Your body goes through a lot during pregnancy and childbirth. It stretches and changes shape, and most importantly provides a home for your growing baby and a way for him or her to enter the world! You might find yourself wondering how you’ll ever be able to tone your body back up after pregnancy and child birth. If you want to know how to get rid of stomach overhang after pregnancy and childbirth, these are the things you need to know.

Likely causes of stomach overhang

During pregnancy, the abdominal muscles can easily stretch wide apart. This can leave the tissue down the centre of the abdominals weak and overstretched. Aside from the potential problems this can cause with back and hip pain, outwardly this can appear as a ‘bulging belly’. C-sections can also cause additional stress to the abdominal area. If you want to know how to get rid of stomach overhang after a c-section, it’s probably going to take a little more time and attention, but you will get there!

Treating abdominal separation

Before getting into any exercise regime after childbirth, check that you’ve got the ‘all clear’ from your lead maternity carer. If you have had a c-section, your recovery time before starting back with exercise is likely to be a fair bit longer than if you’ve had a natural birth.

If you want to know how to get rid of stomach overhang, the first part of your exercise regime should focus on rehabilitation for any abdominal separation. Find a women’s physio specialist, or a personal trainer specializing in post-natal exercise. They can help you with exercises that are specific to treating abdominal separation. These exercises can be done in conjunction with other appropriate exercise, and you’ll need to gradually work on them to help ‘close the gap’.

Effective exercise

Once you’re ready to progress, you can focus on types of exercise that will help you to burn body fat most effectively. Some points you need to know:

• ‘Spot’ reduction is a myth. When you burn body fat, you’ll burn it from all over. Therefore it’s important to work your full body for optimal results
• Focus on working big muscle groups to burn fat from all over your body. For example, a squat, lunge or leg press will be a more effective fat burning option than a calf raise
• Incorporate short burst of high intensity exercise into your workout regime if it is safe for you to do so. This can help produce a powerful fat burning effect.

Optimal Nutrition is so important

If you want to know how to get rid of stomach overhang, you need to place a strong focus on nutrition. It will be responsible for a big chunk of your results.

• Eat plenty of whole foods that have been minimally processed. The focus should be on foods that are highly nutritious so that your body can function properly and help you to burn fat effectively
• Keep yourself hydrated. Thirst can often be mistaken for hunger, which can result in over eating. Therefore drink plenty of water in between meals. You might also want to check out these drinks to help you burn belly fat

Give it time

Remember that your body took more than nine months to grow your little human being. Be kind to it and allow yourself at least this much time again to shrink back in. With the demands of motherhood, don’t be hard on yourself if your results take longer than you initially expect. Gradual, slow progress will get you where you want to be, in a healthy way.

If you’ve been working on your stomach overhang for a long time, and haven’t gotten the results you are after, you can speak to a health professional about your options for surgery. Your surgical outcomes will be more positive if you are following a healthy exercise and eating regime

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