actually showing the overhang apron area (I am not asking you to show that here either).

I am not saying that the OP should not put as much effort into it as you clearly have, of course she and we all should. But what I am saying is that you can put in as much effort as you have, and still be left with an overhang. In fact, it is the most likely outcome imo. So I think it's important that people understand that, and don't expect to have the same outcome as you, even with the same amazing level of effort.

Your stomach looks good but an apron isn’t the stomach.

I’m fully aware of what an apron is, I had one, and I have also had a c section.

im not going to keep arguing it, ss this is madness, 😂

Not on Mounjaro, so can't comment from that angle, but have lost quite a bit of weight through bereavement and stress in the last 6 months (and probably much faster than is recommended as healthy weightloss, but I've completely lost my appetite, hopefully only temporarily).

My perimenopausal tummy-double-bulge has disappeared and I'm left with a little bit of loose skin which isn't really noticeable when I stand up but which hangs down like a little flappy bottom (it sort of pinches in the middle below my bellybutton) when I do poses like cat /cow. I keep fairly active but contrary to a PP, I'm especially careful and don't overdo exercises which specifically tone the abdominal muscles as I've had wild diastasis recti after the birth of both DC, and am terrified of generating excessive internal pressure causing pelvic organ prolapse. So I remind myself of the 'pot belly' scene in Pulp Fiction, and feel OK. I find that I'm lovely and smooth when I get out of bed in the morning, but get a little lumpy around the middle by bedtime. Weird. Fingers crossed your skin pings back, OP.

I had my op on a Thursday, came home Friday, started back working from home on the Tuesday, which was absolutely ridiculous looking back really but 🤷‍♀️

I got an infection in my wound so it took longer than usual to heal, maybe 8-10 weeks fully, but I was still back at work and stuff within a few weeks.

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Yes!! It was like an alien had strapped itself to me; I was absolutely disgusted by it.

Absolutely, same here. I was actually saving for a tummy tuck but not going to bother now 😊