All women (even the Duchess of Cambridge!) have a bit of a belly for the first four to eight weeks after giving birth, as the uterus shrinks back to size. But for some of us, that “five months pregnant” look can last months or even years.
The connective tissue between the abdominal muscles can thin and weaken, and that can lead to a bulge in your belly. That post-pregnancy bulge is commonly known as a "mommy pooch" or "mommy-tummy" and it will not go away with diet and exercise. DRA is not a cosmetic concern.
Your postpartum belly won't instantly go back to how it was before you were pregnant – it's a process that can take months or even years, while some bellies may take on a different shape permanently. Some moms may experience a bulge caused by diastasis recti, a separation of the abdominal muscles during pregnancy.
For some women, this scar tissue can't be removed with exercise or diet changes alone (which may mean surgery is the only way to completely eliminate a postpartum pouch). For others, following an exercise program and focusing on core exercises can be enough to flatten the appearance of this pouch.
Do's: How To Get Rid of Mommy Tummy
Take time to relax to lower your body's levels of cortisol, a significant trigger for abdominal fat accumulation. Walk. Contract your tummy muscles while walking to increase abdominal strength. Be sure to get your doctor's approval before starting any new postpartum exercise routine.
Pregnancy can cause more fat on the abdominal wall than realized because everything in that area stretches so tight. Often times many new moms don't realize that most of the remaining pooch is extra fat that still needs to be lost.
First, focus on your cardio to burn calories.
Most of the pooch is going to be stored fat left over from pregnancy. This is where walking can be one of your best exercises, not crunches.
Generally, if the muscles are going to heal on their own, they will within three months of birth. If you are several months postpartum, it's likely that your diastasis recti is here to stay. Some women have had success using targeted exercises to help the muscles move closer together.
One reason belly fat is so hard to lose is that it's considered an “active fat.” Unlike some fatty tissue that simply sits “dormant,” belly fat releases hormones that can have an impact on your health — and your ability to lose weight, especially in the waist and abdomen areas.
A stomach overhang is excess fat hanging down over your pants' waistband. A mum pouch is excess weight, skin, or muscle separation that many women carry around their midsection after giving birth. The mum pouch often differs in that it is often caused by diastasis recti.
One of the primary causes of an apron belly is pregnancy, particularly multiple pregnancies. The continued stretching of the skin and muscles with each pregnancy can leave behind extra skin that does not fully retract. Thus, it can hang from the lower abdomen. Stubborn pockets of fat also like to collect in the area.
A belly bulge that doesn't go away eight weeks after delivering your baby is the most noticeable symptom of diastasis recti. You may see a bulge pop outward or a hollow space along the midline of your abdomen. This bulge can occur with even minimal activation of your belly muscles.
Like a rubber band that stretches to its maximum capacity, the lower abdominal skin may never fully return to the same elasticity it had before the first pregnancy. It may not be possible to entirely prevent the lower abdominal skin stretching during pregnancy.
Whether you have given birth to children or not, it is part of the post adolescent female anatomy and part of most women's genetics to have a small amount of subcutaneous fat in the lower belly to protect your vital organs and reproductive organs.
To lose stomach overhang you have to burn fat cells in both the fat you can see directly under the skin and also the more dangerous fat that you can't see that surrounds your organs. Cardio such as swimming, aerobics, running or dancing will burn this excess fat store.
You may be able to tighten loose skin after weight loss with a variety of lifestyle and medical treatments. These could include changes in diet and physical activity, non-invasive procedures, or body-contouring surgery.
It is impossible to spot reduce abdominal fat or any fat, like the apron belly. This means that targeted exercise will not work, and you must lose fat throughout your body to remove the apron belly on your own.
To get a flatter stomach, you need to lose body fat, which can take 6-12 weeks depending on how much fat you need to lose.
While c-sections can be life-saving in emergency situations, they also come with their own set of challenges, one of which is belly overhang. Belly overhang after a C-section, also known as a hanging belly, can be an embarrassing and distressing experience for many women.
And even though people call this a “mom pooch,” you don't have to have been pregnant for it to happen. Excessive weight gain (even after you've lost the weight) or incorrect exercises can both cause separation of the linea alba. Diastasis recti can affect more than just your appearance.