Is It Possible for Every Woman to Get Her Abs Back Post-Pregnancy?

 Popping out a baby does a number on your body: Your boobs get droopier, stretch marks crisscross your middle, and your vagina, well, let’s not even go there. (Hint: Expect pigment changes.) But of all the issues brought on by a bun in the oven, one of the most frustrating is post-pregnancy belly flab. Is the squishiness fixable, or are flat abs a thing of the past? Even super glam Reese Witherspoon said in a recent interview with the blog Cricket's Circle that her abs were "nonexistent" after she gave birth to her three kids. So we went to an expert to find out if it's actually possible for every woman to get her core muscles back in pre-baby shape.

RELATED: 7 Honest Things Celebs Have Said About Losing Baby Weight

The truth: Though genes and your before-baby fitness level play a role, you might have to accept that some pooch is permanent. “A small number of women will be able to get a flat stomach again, but for the majority, it may take a lot of time or not happen at all,” says Alissa Rumsey, R.D., certified strength and conditioning coach and spokesperson for the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “It took nine months for your belly to stretch out to accommodate your baby, so it’s reasonable to expect it to take at least as long to lose the belly fat.”

And this is assuming that you gained the recommended 25 to 30 pounds of pregnancy weight. Putting on more than that means the fat may end up being stored as visceral fat, which is tough to get rid of. The other thing to keep in mind is that a after-baby belly jiggle may not have anything to do with your abs. The bulge can be the result of stretched out skin that’s lost its elasticity, and all the crunches in the world can’t firm it up again, says Rumsey.

RELATED: What to Do During Pregnancy to Make Losing the Baby Weight Easier

If you’re a new mom dealing with a wobbly middle or a future mom freaked out by the news, don’t be discouraged. Reframe it like this: It’s actually freeing to know that it's unlikely you'll look like Fit Mom (or Reese Witherspoon, for that matter) once you’ve delivered a kid. Good for them for being so devoted to staying in shape. But if rock-hard abs are not in the cards for your body, why sweat it? Instead, focus on being healthy and getting to a good fitness level for you by easing back into your pre-baby fitness routine on your own schedule.

RELATED: How Your Vagina Changes in Your 20s, 30s, and 40s

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How One Woman Gained Back All the Weight She Lost—Then Changed Her Mindset to Drop and Keep Off 140 Pounds

 

The Lifestyle
I always seemed to be a little bit heavier than everyone else. By age 12, I was on Weight Watchers with my mom. When I got married in 1991, though, I was 122 pounds. I had worked hard to lose 40 pounds to get to that point.

I kind of went into a downward spiral from there. Unhealthy habits—like baking and cooking for entertainment, not being mindful of what I was eating, and totally disrgarding physical activity—got the best of me. Although I wasn't an emotional eater or even a binge eater, I started gaining about 10 to 15 pounds per year after getting hitched.

By 2006, I weighed 268 pounds and sometimes had to walk with a cane because my knees hurt so badly. One day, I was walking to my car after running some errands, carrying my infant son. I tripped over a pothole, and my son and I went flying to the ground. Luckily, we were both okay, but I was really shaken up.

I realized that if I had been at a healthy weight, I would have been able to catch myself, but since I was so overweight, I wasn't strong enough to regain my balance. I thought, "My weight is no longer about me. It's time for me to take action for my son's well-being." My son already had health issues and needed a kidney transplant; obviously, I wanted to do everything I could to protect him from the health hazards I could prevent.

The Change
Not long after the fall, I saw an advertisement for a meal replacement program called Medifast. In the ad, a woman claimed to have lost 130 pounds in nine months. I thought, 'If she can do it, I can do it.' I ordered the program that day.

At first, it was really hard to quit baking, but I knew that I had to give it up if I wanted to make a difference. The program encourages you to make one non-program meal for yourself each day, so I used that as an opportunity to totally change my cooking style by incorporating lots of healthy fruits and veggies.

After losing about 60 pounds, I started walking and eventually running using an app to train for a 5-K. I'd always loved running on my own in high school, and it felt so good to get back into it again. I actually enjoyed it so much that I began training for a half-marathon and completed one not long before reaching my goal weight.

Fourteen months after starting my journey, I hit my goal weight of 128 pounds. That same week, I found out I was pregnant again. That meant I had to give up the program, and I almost immediately began putting on weight from the pregnancy.

Sadly, about three months after that, I had a life-threatening miscarriage and ended up in the hospital. Then, within three months of my miscarriage, my mother passed away and my son underwent a kidney transplant. Needless to say, weight loss was the last thing I worried about.

After the transplant, we lived in a Ronald McDonald House for about eight months while my son recovered. It was probably the most challenging place to make healthy choices, so we didn't. Instead, we ate out all the time and I stopped exercising. One year after hitting my goal weight, I had gained everything back and then some. At 272 pounds, I felt like a total failure.

After my son recovered, we went on a Make-A-Wish trip to Disneyland with former NFL player Kurt Warner, his kids, and his wife Brenda. On the way into the park, I got stuck in the turnstile. The park staff had to let me in through the stroller gate without a stroller. I was so embarrassed. Later in the trip, I chatted with Brenda about how I was frustrated with my weight-loss journey. She said, "It's never too late to become who you want to be," and that really resonated with me. From then on, I changed my mindset. I realized I didn't have to give up trying to lose weight just because I failed one time.

About a year after that, I got back on the meal replacement program and picked up my running habit again. Only this time, I decided I needed to make changes that would be sustainable forever. I stopped seeing my new lifestyle as a diet and started thinking of it as a way to live a healthy life. Even though I was doing the same program, my mindset was that I wanted to create health. I didn't have a final goal weight.

After 18 months, I lost 142 pounds and weighed 130. I felt so confident that I was going to keep the weight off that I got rid of all my clothes that were too big. 

The Reward
This past summer, I got to run a marathon in Paris. It was the most amazing experience. I feel fit and I feel healthy. I feel that me taking control of my weight has rubbed off on my family's health. I've even become a health coach for others trying to lose weight. That's something that I never would have done if I had not lost weight. 

My life would look so different if I had not decided to make a complete lifestyle change. I would probably have a knee replacement by now and would be more at risk for diseases like breast cancer and diabetes. I feel good knowing that I'm not going to die because of my own negligence. 

Stacy's Tips
Think about who you're doing it for. I'm easily distractible, but because I focused on getting healthy for my family and myself, it helped me say no to my temporary wants like sugary snacks.
Take it day by day. Every day I thought about the choices I was making with my diet and exercise. I knew that each choice I made would have an impact on my goal of becoming a healthier, happier person. If I messed up, I didn't dwell on it—I made better choices the next day.
Follow others' weight-loss journeys. When I started losing weight, I looked to other people who did what I was attempting to do and got inspired. I told myself, "If they can do it, so can I." That really helped keep me going.

Stacy Phillips, 45, is 5' 3" and lives in Gilbert, Arizona.

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How I Finally Stopped Yo-Yo Dieting and Lost Almost 90 Pounds
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How One Woman Dropped Nearly 100 Pounds and Became an Instagram Sensation

 

The Lifestyle
If you’ve ever been to the South, you know that everything revolves around food here. My parents are both overweight, so I picked up some bad habits from them like having cake for breakfast, eating a lot of fried food, and rarely consuming veggies. I also had very little self-control; I could eat a whole bag of chips without a problem and usually ate until I felt sick. As crazy as it seems, I haven’t weighed less than 200 pounds since I was 13. And since I went to a very small high school—my graduating class was 50 people—I was the biggest one in my class and was picked on pretty badly. Fitness-wise, I didn’t play any sports or work out on my own. I was a very lazy child, and that carried over into adulthood.

Being overweight really affected my life in random ways, like not wearing tennis shoes because it was so hard to bend over to tie them. Occasionally, little kids would point and say hurtful things, even if they didn't mean to be rude. By the time I got married in 2013, I weighed 312 pounds. 

The Change
One night, I was eating at a restaurant with my husband and my 1-year-old daughter, and she kept dropping her toy on the floor. We were seated in chairs instead of a booth that night, and so every time I bent down to grab her toy, the chair would come off the ground. It was embarrassing because I knew if I fell everyone would stare at me. I had to do something.

That week, my husband and I joined a gym and started going four days a week. We’d work out for an hour to an hour and a half per day. That may seem intense for someone just starting out on their weight-loss journey, but I was terrified of dying. I knew that if I didn’t make a change I was going to get diabetes or another obesity-related illness. That fear helped push me to work out.

Since you can’t run without the risk of damaging your knees when you’re 300 pounds, my workouts usually entailed walking, biking, or using the elliptical. Eventually, I started lifting weights—and I loved seeing that I was getting stronger and could do everyday tasks like picking up my daughter more easily.

I tried dieting before, and it totally backfired on me because I was only eating salads and not enough protein to keep me full and satisfied. So this time, I decided to be less strict about the food I was eating and keep a better eye on my portions by measuring out or weighing everything I ate. I began baking chicken instead of frying it, totally cutting out sweet tea—which I would drink by the gallon every week—using whole wheat pasta, bread, and brown rice instead of the white versions. Plus, I recorded all of my meals on the My Fitness Pal app, which has helped a lot. Another trick I used to re-train my brain to feel full after a normal-sized meal was drinking a big glass of water afterward. Losing weight can seriously be a mental game.

As I started losing weight, I used my Instagram account to post photos of me working out and cooking. Over time, my feed started to gain a ton of followers. Now, I have more than 8,000 and use @Roxi_Fitness to provide fitspiration. It makes me feel so good to help inspire others!

Today, I weigh 216 pounds and am looking forward to being under 200 pounds—for the first time in more than 10 years—very soon. I have no plans to go back to my old ways.

The Reward
There have been so many rewards from losing weight, both mental and physical. I used to suffer from depression and anxiety attacks, but now I feel so much better than I ever did. Another bonus of my weight-loss journey has been that going to the gym with my husband has actually made my marriage stronger. We love having the designated time to ourselves, and it makes us both feel more confident. One more thing that I love about my life after losing almost 100 pounds is that I have so much more endurance. I can’t run a mile yet, but I’m working toward it and am so thankful that I can run at all.  

Roxie’s Tips
Allow yourself a cheat meal. I don’t eat super healthy all the time. I do allow myself a cheat meal once week. Usually it will be food at a birthday party over the weekend or a nice dinner with my husband. But I know that after that meal, I will get right back on track.
Weigh yourself daily. As a woman, I know that my weight is going to fluctuate a lot depending on hormones, but I try to weigh myself as much as possible so that I know that I’m staying on track. It helps keep me accountable.
Take measurements. Some might think this is crazy, but I measured different areas of my body before I started losing weight. Those measurements really came in handy when I went through periods of not losing weight despite sticking to my plan. Even if the scale didn’t budge, my body measurements were always changing because I was shaping my body by working out, and that helped keep me motivated.

Roxie McGillberry, 24, is 5' 8" and a stay-at-home mom in Sweet Water, Alabama.

More from Women's Health:
4 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE I Started Losing Weight
What 200 Calories of 10 Different Foods Looks Like
9 Easy Ways to Crush Your Food Cravings

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The 3 Simple Steps That Helped One Woman Lose 80 Pounds

 Sarah DeArmond (inset) / Jason Wallis

As a kid, Sarah DeArmond, now 28, was teased about her weight—for being too skinny. But during college, a lack of physical activity and her devotion to fast food took its toll. Convenience continued to trump health after Sarah got married in 2009. Rather than cooking, "we just microwaved pizzas or cheesy pastas every night," she says. Over the next three years, Sarah's weight climbed to 200 pounds. She felt exhausted all the time for no particular reason and found herself wheezing for breath whenever she had to go up a flight of stairs. To top it off, her blood pressure was sky-high. "I knew obesity could actually kill me," she says. "I wanted to live." 

In the spring of 2013, Sarah started overhauling her diet. Over the next two years, she took up weight training and cardio—and now, she's at a trim and healthy 120 pounds. 

Here's how Sarah says she was able to accomplish her goals:

• Make fitness convenient. "I got an exercise bike so I can work out whenever I want. I like to pedal while I watch TV."

• Shop smarter. "To deflect temptation at the market, I have a 'no junk in the cart' rule. I don't even set foot in the chips aisle."

• Fake-fry it. "I make 'fried' fish by dipping codfish in egg whites and whole-wheat panko and then baking it."

For more on Sarah's incredible weight-loss journey, pick up the April 2015 issue of Women's Health, on newsstands now. In the meantime, check out more inspiring weight-loss success stories and healthy ways to lose weight.

More from Women's Health:
The Small Steps I Took to Shed More Than 100 Pounds
How One Woman Gained Back All the Weight She Lost—Then Changed Her Mindset to Drop and Keep Off 140 Pounds
Eat These 5 Foods to Lose 5 Pounds

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