Stretch Marks & Pouch Before & Afters

You are 18. You are still young. You still have all that elastin and collegan working in your body. I went from 300 lbs to 150 in my 20s and did not have loose skin. You need to do the cardio and the strength training and it'll be flat. Now that I am almost 40 and have had 3 pregnancies in my 30s I don't have all that collagen and elastin so I will have the lose skin. I think the difference between you and some of the women here, like me, is age. Do the work and it will pay off.

I have stretch marks! I know its different for guys but I have them. Before I got fat, I lifted weights religiously! My muscle grew faster than my skin and I got stretch marks on my chest and butt and inner thigh! Then I stop lifting and got fat and now I have stretch marks on my belly too! So ladies stretch marks are not that big of a deal to me! My wife had my three babies and she also got stretch marks for all her hard work and I love every inch of her!!! We need to not be so vain and accept what we have ladies be proud of your bodies because you are beautiful!!!!!

this thread is inspirational for me! Bumptastic! I can't wait to post mine!:happy:

When I started MFP





Now:

Great work! My tummy looks a lot like your after picture right now, but I'm still bothered by stretch marks and loose skin a bit (HW: 235, CW: 156), but looking at pictures always makes me realize that I've come a long way and now I look a LOT better than being obese!

this is after 2 kids and 2 sections. this pic was over 7 months after having the last baby







and this is about 6 months later.44 lbs down, another 40 to go.





i have been using vitamin e, essential oils and bio oil and massaging almost every day.

I've had 3 kids. 1 natural (she's almost 19), 2 c-sections( my boys are 10 & 5). Reality for me is, I'll have a small pooch probably. If it goes down that's awesome!! as for stretch marks, they do fade! They are my mommy combat scars! :bigsmile:

Dexy what kind of workout n how long.. Great job! You look wonderful!

I dont have any "before" belly pics as I was pregnant or not comfortable embracing it, but now that I am embracing the changes my body made, I did take these pics yesterday. This is at 2 months post partum from having my youngest. I had a daughter at 19 naturally, a MC at 23, and my 3 living children are now 34 months, 14 months, and 2 months old (were all born via c-sections). I tend to disagree with the stretch mark comments of they will never go away, there are procedures to fix them, it is not a "impossible" notion to have, just as much as getting rid of the pooch is. You continue to do tons of certain ab exercises you are going to build muscle over your scar tissue to me (at least in my head lol). Anyways, my point of posting these pictures is to show my stretch marks, I do have them, I did not lotion like I should have any of my pregnancies, I have started now that I am working out (still..not as religiously as I should) but I have kept up with my biooil, the stretch marks seem to be getting less apparent, although they still are bad in some areas Hoping with the rest of the weightloss it stays manageable...OH and to add, I started 2 months ago at 228, I am at 190 now, so I have lost 38 lbs the last 2 months, not from anything crazy, just drinking water and watching calories, not even working out because I wasnt cleared til a couple weeks ago, so now I am trying to lose the weight a little slower, but I wanted to post on this, when I get to my goal weight I will post some more, I know it will take time, took many many years of being pregnant to get this way, i dont expect it to come back in any quicker time than that. GL ladies, I agree to try and embrace it, I am pretty vain when it comes to my appearance, but Im trying each day to focus on the things I am proud of, if a guy cant handle my flaws he is not welcomed in my kitchen anyways

I have a bit of a belly pouch left and I've come to realize? It isn't fat, it is skin. Skin that stretched both with two pregnancies and weight gain. Unfortunately, it won't go away with diet or exercise. I didn't lose my weight quickly and I did it the right way. Sometimes the skin has just been stretched beyond its limits to return to its normal state.


I accept that this is who I am. I have two kids and I won't ever have a flat belly again nor will I ever wear a bikini again. I'm okay with it.

Perhaps some day - I will have a tummy tuck, but right now I'm too cheap to have cosmetic surgery just to have it.

I think in the back of my head I knew this, just didn't want to believe it! Argh! It's exactly this that makes me want to just be fat forever, what's the point in being healthy if I still HATE my body?

You won't hate your body. You will love being at a goal weight, being fit, and achieving that.

I have stretch marks (42, I have three kids who weighed between 9-10 pounds respectively at birth, all of 'em) and I have loose skin because I've lost almost 100 lbs. I am not thrilled about it, and I will never wear a bikini, but I have rock solid abs underneath that skin, and muscles all over. No one could ever tell the difference in clothes. My arms look great, my legs look great except for the very top of my thighs. Again, the only thing that is going to fix it is surgery and at this point I'm just not willing to take the time off work OR working out to do that, never mind the money. It would cost me about $20K to fix everything "wrong" and I just don't plan on spending that kind of money when I don't care that much and neither does my husband.

You will learn to accept the body and be happy to be fit, and it may not be as bad as you think once you are done. Plus, the stretch marks will fade to a very light silver.

I LOVE this!!!

Thank you for sharing :flowerforyou: