Losing the last of my tummy..

[shish]

It's been about 9 and a half since I gave birth and I have got my figure almost back. It's the last of the tummy that won't go. It's just really soft and flabby - very different to waht it was before I got pregnant. Any ideas on what I should be doing to get rid of/ tone it up??

Does it ever get fully back to normal? I've done a lot of things and loads of tummy exercise and yet it still is different for sure. Does bf have any impact on this?

I'm a stone lighter than I was when I got pregnant with DD1 (I now have 3 DDs) and my tum is no where near at flat or toned.

Not quite what I was hoping to hear... How the hell do people do it!??? I've seen some mums with really flat tummies within a few months of giving birth..

Genetics. Learn to love your tummy!

Hi Shish

My genetics def. dictate that lower stomach is where I gain all my weight. Not my thighs or behind. 6 months from having DS2 and it's flatter than it's ever been. I'm about where I was before DS1, a size down from before DS2.

I think how this happened was I was so paranoid I'd never lose the baby weight at all that I started going to the gym 2-3 x per week and just going at it, not leaving until all my muscles were fatigued and my hands were shaking. Can't diet - no willpower - so didn't know what I had to do to lose the weight this time. I'm realizing the gym worked though.

Started gaining too much muscle in the stomach and it stuck out at one point, so focused much more on core and balance exercises, no abs at all. Did circuit training and weights plus 20 min of cardio each time. Really built strength in my upper body, and the muscle tissue burns the bits of chocolate I can't help eating every day.

That plus the intensity of the workouts I think led the weight to leave my stomach.

Can still pinch 1 inch on lower stomach, but it's better than it's ever been and looks flat in clothes.

Hope this helps!

So it's down to the gym?! Well we've ditched our gym menbership and just bought a cross trainer at home and I have some weights and an exercise ball, so I guess that's the way forward then..?

LOL; home workout would work with intensity; for ex. when you can do full push ups on the floor, put your feet on top of the ball and do pushups that way. When you can do a set of 10 of those, put your feet back on the floor & put palms of hands on either side of the ball and do them that way ... also try pushups with forefingers and thumbs touching ... etc. ... same with other kinds of exercises, constantly throwing new stuff at yourself. I think that's what finally made the weight fall off me. And it feels really good to be able to do new things.

This website has some really good articles for intense workout ideas and as a woman don't worry that you'll bulk up b/c you won't ... my stomach's reaction was I think v. rare, plus at the time I was doing mostly stomach at the expense of everything else.

Shish, as Marls said, focus on core stability exercises to strengthen the inner muscles as these will flatten the tummy. However, to see the muscles you need to lose the layer of fat covering your abdomen and the only way to do that is through cardio exercise and dieting.

Read Lorns advice on this thread on 26th Feb for she explains how to do core stability exercises properly and effectively. Also, my advice is to take up something like running outdooors. If you can do this for 30 minutes at a time, 3 or 4 times a week in conjunction with the core stability exercise, then you will flatten your tum.

I'm 42 yo and that is what I have been doing in conjunction with working out to exercise DVDs and it is working. Even colleagues at work remark at the firmness of my buttocks.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the responses. i'm goona work hard. Going away next month and really want to tone up!!