Anyone Out There With A Completely Flat Stomach?

Got wobbly bits. Used to be called love handles.

Bahama!

Plent of padding around my tummy - I shall now think of it as a built in air bag. I was just over nine stone in my teens with a concave tummy, but gained weight with each baby I had, and never lost all of it. I'm now three stone heavier. When I have succeeded in losing a stone or two (which inevitably snuck back on) I've been left with ghastly sagging folds of surplus flesh. My DDs insist that it will eventually go away, but I've not succeeded in keeping my weight down long enough to find out.

All of the females on my Mum's side of the family have large middles and spare tyres. I am the same. I think when you are younger your muscles can 'ping' back but when you are older, unless you are REALLY lucky, this dosn't happen. I've always had a fatter tummy and always think about a lady I worked with, who's tummy fat saved her from a nasty accident, when a car reversed into her and pinned her against a wall. The hospital said that her injuries would have been much worse if she didn't have the padding round her tummy.

Just looked it up on Amazon - it looks a bit drastic but effective.

Thanks, Michelle - although 'wear your own bra' sounds weird...

Head for the "wear your own bra" body shaper,. It's a miracle worker. Flatter tum without the constipated look one gets whilst trying to hold your stomach in.

Nope, never had a flat stomach even when I weighed 8 stone. Looking back at photos of me in a bikini in my teens at my lowest weight, I still had a tummy. I'm still reasonably slim and when I lose a few pounds for my holidays the stomach doesn't go.

Gunt...what a word but very descriptive lol.

Maybe you could have an apron printed with that word on for us over fifties to wear it strategically while cooking the dreaded xmas dinner, ha ha.

thanks for the laugh oh and also I got one too..it's big unfortunately and would do anything to loose it.

I think there is a distribution of body fat that occurs in old age. I tell myself this is for our survival; because if, millions of years ago, the tribe was short of food they would not have fed the elderly only the child bearing women. So this is the reserve nature gave us to enable us to live in hard times. Also I think there is research that being a bit heavier is good for our bones. I also think if we have a debilitating illness a bit of reserve is helpful.

teabag

Had to smile when reading this as I recently went to bed slim and woke up flabby (don't laugh, it can happen ).

Knew it would need some work to shift the tummy and waist flab so orf I went to M&S to view there body shapers and similar. Got the info I needed so popped into Primark and bought better at a quarter of the price.i.e white Secret Posseions elastaine pants with beautiful lace side panels.

After gently exercising in pursuit of these under garments and having to jump up and down to reach them off a high rail I am now back to no flabby bits. Happiness is elastaine.

No ....

Up until I was about 50 I was fine. Even after having my children I was confident in a bikini. I haven't really put on any weight but if I stand sideways my tum in now bigger than my bottom! It's an age thing!

Trouble is, that even if one loses weight and exercises properly, there is always loose skin left, which waves about. Thank heavens for magic knickers for social events!

I've just about always had a completely flat tum, which came back almost straight away after each child. Still have at 68. But my problem has always been my hips / bottom - even at my slimmest. I've been doing 5:2 for the past 4 months or so, and that has flattened my bottom! My DH has lost copious inches off his middle doing it too. It seems to reach areas other diets never have. (p.s. other diets are available..... )

NonnaW's post is the 2nd time in recent weeks I have read about the link with menopause/hormone loss/flabby tums and it makes sense to me. When on HRT I had the flattest tum ever in my life, but as soon as a change of gp resulted in it no longer being prescribed the wobbly flab appeared and won't go away.

When I lie on my back I have a flat tummy ! The only thing is that it's like a fried egg in a pan , it runs over the hip bones and onto the bed ! Ocht well , I'll keep trying to get the body beautiful !

I weigh 57kg but thanks to 4 children I no longer have a flat tum. It's not exactly enormous but would love it to be like it was in my 20's. Must say though I would rather have the 4 children, they are worth giving up a flat tum for.

When I had my babies 27 years ago I was given a set of post natal exercises to do and I still do one of them for five minutes every morning before I get up. It really helps.

Lie flat on the floor and pull your legs up with your feet still flat on the floor. Place your bent knees flat on the floor to the left and then to the right and get up a rhythm. Ensure your tummy muscles are taking the strain and being pulled tight as you do it. No pain-no gain. Keep it up for five minutes (it's totally boring! so read or listen to something).

After this I stay on my back and do twenty five muscle clenches pulling in my stomach and squeezing in the old buttock region. I do pevic floor exercises at the same time.

With the menopause comes re-distribution of fat, with more around the waist and hips: is this more a male fat-distribution? And as we age we lose muscle tone, about which we can do a little; and lose elasticity in connective tissue, about which we can do nothing. And the age at which this happens varies a lot. Having taught Pilates for many years, it was evident in front of my eyes as I saw my class participants, however skinny, developing a spare tyre, which may be very small, but there it was. And of course it hit me hard. So it doesn't matter how slim you are, or how much Pilates you do - my daily dose is 45 minutes, plus at least an hour of cardiovascular, and an alkaline (vegetarian) for many years, I can pull in my abdominals to flatten them, but plenty of fat particularly on my lower back, waist thickened, and well as loads of wobbly bits: all that loss of elasticity. Sigh...

Find the added inches on my waist and tum disconcerting. Spend my home time in pyjama pants. Anyone tried waist expanders for slax and skirts I'd be keen to hear.

Anya's comment struck a chord: I think the nice round little bottom I had has just shifted to my tummy. I weigh 57 kg, and freak any time I reach 58. Now this is heavier than I was at nine months pregnant with all my three kids, and 10 kg more than when I got married 38 years ago. But I swim laps/do aqua gym every day for half an hour, so I feel quite fit. But I wish the tummy could go!

I was always slim. I was underweight when my hubby passed because of all the worry through his illness and just seven stone. Seven years on I am ten and a half with a belly and bum I am not proud of. I am not out to impress anyone but would like to shift a stone but am a bit to fond of pies.

I have a rather ugly scar from an appendix op when I was 14 and two babies in my thirties have left me with two lumps of flab either side of it. I have never been able to shift them, but clever underwear disguises them a bit. I am pleased though that my bust is bigger than my stomach, as I would be quite horrified if my stomach entered a room before the rest of me!