Question:
My stomach is so BIG!!!!!!
I have gone from an 24/26 to a size 18 in 4 1/2 mos. Great huh, but the problem is although I can zip up my pants, I look like I am PREGNANT. My stomach looks like a huge ball. I notice that I am losing weight around my legs, arms and upper body, but although I have been shaped like a pear before, now I am shaped like an apple. Can it be the the anestiastia still have me bloated or will I need a tummy tuck in order to lose this, or will (with time) this stomach will strink....Any advice. Thank all you lovely people. — [Anonymous] (posted on January 15, 2002)
January 15, 2002
I can feel for you...I am beginning to have the same problem... my abdomen
seems to have dropped way down, but get bigger while the rest of me gets
smaller! What is it with that??
— Sharon H.
January 15, 2002
I have done the same thing too!!! Lost in the legs, butt, upper chest and
arms but not in the tummy. I now fit into a size 22 jeans in the tummy,
but my legs fit into a size 16/18. From the legs down, I look like I am
swimming in them!!! I have heard a lot of people say the tummy is the last
to go. I would hold off on considering the tummy tuck until you are close
to goal as I would hate to see you get it only to find out you would lose
it towards the end. At least, that is what I am hoping for!!!
— Kellie Jo B.
January 15, 2002
That was me, bowling ball perched on toothpicks. Even when I was wearing
size 4 pants, they HAD to be elastic waist. At the time of my TT, my waist
was 31, hips 33. That was sucked in. Pretty darned square, huh? For me,
and the other women in my family, it took a TT to make us look normally
proportioned. I was the only one who actually did it. When my mom passed
away, she weighed only 145, but her waist was over 50". Some of us
just are built that way, big ribs, big shoulders, no hips. I measured my
bone structure on a chart again this week. I'm 5'1", 108# now. I STILL
Have big bones on this chart, which measures at the elbow. Barbie, I am
not. But at least I look normal now.
— vitalady
January 15, 2002
A friend of mine had her surgery 9 months ago and has the same problem. She
has lost almost 100 pounds and looks like she is pregnant. She found out
she has a hernia.
— blank first name B.
January 15, 2002
— [Anonymous]
January 16, 2002
I had the same problem. It has been 1 year and 7 months since my surgery
and just last week on 1/10/02 I finally bit the bullet and had a
paniculectomy/abdominoplasty (tummy tuck). It took a lot of thinking to
finally decide that this is what I wanted to do. Please be patient with
your self. I know it is very diffucult to be patient you want it right
now, but give your body a chance to absorb more of the flab. Give it at
least a year and a half.
— shannon B.
January 16, 2002
I am sorry I no advice for you, but as a very hip-and-thigh-heavy pre-op,
this question made me smile. There is hope for me! I'm HOPING to lose in
my legs - otherwise I am afraid I may look like two completely different
people cut in half and glued together at the waist! Oh well, I guess we all
have our "problem areas" that never really go away.
— [Anonymous]
January 16, 2002
Hi!!! I know exactly what you mean... I'm 25 lbs away from my goal of 120
and I should be wearing size 8 or 6 but my stomach is so big I have to buy
10 or 12!!! just for the clothes to go around my tummy!!!YUCK my doctor
says It will go down EVENTUALLY but that where most of my body fat was
located when I started this journey and I know it will not go flat ever!!!
so I guess we'll just have to be patient and wait for the final result on
our second year out ( that's what my doc said)
— Monica J.
January 16, 2002
There are 2 types of fat .. I don't know the technical terms but I call
them "Cottage Cheese" fat and "Spare Tire" fat.
Cottage Cheese fat is softer and has more water it in it, thus it is the
first to go when you start losing weight. Spare Tire fat on the other hand
is firmer and is usually located around your middle. This type of fat is
the last to go when you are losing weight.
I think most of my body was "Cottage Cheese" fat because I am
starting to look like a deflated beach ball ... one of those really big
ones .. hehe
Melissa
— Melissa B.
January 16, 2002
I am so relieved to see that other people share this problem. My best
friend and I both have this and have been driving ourselves crazy trying to
figure out what to do to help it. My Dr. checked and said it's not a
hernia, but a weakness of that abdominal muscle. After big pregnancies and
the open surgery, that muscle just doesn't have the strength to hold me in
anymore. It is so frustrating. I have lost 109 lbs. but have only lost
about 5 in. in my waist. Hope it shrinks down eventually. That tummy tuck
is a long way down the road, and I don't want to look pregnant until then!
I do wear a body briefer that helps hold it in a bit.(Open BPD(no DS)
5-9-01, 371.5 to 262 as of today.)
— Shawn K.
January 16, 2002
I had TONS of hanging skin early on, but its been shrinking back very good.
You might just be patient and check if there are exercises that could help.
— bob-haller
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