Oh! this great fat belly.

Tho I'm in my mid-70s I call my well-rounded bit my "baby-pouch"; my "babies" have done me proud so I'm proud of it.

I tore the major abdominal muscle in Labour with DD2 (9lb 8oz) but it healed very well so I can't blame that.
I agree you can 'dress'to hide an apple tummy but it's the worst place to retain weight as it disposes you to diabetes ..Sigh...
Oddly though, as I have lost weight off my bum with getting older my waist(always quite small) and hips are in much better proportion and I no longer have to buy things way too big on the waist

I have always had a fat tummy since the birth of my son and now I have limited mobility my body is all fatty. If I try to lose weight it only comes off my face, arms and neck and makes no difference to my tummy. However as long I am healthy apart from the osteoarthritis I try not to worry.

I think the problem really is that we're all 'conditioned' by images on TV, in magazines and on the internet to the idea that we must have a flat tum or be abnormal in some way. I've always had a thing about my tummy but have decided at nearly 60 not to worry.

Good posture helps and proper advice about exercise. Doing sit ups on the bed isn't easy, unless you've got a superfirm mattress. You can do Pilates at a studio where they use a bed called a 'reformer' (eek!) so you aren't on the floor

I do Pilates on the floor in class. Getting down and up takes a bit longer but I do manage ok. For anyone who does Pilates, I find I just can't manage the plank, so do something else. Otherwise I love all the movements and would never now go back to yoga.

Why not go to a local belly dancing class. You will learn all sorts of moves and be encouraged to dance with a repertoire of those moves that suit you.

All the moves are shown on utube. Here are some contacts for the camel move which is a tummy move of the three sets of abdominal muscles.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVl5LMzHJ8U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMrGL3nRutI

before any exercise you should warm up your muscles. Good luck.

I call it my Mummy Tummy.
I now have a mental talk to myself = sit up tall and brush hair, take off glasses for all photos.

Your spine can make your stomach protrude. I have a bit of a hump possibly due to a back injury. Although a sticking tummy runs in our family and my grandmother had a hmm.

Of course, it could be just inner fatness.

sticking out

my grandmother had a hump. Not a 'hmm'

How can you tell if you've got that abdominal separation thing? I had my third child at 39. I blame him that.

Reading back over my posts I would just like to mention I am not Quasimodo-ish.

Eating bread causes my tummy to swell; when I cut it out of my diet my stomach visibly goes down. Unfortunately, after a while I cave in and eat it again.

jings this website tells you how to check and gives you some exercises to help with the problem

Diastasis recti

There's lots of videos on YouTube too.

Thank you Wilma. Will read and look.

Not sure if I can feel anything through my flab though!

I should have had a pee before I started doing that.

I've got a two finger gap. Felt weird.

It's all about aging - not a popular subject, I know, but awareness helps. I have attended at least 4 fitness courses, including Pilates, focused on the older adult, with course content put together by youngsters, and taught by youngsters. None of them have a clue about being older, basically.

Over the years of teaching Pilates, I have noticed that even the skinny ones developing a spare tyre. This is a combination of loss of muscle tone and collapse of connective tissue: that wrinkly, lumpy stuff that used to be smooth! I work daily at maintaining muscle tone, but nothing can be done about connective tissue collapse. So although I do a lot of abdominal exercises - none of them sit ups ( a waste of time, ineffective and inappropriate for older people, and a complete no-no for those with osteoporosis) and I do have a strong core, my waist is ever-widening.

Another factor is that you cannot spot reduce: the only way is to lose weight, so you will lose the weight noticeably from your face: that's life! Really the only way to lose fat, besides watching food intake, is with cardiovascular exercise.

Remember we are all different, and our fat distribution is different. Another age factor is the distribution of fat changes as you age: if you had not much of waist in your youth, ie apple shape, post-menopause the fat will sit around your waist.

As for ab separation, there is still a well-known fitness/Pilates instructor, post three children, who has never managed to get them to meet again, as it is connective tissue, not muscle that separate. The exercise I recommend people with this problem, and anyone with a large ribcage, which also happens with childbirth, is seated spine twist which you can check out on Youtube.

There are loads of inner core exercises that can be done in Pilates without a single ab curl, or a plank.

Don't know why you worry about it. We are grans not teenagers. We had children and we we got older and not as fit as we once were. A fat tum goes with the territory.If you have a hubby I guess he will not be in the best shape,if like me you are a widow then why worry, I am not trying to impress anyone just glad I can still keep my house clean, walk my dog, and care for my grand children when needed.

Please don't try to worry about it. I have a belly, and I'm tall and slim, apart from that. Aren't women supposed to have bellies? Look at Renaissance art instead of shop windows. Sounds like you are doing a lot of exercise anyway. Swimming is good for all areas, as is yoga, and water aerobics is fun and you're hidden from the instructor when you want to fake and have a rest. Try to engage your tummy muscles when you can remember! Have normal meals, just on a smaller plate, but don't deny yourself. Snacks are good as they keep the metabolism going and your body doesn't go into starvation mode.

Whoops, meant DON'T worry about it!

jings I had a hump. I hated it but I told myself it was a postural problem and I took after my mother. I was quite wrong. I lost weight doing 5:2 and the hump went away. I will never allow it back again.

I once heard a talk by a consultant who said that all our spines shrink as we age, and our tums have nowhere to go but out. His advice was "Let it hang out, Ladies". Having said that, my mother wore corsets all her life and never had a tum even at 82. Do you think that now we don't wear them this might be the cause?

I swear by my post natal tummy exercise which I have done since I had my first child 27 years ago. On getting up in the morning I lie flat on my back, draw my knees up and make them touch the floor each side. You can tell it's working as the stomach muscles pull. At the same time suck your stomach in. I do this for five minutes (very boring, read or check texts) and then do 25 pelvic floor scrunches before I get up. Getting up is tricky but swing sideways, sit up and then use your knees to take the strain.

Excercise and good posture are the keys to hiding the belly fat.