Am I just fat?

[DownInOldVirginnie]

Am I just fat or is the shape of my stomach due to something like bloating or weak abdominal muscles? Although I am currently overweight, I have always had this shape even at lower weights. I am not "flabby", I dont really have rolls of fat, it just sticks out and is quite hard (though not solid). I have never really been bothered by it but find myself becoming quite self conscious about it. I did a body scan at the gym and have very low visceral fat, which surprised me. Second photo is to show when my muscles are tensed. Has anyone else had a tummy shape like this and found it was due to the reasons mentioned above?
Thank you for reading!

My Stomach is like that too. Despite being low BMI my tummy still protrudes.
For me I think it’s a combination of past pregnancies, loose skin and lack of muscle tone.

My tummy is worse than that despite my BMI being within healthy range and 15 years of pilates. I've actually got abs of steel under a layer of weird floppy dough.

I’m wondering if it’s your posture becuase the waistband on your knickers is very angled. What happens when you tilt the too of your pelvis back?

This is me. I bloat so so much and I don’t know the cause.

I mean this gently, but yes you’re over weight, and yes part is due to posture.

Total weight and where that weight sits on the body are two different things. If you always have that shape it will get larger or smaller but probably won't change position.

Could be both.

I have been a size 12 and a size 6 and I had a belly at both weights. After I lost the weight I could tell much of the belly at size 12 was indeed fat. But once I got my IBS under control my stomach at size 6 /8 was flat.

So you can have abdominal fat and be bloated too. But if you’re overweight then there’s definitely some fat there.. you would be a medical marvel to be overweight but have somehow no fat on your stomach and just be bloated. So yes you have fat (both visceral and subcutaneous fat) on your stomach in those photos. But you might also be bloated and have weak muscles.

Also gym scanners are not accurate or reliable. Only a DEXA scanner could truly tell you your visceral fat level. BOD pods and water displacement can show total fat but not visceral vs SC. Plate and scale vibration scanners are wildly inaccurate and not the standard used by dietitians or medics. They’re also often miscalibrated.

You have a pelvic tilt which is significantly not helping. I have the same sort of tilt. Try tucking your pelvis in, ie up at the front and squeeze your buttocks and see what effect it has on how your lower abdomen sits

If you have had children before, it could be diastasis recti (abdominal muscles not coming together properly post-birth). Worth checking that out, there are good exercises on YouTube to fix this.

Ok so possibly a combination of a few things and exacerbated by being overweight. I will work on pelvic tilt. I've had diastasis recti ruled out. I'm already cutting down on unsaturated fat. Having looked at my diet this was mostly from dairy so I am drastically cutting down my dairy intake - had some cheese a few days ago after being dairy free for a couple of weeks and the gurgles coming from my tummy were endless plus an even larger bloat so it got me wondering about dairy intolerance.