Any ladies out there that have had children

[tan27]

I had my son 4 weeks ago I gained 44 pounds.
Pre-preg weight 163. I am down to 180. I have been working out for the last 2 weeks. I'm at 1500 calories doing a 50/30/20 on protien/carbs/fat, I'm 5'9. Will this get me back down to the pre-preg weight?

I lift light with hught reps. my goal is to get lean and rid the fat. My cardio is almost non-existant because of the awful schedule my son is on.

I had an extremely flat stomache before the pregnancy. I have lots of extra skin around my tummy from being streached. When will it go away?

One other question. I did not opt to breast feed. My milk has almost dried up twice but has come back with a vengance. Does running make it come back or something? My doctor told me to bind myself and I ended up getting mastitis.

 

[w84me]

congratulations!!
I have 3 kids and each body is a little different for sure!! just stay consistent and don't expect miracles over night ... just don't quit. If you are a stay-at-home-mom ... over time as your child gets a little older there are great work out that involve working out and playing with him/her (but thats later down the road). I breast fed all 3 for a minimum of 6 months. To me the breast feeding helped a lot with shrinking the uterus. You can probably do a search for more information ... but to each his own on that. I totally agree with Spatts - good info & suggestions.

 

[Hannibal]

No advice....just sincerest congratulations...

 

[tan27]

I wish my doctor could give me something, but the two that I have seen said no... They don't give shots or pills to dry people up...

Ufortunatley I get to go back to work in 3 weeks, so being a stay at mom home is only a dream... I have 1 hour each day to work out.

It gets discoraging looking in the mirror everday, when hormones are raging and all you see is this fat blob of skin. I cry a lot.

I wish skin was elastic...

 

[w84me]

give your body time - - we are all here and will give you support when needed - - look at the miracle and joy added to your family. At least you are wanting to get back ... a lot of ladies use the 'family' as an excuse. You are already a head of the game.

 

[Realgains]

I had my son 4 weeks ago I gained 44 pounds.
Pre-preg weight 163. I am down to 180. I have been working out for the last 2 weeks. I'm at 1500 calories doing a 50/30/20 on protien/carbs/fat, I'm 5'9. Will this get me back down to the pre-preg weight?

I lift light with hught reps. my goal is to get lean and rid the fat. My cardio is almost non-existant because of the awful schedule my son is on.

I had an extremely flat stomache before the pregnancy. I have lots of extra skin around my tummy from being streached. When will it go away?

One other question. I did not opt to breast feed. My milk has almost dried up twice but has come back with a vengance. Does running make it come back or something? My doctor told me to bind myself and I ended up getting mastitis.

I am not a women but I can offer some tips as I am a father and I also work in the Operating Room as a nurse that works with palstic surgeons.

Why did you choose to not breast feed?

I will be perfectly straight with you about the affects of pregancy on the female body. I know something about this since I train many ladies that have had kids, and I also work closely with plastic surgeons.

The abdominal wall musculature is severely stretched during the thrid trimester and as a result the abdominal muscles never fully regain their original tone in most women. The muscles themselves can be brought back into great condition but the flat abdominal "look" normally does not completely return. The muscle fascia has been stretched(covering around the muscles) and it does not normally return to its pre pregancy form.

The extra skin(loose abdominal skin) in the lower abdominal region will not go away as it has been stretched and skin stretched does not regain its original form.

With proper diet and exercise you can loose the extra fat and tone the abbs a lot but the extra skin and loosened abdominal fascia will remain.
Many women opt for surgery to correct the loose fascia and remove the excess skin. The surgery is called an abdominalplasty and costs about $4000-$5000.
The surgeon actually physically cuts out the loose skin ,and also tightens up the fascial wall with sutures. This requires a BIG incision from hip bone to hip bone at the very lower aspect of the abdomin.

My wife has done wonders with abb work although but she did opt for liposuction of the abdomin to get rid of a genetic fat deposit in this area that she has had all her life. The results are great but the loose facia still remains although not too bad.

You too can do wonders with exercise and diet but 100% recovery is normally not possible. Even those women that look like they have never had kids always have some loss of fascial tone.
Not all women get the loose skin. Much of that depends on genetics and how big one got during the pregancy. If the abdominal skin is not overly stretched then it will return to its pre pregnancy immediately...if you have loose skin after pregancy I am afraid it will not go away.

Sorry to sound so negative but I thought you deserve to know the truth.

RG

 

[TEXgrl]

i'm not sure that i agree that the looseness won't go away....it took my body about a year to get back to resembling normal, but i wasn't big into working out either. your body didn't gain the weight overnight, it took nine months to get there, so it is not going to get back to normal overnight either.

spatts had some solid advice on here. i had the same problem drying up once i stopped breast feeding, it takes some time for it to go away, i dont have any advice there, but wait it out.

 

[BronzedGoddess]

Congrats on the baby. I have 1 son and I'm pregnant with #2 right now. I was 130 before 168 @ week 38 and post baby I got down to 145. It took me almost a year to loose the 15 pounds and I got down to 12% bf (the best I've ever been). After I had my son my stomach was super flabby, but it eventually went back to normal and now you can't tell by looking at my tummy I had a kid. Give it time and don't be too hard on yourself. Good luck

 

[starfish]

I've seen tons of women have big bellies when pregnant and it goes completely flat afterwards. How come it does for some and not others?

 

[makedah]

You tight-tummied ladies have good skin and abs. You're lucky - not everyone is so fortunate. I should know -- and I haven't even had a kid!