Does your stomach ever get flat after pregnancy?

My son is turning 1 year old in 4 days and I am depressed.  I've worked so hard to lose weight after gaining way too much during pregnancy especially for my height.  I'm 5 feet tall and weighed 158 when I gave birth.  I'm down to 105 which was my goal weight, but my stomach won't go away.  I'm so sick of eating 1200 calories a day.  I'd really like to eat maintenance calories, but I can't seem to get rid of my stomach.  I've exercised daily, weights & cardio and I've been pretty good with my calories. It just seems I lose from everywhere but my stomach.  Even when I suck it in I have a little flap still lops over.  I'm an apple shape so I know that doesn't help.  My measurements are 34, 27-28 (depending on time of day), 34.  So I feel like there's not much of a gap between my waist and hips and I'm not sure what to do about it.  I've debated changing my goal to 98lbs but I'm wondering if I'll be able to maintain that.  Any advice on what to do to get my stomach a couple inches smaller or should I just live with it?

So I'm taking it that if you aren't super human than this weight stays forever....that isn't what I was wanting to hear ladies!

I'm 26, 5'7 and 157.  I have a 7 month old and was 138-140 before I had him and 178 before labor.  I was told (way too late) that anything over 30 pounds is yours to keep! 

I have been working out almost daily for months with no change.  So I found this website just over a week ago and started counting!  I found out that am and have been eating between 1100-1300 a day and have lost nothing so far.  I also do measurements and that is only changing in my arms and legs. 

I guess I was lucky then.  Ive had 3 kids but I dont have any extra belly skin.  I have some stretch marks though.  I never gained more then 26 pounds when I was pregnant and my lightest weight was 22 pounds for my middle and 24 pounds for my last.  My weight will never be what it was when I got pregnant with my 1st.  I weighed 116 when I got pregnant with my first and I currently weigh 127.  Most of that extra weight is in from the bum to the knees.  My waist is 28 inches with 39 inches in the hips.

I know exactly how you feel. I am 27 and my son is 13 mos. I was 130 pre prego and now I am stuck at 150. I peaked at 170 the day before my son was born. It's a struggle..I've done the work out thing and any diet you can think of w/no changes. I'm trying to count my calories hoping this will help me. And my fiance doesn't help. He eats whatever he wants and stays the same ...don't you just hate that. I've always been a size 1/2 or 3/4 and now im in the double digits and its stressing me out. I wish it coulda been easy for me to loose the weight like some mothers. But I'm just going to have to keep trying.

Original Post by lkburrows97:

So I'm taking it that if you aren't super human than this weight stays forever....that isn't what I was wanting to hear ladies!

I'm 26, 5'7 and 157.  I have a 7 month old and was 138-140 before I had him and 178 before labor.  I was told (way too late) that anything over 30 pounds is yours to keep! 

I have been working out almost daily for months with no change.  So I found this website just over a week ago and started counting!  I found out that am and have been eating between 1100-1300 a day and have lost nothing so far.  I also do measurements and that is only changing in my arms and legs. 

 ikburrows97 - You are not eating enough!

I plugged in your stats - age, height, weight

If you did nothing all day you would burn 1780 calories, so you would eat 1280  (sedentary option is more for couch potatoes, definately not busy mothers!) but as you said you are working out daily, you will be burning anywhere between 2040 - 2300 calories a day, so should be eating between 1540(light active) - 1800(moderately active). Also, are you still BF'ing? If you are, you need to add at least another 300 calories to this daily target.

I know this is hard to fathom, that you need to eat more to lose weight, but if you don't eat enough your body goes into starvation mode (especially if you go under 1200 too often), your metabolism slows and it conserves the energy you give it. Seriously, I found this hard too. I hit a major plateau in my weight loss at 142 pounds  and my answer was to eat less, which did absolutely nothing. I then started eating a bit more (mostly out of being fed up, not because I knew better ) and amazingly the scale started moving steadily down again! I'm now about 129 pounds at 5'7, eating anywhere between 1200 - 1600 a day (average about 1350-1400) and still losing weight and I do no exercise other than looking after my little girl all day and housework! (so I put myself in the lightly active category)

  As for gaining more than expected during pregnancy, it is not true it will stick forever, it just might take a bit longer than the 9 months to a year expected for someone who gains only 25 pounds. I myself gained 40 pounds and I have lost all that plus another 12 pounds in just over a year of trying, so it is definately doable. Just give uping your calories a go.

I'm wonder the same damn thing. I had to have a c section and I hate the way my stomach looks now 6 months PP. I'm very seriously considering surgery. I'm going to start doing my weighted hula hoop again to see what that does but I feel in my heart that I will never have my flat stomach back unless I have the surgery. :(

These are really good tips! You could wear a girdle/faja until your stomach is as flat and toned as you like it. In the meantime, you will still be able to enjoy a slim waistline. I didn't wear the girdle immediately after delivering my son, but I will with my next child.