Mom's Please Help!!

I recently read that walking or running is the only way to reduce belly fat--not spot toning (crunches, etc). I should know, I've got a soon-to-be eight year old pooch!

Use a stability ball. Sit on it. Lay on the floor and lift it with your ankles and pull it up to your hands, using straight legs, then over your head, then back and forth. The key is that your body is going to hold on to fat however it's designed to - hips for me. Basically you need to tone up the muscles and work on your diet in order to lose the fat. Your body is still recovering. So don't be too tough on yourself.

Have u tried weight watchers? It's a great program!

You cannot omit cardio exercise from your life if you want to get rid of belly fat (or any kind of fat).

With that said, you can go to a medical spa and get your belly lasered. I don't know what the procedure is called, but it is not invasive and takes several treatments. Will probably run you close to $2,000. I don't know if your belly will become flat, but I'm sure it would go down. If you can afford this stomach laser thing, ideally, you also want to do cardio exercise several times a week. There is just no avoiding exercise (and eating right). Good luck.

Use your baby! When rocking, do squats with rotation like a medicine ball. Because it can be slow and controlled if putting down for sleep, you get better tone with less injury. When playing with him, lift your baby up to the ceiling then down to the floor. If you do this several times per day, you not only get cardio combined with weights (the baby is the weight!) But if you are doing cardio at the same time as some weight, you burn more fat. It's also a great way to spend time with the little one while exercising, which makes it less monotonous and boring:)

My son is in the 95th percentile so workouts are definitely getting harder!

Also, switch to only whole grains.

Good luck...many of us are in the same boat for sure:)

I really like Jorge Cruise's The Belly Fat Solution. It does require you to tweak what types of foods you eat (lots of whole grains), but it worked for me and I was never hungry. It does not require you to cut out carbs which is great and you can still eat sugar, but in different ways. You should check it out.

Isagenix 9 days cleanse. My story is similar to yours - the post pregnancy weight after #2 was bit more challenging. This program is what did it for me. my 2nd son is now 5 yrs old. i just completed another cleanse - definitely challenging but makes you feel great!

Although I am a WW member, I thought maybe you would be interested in the Flat Belly Diet - they have a few cookbooks out that are filled with tons of great recipies. My (college-aged) daughter has had good success with it, and so have a few of her friends.

There's no quick fix other than a tummy tuck and lipo -and that's not necessarily quick (and very expensive)! You really need to exercise or nothing you do will keep the weight off. I barely have time to breathe, but I squeeze it in here and there. Cut out sugars and starches (ditch bread, ALL fast food and sweets from your diet) and your belly will shrink quickly -stick to fruits, veggies and lean protein, but you do need exercise!

I cut out gluten and my belly flattened enough for me to go down a size in pants. I didn't lose that much "weight" but I definitely flattened out.

I am a big fan of 20 minute workout DVDs. Or if you have cable you can get some free On Demand. When I was younger as long as I was exercising I could get weight off fast. Now I really have to eat really well too. I have a feeling with your second child it may be that less time is the biggest factor in having a harder time losing the weight. The 20 minute workouts are great though. I really like The 30 Day Shred, it will definitely tone you up. The Turbo Jam 20 minute workout is also good and has more cardio than the 30 Day Shred, so I think you would see fat come off a bit faster with it, where as you will build more muscles with the Shred. Also, an investment I made years ago that I LOVE is my treadmill. We keep it in the garage and I've gotten a lot of use out of it.

Another recent discovery of mine is a heart rate monitor. I've only just started using one and love it. If you don't have a lot of time for working out it's great because you can be sure the time you're spending will really count.

Good luck!

Have you tried using a Post Partum Support Girdle? or an Elastic Abdominal Binder? With my fist pregnancy this helped me a lot! The skin and muscles in my stomach area where very stretched and this helped me pull it all together in place again, it really made my muscles stronger again, and after a month or so of using it, even though I had some baby fat left, it didn't look as stretched as before. So you might need the extra support too.

are you sure its fat? loose skin and poor muscle tone around the belly from having kids can look like fat