Empty skin/loose fat postpartum 5weeks

jmeyers300

Hello,

I just gave birth to a health baby boy weighing a whooping 8lbs and 2oz on the 7th of September. I lost 40lbs the first two weeks mostly from water weight and swelling. Now I'm losing 2 lbs to 4lbs a week. Babywearing with my ergo baby carrier and going on a mile walk every other day and keeping my carbs down and calories down. But now not only do I have a lot of stretch marks but now I have a lot of flab that's mostly empty and idk how to make it tighter. I have some fat in the belly button area and the hip areas but the excess skin/empty skin is in between its hard to discribe but directly under my belly button but before you get to the pelvic area I have extra skin/empty skin there too. Basically imagine a donut around my belly button and a hamburger bun around my hips on both sides with 2 inches of excess empty skin everywhere. Above my belly button after the donut is hard muscle closer to my chest so I know there's muscle underneath all this fat and lose skin. Thank you for the advice in advance. I know it's a weird way to describe and possibly confusing.

usmcmp

Your body stretched out to carry a baby for 9 months, it won't bounce back in 5 weeks. It could take a year or two for the skin to tighten. Nothing you can do about the skin. I still have some and mine will probably never go away.

jmeyers300

usmcmp wrote: »

Your body stretched out to carry a baby for 9 months, it won't bounce back in 5 weeks. It could take a year or two for the skin to tighten. Nothing you can do about the skin. I still have some and mine will probably never go away.

I'm not as skinny as you but I hope I will be one day. My husband and I want to have another in 2 to 3 yrs but I'd like to be fit and healthier and not overweight with this next baby. I don't expect it to go away fast. I'm just wanting to know if there is anything I can do to help the skin get back. I'm 24yrs old. I don't want to have a surgery but if I have to i will. I gained 75lbs with my pregnancy. And I'm 291lbs today. I was 269 lbs before pregnancy and I'd like to be 180 lbs before we have our next baby. Id love to make my goal by the end of next year but I'm just taking small steps aka my goal is to lose 20 to 50lbs at a time. Someone told me toning but idk how to do that. I carry our son which is now 11lbs 3 to 6hrs a day now and drink a lot of water and take in a decent amount of protein.

TJMNC

Hi there, congratulations on the birth of your little boy! Creating a new person is the most amazing thing! I have 4 children, the largest of whom weighed almost 9 pounds, who now range in age from 3 to 12. Unfortunately for most of us, our body doesn't go back to how it was pre-baby, no matter what the magazines and Hollywood celebrities tell us! Ideally we should try to be as fit and healthy as we can, and be proud of the fact that our body created a new human. For me, after one baby this was OK, but after 4 it was very tough, especially as in addition to the flabby skin (which hung over my caesarean scar), I could still fit two hands between my abdominal muscles and had a hernia that stuck out above my belly button - this resulted in me looking pregnant, and I even had a lady stand up for me on the train (took me a while to work out why, and then I was devastated!). I ended up having surgery about 2 years ago now - I had to have the hernia fixed anyway because it was painful, so I thought if I was having surgery, I might as well have my belly put back together, so I also had a "radical abdominoplasty" or tummy tuck. Now I won't lie, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck initially, I have a scar that goes almost 2/3 of the way around my body (although it's at the level of my caesarean scar, so no-one will see it), and it was very expensive, but I'm really glad I did it. I still need to lose some weight, but I no longer look pregnant, which has done wonders for my self esteem. If, after time and exercise, you still feel self-conscious about your body, then this may be an option for you, if you are realistic about the outcome. Just finish having all your babies first!

Alatariel75

You just made a human! Congratulations!! Hon - you're not going to bounce back in 5 weeks. It took 9 months to get there, it will take time to come back. Be kind to yourself!

GottaBurnEmAll

Congratulations on your new baby!

Whether your skin will snap back or not is genetic. My skin snapped back from my first baby (who was just about the size of your little one) at 33, but my second larger baby at 40? Nope.

At this point, though, I've lost 92 pounds and I have loose skin everywhere. You learn to deal.

savithny

Patience, patience. You just had a baby.

After I had my first, I remember just poking at my belly skin, because it was all floopy, like bread dough that had over-risen and collapsed.

Guess what: It mostly went back to normal (plus stretch marks - those don't go away, but they fade).

There is no exercise on earth that will make your skin tighten up. That takes time and your body is what does it, not you.

tlflag1620

I have four kids (ages from 1 to 9). I lost all the weight, but I too have some loose skin on my lower abdomen. I doubt it's going anywhere, barring surgery (most of it is the result of my first pregnancy). A lot of how well your skin recovers is, as already mentioned, genetic. Some of it is your age (younger skin tends to spring back better), how much weight you gained (going much over the recommended amount stretches skin more, resulting in more likelihood of loose skin later), and some has to do with the size of the baby and how you carried. IOW there's really not much you can do about it except lose the baby weight and wait and see if you are one of the lucky ones.

If it turns out that loose skin remains and you are unhappy with it, there are surgical options. However, you should wait until you are totally done having children (no sense in paying for an expensive tummy tuck only to get all stretched out again) and are at, or very close to, goal weight before perusing that option.

jessicarobinson00

Agreed with all of the above...just have patience. I have had 3 amazing kiddos..and all of my skin did eventually bounce back. Congrats on your little love!!