Best exercises to lose extra skin and fat on lower abdomen.

Sherbear1109
Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I know popular belief on here seems to be that you can't target where you want to lose fat. So, this query is directed at those of you who use exercise to target specific body parts. My lower abs are wrecked from pregnancy and an unavoidable c-section. After carrying my very large son, in a very low position for the last 3 months+ of being prego, my lower stomach is literally stretched out and hangs down in this horrible way. It is getting smaller, but I would love to fix this faster. What exercises work best for targeting this area and losing the extra skin, too?
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Replies

  • Caper88
    Caper88 Posts: 418 Member
    I would be curious to know the answer to this as well however a trainer once told me something different. That our body determine where it is going to store and burn fat from. That targeting a specific area is no different then an over all work out. You need to burn fat from all over your body and then eventually it gets to the area you want to target.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    I would be curious to know the answer to this as well however a trainer once told me something different. That our body determine where it is going to store and burn fat from. That targeting a specific area is no different then an over all work out. You need to burn fat from all over your body and then eventually it gets to the area you want to target.

    This ^ IS the answer. I would love thin thighs.......not happening without surgical assistance.

    For specific lower abdomen exercises look to pilates. NO, you won't lose fat any faster, but pilates helps strengthen your core. A strong core helps you stand taller and helps you hold things in.

    Loose skin.......this is largely genetics. How far the skin was stretched, how long the skin was stretched, your age ....all play a role in determining when/if your skin will snap back. You can't exercise to shed skin.
  • CitizenXVIII
    CitizenXVIII Posts: 117 Member
    I would be curious to know the answer to this as well however a trainer once told me something different. That our body determine where it is going to store and burn fat from. That targeting a specific area is no different then an over all work out. You need to burn fat from all over your body and then eventually it gets to the area you want to target.

    Knowledgeable trainer. That is exactly the way it works.

    Your skin will snap back over time or it won't. Surgery is the only way to fix it if it doesn't. Give it time. My youngest will turn 1 in July. My wife dropped her baby weight quickly and had loose skin for several months. Eventually, it readjusted.
  • Fitfully_me
    Fitfully_me Posts: 647 Member
    <snip>
    You need to burn fat from all over your body and then eventually it gets to the area you want to target.

    An exercise in patience and the above.
  • Sherbear1109
    Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.
  • dakotababy
    dakotababy Posts: 2,407 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.

    I agree - I think these answers are completely and totally accurate. I hear skin can not "bounce back" by exercise, but through time and patience...and if that does not work, surgery!

    Way to go MFP! :D YOU ROCK!
  • sleepy_mum
    sleepy_mum Posts: 40 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.

    Just because you don't like the answers doesn't make them wrong.
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.

    We aren't going to lie just to give you what you want to hear.

    How do you plan to shrink loose skin via exercise anyways? It's not a muscle, you can't work your skin.
  • thatonegirlwiththestuff
    thatonegirlwiththestuff Posts: 1,171 Member
    Bottom line is you can build muscle under the layer of fat, so that when the fat does eventually come off, there is some muscle there to essentially fill out some of the loose skin. As far as the loose skin, it depends on the elasticity of your skin. Some women have thicker skin that can rebound pregnancy after pregnancy, some do not, and the only cure would then be a tummy tuck. Lifting does help immensely, but you cannot do anything specific about that one area.
  • dixiewhiskey
    dixiewhiskey Posts: 3,333 Member
    Can't lose extra skin unless you have surgery. You can try to fill up the area with loose skin with muscle.
  • MissFlab2Fab2014
    MissFlab2Fab2014 Posts: 109
    I know for a fact you cannot target weight you lose it from your feet up and your head down, until you meet in the middle and abdominal, and back fat is LAST TO GO... however I think loose skin goes away with conditioning and toning... also not losing weight to quickly... like don't drop 20lbs in one month kind of thing.. if you do it in progressive steps, few lbs by few lbs it should re-adjust with time.... As for exercise like I said do conditioning and toning. weight lifting, muscle building.... stretching, yoga, etc.
  • aliwhalen
    aliwhalen Posts: 150 Member
    I have the same problem. 3 pregnancies, one was twins. I try to mention diastasis to everyone I know whose problem area is their abdomen. As I understand working on your core strength is the best way to tighten those muscles, but depending on how much loose skin you have, there's no way to get rid of it without surgically removing it. There is something called the Tupler Technique that I've considered trying to help bring the separation together. Now, to get serious about it! I will likely have my extra skin removed someday as when I sweat I get a horrible rash there. It itches and drives me mad!
  • aliwhalen
    aliwhalen Posts: 150 Member
    Oh! Another thing - if it IS diastasis recti, be REALLY careful with lifting and don't do crunches! It will make your problem a lot worse. Here's a website to help you determine if you have diastasis. If you don't, ignore all my rambling :)

    http://www.befitmom.com/diastasis_recti.html
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
    I would be curious to know the answer to this as well however a trainer once told me something different. That our body determine where it is going to store and burn fat from. That targeting a specific area is no different then an over all work out. You need to burn fat from all over your body and then eventually it gets to the area you want to target.

    This ^ IS the answer. I would love thin thighs.......not happening without surgical assistance.

    For specific lower abdomen exercises look to pilates. NO, you won't lose fat any faster, but pilates helps strengthen your core. A strong core helps you stand taller and helps you hold things in.

    Loose skin.......this is largely genetics. How far the skin was stretched, how long the skin was stretched, your age ....all play a role in determining when/if your skin will snap back. You can't exercise to shed skin.

    Exactly - you can't spot reduce and how well your skin tightens up is all about genetics.

    However, before you start doing any sort of traditional ab exercises, please google "Diastasis recti". This happened to me after having an 11 pound baby via C-section, only I didn't know it and after three years of targeted ab work like crunches, pilates and yoga, it got worse. If this is the case, there are a few transverse ab exercises you can do, or you can save up for a TT.
  • Edmond_Dantes
    Edmond_Dantes Posts: 185 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.

    Try table pushbacks and fork put downs. Seriously, if you have 50 lbs to lose, start there. And don't blame your "2nd son" for this.
  • LunaGreen
    LunaGreen Posts: 118 Member
    Well this is not an exercise and not a miracle cure but...
    I have a similar issue, not from a baby, but from being so overweight in the past. I have been using red light therapy and started noticing results pretty quick as far as my skin looking better (stretch marks) and feeling a bit tighter. Might take some googleing to find one near you. I know there are also sprays and moisturizers you can buy to "speed up the results" I haven't tried them yet.
    I also find that with problem areas I like to just paint it brown, ie spray tan makes everything look better :)
    Best of luck
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
    You won't like this either but it's great advice and had exercise suggestions:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1161603-so-you-want-a-nice-stomach
  • aileenmtaylor
    aileenmtaylor Posts: 1 Member
    Watch the super fit people in your gym and then copy their ab exercises. And then do them until your stomach hurts the next day, and then alternate to different ab exercises the second day and repeat each day. If you are not at least a little sore you might improve but not at any speed. Also up your cardio with interval training.

    There is a person who goes to my gym (and I'm sure there is one at every gym) and they are there every day for 90 minutes and they look almost the same as they did a two years ago. Don't be that person be like the ninja warrior tv show and you'll see results.
  • Sherbear1109
    Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.

    Try table pushbacks and fork put downs. Seriously, if you have 50 lbs to lose, start there. And don't blame your "2nd son" for this.

    You sir have never been prego and obviously don't know what you're talking about. I'm not trying to blame my 2nd son. Just stating what caused the muscle damage and skin stretching. Any woman who has had more than one child can tell you that every pregnancy is different. Size of baby, where you gain weight, how the baby sits, and more can all be different and can cause various changes in a woman's body. My sons are my world and I have no remorse over the changes having them has caused in my body. That doesn't mean I don't want to repair what can be repaired, though. As for your petty comment about maybe I should try not eating, not eating was part of the problem. I came here and started tracking calories to help gat back in the habit of actually eating 3 meals a day. Forgetting to eat until late afternoon most days has slowed my metabolism down quite a bit. I have still been under my calorie goal everyday since I started tracking it.
  • Sherbear1109
    Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
    Watch the super fit people in your gym and then copy their ab exercises. And then do them until your stomach hurts the next day, and then alternate to different ab exercises the second day and repeat each day. If you are not at least a little sore you might improve but not at any speed. Also up your cardio with interval training.

    There is a person who goes to my gym (and I'm sure there is one at every gym) and they are there every day for 90 minutes and they look almost the same as they did a two years ago. Don't be that person be like the ninja warrior tv show and you'll see results.

    Unfortunately, I don't go to a gym or that would be great advice. :-( I workout at home. I do cardio daily, legs and arms twice a week, abs 3 days a week, & yoga most days. Just started tracking my calories on here a week or so ago to help get back into healthier eating habits. Just getting bored with the same ole stomach routine and looking for some new lower ab excercises to change things up a bit. Thanks for getting what I was actually looking for, though! I don't know what the ninja warrior tv show is, but I am definitely going for those results. Lost an inch on the waist over the last two week period. So yay. :-)
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.

    Try table pushbacks and fork put downs. Seriously, if you have 50 lbs to lose, start there. And don't blame your "2nd son" for this.

    You sir have never been prego and obviously don't know what you're talking about. I'm not trying to blame my 2nd son. Just stating what caused the muscle damage and skin stretching. Any woman who has had more than one child can tell you that every pregnancy is different. Size of baby, where you gain weight, how the baby sits, and more can all be different and can cause various changes in a woman's body. My sons are my world and I have no remorse over the changes having them has caused in my body. That doesn't mean I don't want to repair what can be repaired, though. As for your petty comment about maybe I should try not eating, not eating was part of the problem. I came here and started tracking calories to help gat back in the habit of actually eating 3 meals a day. Forgetting to eat until late afternoon most days has slowed my metabolism down quite a bit. I have still been under my calorie goal everyday since I started tracking it.

    He may not have been pregnant, but I have, twice, and I'm still nursing the second kid 2 years later. His advice is 100% spot-on. Weight loss comes from a calorie deficit, and the best way to do that is by staying within your calorie goal. Exercise is for fitness, and there are no exercises which are going to target that area. Your body will lose fat from where it wants to when it wants to. You can do ab exercises all day long, but all you'll have is strong abs that no one can see underneath all the fat.

    My second pregnancy was so horrible that I ended up on bed rest and I'm still dealing with residual issues from it. But my baby had nothing to do with the amount of weight I gained during the pregnancy; that was all about the amount of food I stuffed in my face. Pregnancy does do wicked things to our bodies, but it's important to give credit where credit is due if you want to be successful in losing weight and not just use the pregnancy excuse, especially when all the weight actually related to gestation (baby, placenta, fluid) has been gone from your body for awhile.
  • Sherbear1109
    Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
    I know for a fact you cannot target weight you lose it from your feet up and your head down, until you meet in the middle and abdominal, and back fat is LAST TO GO... however I think loose skin goes away with conditioning and toning... also not losing weight to quickly... like don't drop 20lbs in one month kind of thing.. if you do it in progressive steps, few lbs by few lbs it should re-adjust with time.... As for exercise like I said do conditioning and toning. weight lifting, muscle building.... stretching, yoga, etc.

    This I can totally agree with. I guess conditioning and toning excercises that work the lower abs are what I'm after. Those are the muscles that need the most help. Took me a long time to recover from the c-section and I'm trying to focus on the lower abs to rebuild those muscles. I am getting bored with the same excercises and would like to rotate in some new excercises to keep it interesting. I can do cardio or work my arms and legs all I want, but the only way to get definition back into my stomach is to build muscle there and that only happens by working that muscle. If I bench press for three hours a day everyday, I might lose weight everywhere, but I'm certainly not going to get any muscle defiinition in my abs or rear that way. It just doesn't work that way. If you don't use a muscle, it doesn't build. If it did people who broke an arm or leg would be able to keep that broken limb tone by working the other one. Thanks for being willing to actually talk about things like conditioning, toning, and muscle building instead of saying it's just a matter of calories and cardio. They are significant, but they are not everything.
  • sassyjae21
    sassyjae21 Posts: 1,217 Member
    Wow. Those were all such great suggestions for exercises to add to my current routine. Seriously. Way to comprehend what you read and respond with an actual answer to the question.

    Try table pushbacks and fork put downs. Seriously, if you have 50 lbs to lose, start there. And don't blame your "2nd son" for this.

    You sir have never been prego and obviously don't know what you're talking about. I'm not trying to blame my 2nd son. Just stating what caused the muscle damage and skin stretching. Any woman who has had more than one child can tell you that every pregnancy is different. Size of baby, where you gain weight, how the baby sits, and more can all be different and can cause various changes in a woman's body. My sons are my world and I have no remorse over the changes having them has caused in my body. That doesn't mean I don't want to repair what can be repaired, though. As for your petty comment about maybe I should try not eating, not eating was part of the problem. I came here and started tracking calories to help gat back in the habit of actually eating 3 meals a day. Forgetting to eat until late afternoon most days has slowed my metabolism down quite a bit. I have still been under my calorie goal everyday since I started tracking it.

    He may not have been pregnant, but I have, twice, and I'm still nursing the second kid 2 years later. His advice is 100% spot-on. Weight loss comes from a calorie deficit, and the best way to do that is by staying within your calorie goal. Exercise is for fitness, and there are no exercises which are going to target that area. Your body will lose fat from where it wants to when it wants to. You can do ab exercises all day long, but all you'll have is strong abs that no one can see underneath all the fat.

    My second pregnancy was so horrible that I ended up on bed rest and I'm still dealing with residual issues from it. But my baby had nothing to do with the amount of weight I gained during the pregnancy; that was all about the amount of food I stuffed in my face. Pregnancy does do wicked things to our bodies, but it's important to give credit where credit is due if you want to be successful in losing weight and not just use the pregnancy excuse, especially when all the weight actually related to gestation (baby, placenta, fluid) has been gone from your body for awhile.

    While you both are right, he was ugly about it.
  • Carrieendar
    Carrieendar Posts: 493 Member
    I have no studies or anything to back this up, but I can share my story. I have 4 kids, and, even though I only gained the recommended 25 lbs or so each pregnancy, I still ended up with loose tummy skin from all the stretching. I still have some of it today; however, running has really helped. I got my body fat measured with calipers at the Y (they do it for free) and, over the past year of running, I have seen significant improvement in the amount of fat measured there. I don't do a ton of lifting, 25 min or so twice a week. But I do an additional day where I go back and forth between a back exercise (pull ups, heavy pants, superman, etc) and core exercises (planks, etc).

    edit- I do these exercises at home with dumbells and a removable doorway pull up bar (I still use a chair even after a year I can only do a couple reps without the chair).
  • Sherbear1109
    Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
    His response is not spot on because I AM eating at a deficite. I also do cardio daily, rotate working abs and arm & legs, and do yoga most days. In the last two weeks I've lost an inch on my waist, so what I'm doing is working, thanks. I just don't track my weight. I track my size. Again, I'm not saying my son is at fault for the weight gain, just that the way I carried him really stretched out my stomach skin and that having to have a c-section destroyed my lower abs. That's just facts. The only way to recover from that is to build muscle. The only way to build muscle is to work that muscle. Working your legs or your arms will not build muscle, and therefore definition, in your stomach.
  • Sherbear1109
    Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
    Bottom line is you can build muscle under the layer of fat, so that when the fat does eventually come off, there is some muscle there to essentially fill out some of the loose skin. As far as the loose skin, it depends on the elasticity of your skin. Some women have thicker skin that can rebound pregnancy after pregnancy, some do not, and the only cure would then be a tummy tuck. Lifting does help immensely, but you cannot do anything specific about that one area.

    Thank you for seeing what I'm getting at. This is why I do an ab routine 3 times a week. Getting bored with the same routine, though and would love some new excercises that work the lower abs to switch things up.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,029 Member
    I know popular belief on here seems to be that you can't target where you want to lose fat. So, this query is directed at those of you who use exercise to target specific body parts. My lower abs are wrecked from pregnancy and an unavoidable c-section. After carrying my very large son, in a very low position for the last 3 months+ of being prego, my lower stomach is literally stretched out and hangs down in this horrible way. It is getting smaller, but I would love to fix this faster. What exercises work best for targeting this area and losing the extra skin, too?
    It's not a popular belief, but actual science. And just like trying to target fat, one cannot target loose skin with exercise. If it doesn't retract on it's own, then surgery is your next option.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • Sherbear1109
    Sherbear1109 Posts: 155 Member
    Thanks carriendra for sharing what worked for you and for throwing out a few excercises to rotate into my routine. Truly appreciate a real answer instead of a snarky reply.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,029 Member
    One suggestion I would make is to maybe consider a TRX suspension system. Since you don't go to a gym, this apparatus can work the whole body without taking up any space in your home. And since practically every move requires core stability, you kill 2 birds with one stone.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • kika_mckee
    kika_mckee Posts: 126 Member
    Try dry brushing your skin (google it and watch the video). It's not an excersise but my skin has felt amazing after doing it and I think it's helping. (even if it's not my skin is so soft!)

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