Post-Baby Reality or Recomposition Addressable?

Do you know if you have a diastasis of the abdominal muscles? For many women, the abdominal muscles separate excessively during pregnancy and you would probably need a tummy tuck to fix that.

Are you back to running now?

If you don't feel you want to get into going to the gym and doing a weight lifting routine, why not include some body weight exercises at home 3 days a week. (Link below).

Get the DR checked out first as there are specific exercises you can do to rectify that, and ones that can make it worse.

I don't think your tummy looks all that bad, especially since your last baby is less than a year old. There is still time for a little more skin retraction.

Switch to maintenance for 130 and you will probably lose those last few vanity lbs slowly.

You have probably been running your own little weight lifting programme lifting and carrying 3 little ones around.

Cheers, h.

12Sarah2015 wrote: »

I'm 133 and had dr. Do u think it's because you've lost a lot of weight v quickly?

No that's not why women develope dr after delivery

Here is the Nerdfitness link I mentioned in a post above.
It is a body weight programme you can do at home.
Sorry I forgot to put it at the bottom of my post.
https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

Cheers, h

I do not see anything wrong! Personally where you are with dieting in general should decide when you are ready to recomp. If you feel you want to loose X more pounds to cut, then cut some more, or if you are tired of dieting per se, go into maintenance and do recomp for a while. When recomp is not cutting it any longer (no pun intended) you can resort to doing cutting/bulking cycles if you want to go that route.

The issue here is that you cannot spot reduce that area, all you can do is what you can to continue cutting fat and growing muscle, etc.

I cannot tell if you have DR or not, or just how much is loose skin and even how long it has been.. so pick your posion and do that. You can always change the plan as you go as nothing is set in stone. I do recommend that what ever the direction you choose, give that some time to work before changing the plan too quickly.

edited to add: marathon training added to the mix is a bit more challenging. If I were me (and I did this earlier this year for HM training) I leaned down more during training so I could bulk afterwards. Trying to do body recomp during training is challenging and hard to do. Not to say stop lifting (so don't) but the recomp should not be dual goals in my honest opinion when doing this type of training. You will be frustrated while trying to work on body composition changes and concentrating on this type of running. It is hard to build muscle to begin with as a woman, and adding in mass amounts of running to that, is all the more difficult.

I'm posting this article a lot today...I don't know if this might help?

http://www.muscleforlife.com/?s=lose+skin

First, I think you look fine. Your backk and side look fantastic. I see why your tummy bothers you, but wow, you've done great. Second, I lost inches for at least 8 months after I stopped losing weight. My skin firmed up. There was lots of extra room where there used to be fat and now there wasn't. Same as after when I had babies. Zooped right back up eventually. It took a long time to put that weight on it will take a while to adjust back. Congratulations!

Give your skin some more time to recover - how much it recovers is down to genetics.
Abs and core work will help give your skin a better framework to hang on if that makes sense? It can help your posture which gives the illusion of less fat/loose skin. It may well help your running too.

Ref marathon training - you can do weight training and large amounts of cardio but it's both a challenge and a compromise.
I do long distance cycling and weights but lifting is compromised by the training and recovery needs of my cycling so I have to prioritise. Mostly in summer I only do upper body and core work in the gym. Have been experimenting with some leg strength work in the last couple of weeks and stairs are a real problem some days!

Build up slowly and progressively. Fuel your exercise and recovery properly. Be conscious of growing fatigue and adjust as necessary.

I'm at the low end of normal for bmi but, after having twins, I was left with a baby belly that I can't get rid of.

I had my twins at the age of 39 and another at 41 so perhaps my body isn't ever going to bounce back.

I also love running. The muscles in every part of my body feel hard except for my tummy.

I'm begrudgingly trying to accept it. I don't want to lose any more weight as I'd just be an underweight chic with a protruding tummy.

If you're a young mother your tummy will have a much better chance at bouncing back. Give it time.