muffin top - will it ever leave me?

I just cant seem to get rid of my muffin top!  I weigh 132 & wearing a size 6 in pants/shorts.  Might add Im only 5'2".  So are there people out there fighting the same battle as me?  Maybe if I loose 10 more pds it will go away? Ive down p90x's Ab ripper X...might add I think thats what caused my hernia Im fixing to have to get fixed.  So just any advice would be appreciated - Also just wondering if anyone else has this issue! Thanks.

My gut who I have named Emily, isn't going to leave me easily. ;(

It may or may not, or maybe only partially.  I hear this complaint from many women at support groups.  Stretched abdominal muscles may prevent any amount of exercise from "muffin top removal". DAVE

I am 5ft 2 and got as low as 115.....Mine did not gow away...but I have been obese almost all of my adult life.  I have learned to purchase clothing items that skim over the problem areas....it must work...family and friends look at me like i am crazy when I complain about my "muffin top".   Short of plastic surgery...I dont think mine is fixable.

I wear spanx and that seems to work for me.

without plastic surgery, it is impossible especially once you have had any abdominal surgeries.  I was told that even though they do it laproscopically, they are cutting through your abdominal muscles, making it impossible for you to get tight abs again and losing that fat.  I cant even get it to move when I breath in from having so many abdominal surgeries - my muscles are shot.

Last year after major complications and multiple surgeries, I ended up losing way to much weight - 45 pounds in 2 months and I was basically already at goal - yes, I could have lost another 10 pounds but not more than that.  I was emaciated - looked like I belonged in a concentration camp but I still have belly fat.  I have always called my belly for the past year "MY 4 BOOBS" = a long scar down the middle with belly fat on both sides plus my 2 real ones - it is terrible.   I have since gotten back to my proper weight but this just makes my 4 boobs worse.  without plastic surgery, nothing will get better.

What does having tight abdominal muscles have to do with losing the fat just above the waist and why would having just a couple of small lap incisions in the muscle cause muscle laxness?  The first part of that just doesn't make sense, and the muscles are lax primarily from stretching to accommodate the fat within the abdominal cavity.  Even after open surgeries, they sew the muscle back together as it was, so the surgery -- even multiple surgeries -- doesn't create the laxness.

Lora

I wasnt talking about people that have tight tummy muscles.  I was talking about people who have weak stomach muscles due to abdominal surgeries.  The tightening I refered to was the ability to tighten them ourselves.    My example is below.


Prior to my first abdominal surgery, I could pull in my stomach just by inhaling and it would look like my stomach was pretty flat but as soon as I exhaled, it went right back to the flab.  As soon as I had my first abdominal surgery which was the reflux surgery, I could no longer do that.  My surgeon told me that just because it was a lap surgery, doesn't mean they aren't doing a lot of work inside.  It is totally normal.  In order to get to the stomach, they must cut through muscle.  Yes, they sew it back up but they aren't plastic surgeons and they dont do muscle tightening - it isnt the same thing.  Then it got a little bit better by 2004 by time  I had my gallbladder out and it happened again.  That time it was even worse.  I could pull and pull to try to get my muscles to tighten and nothing would happen.  To this day with all my surgeries, it is still that way.

As far as losing the fat above the waist (muffin top) is a problem for everyone after gastric bypass.  I just feel the lack of abdominal  muscles makes it even harder since no matter how many abdominal exercises I did, they were useless.

I have been overweight since I am 10 years old and probably considered MO since I am 20 or so.  So, I think whatever stretching happened long before my first surgery in 1998.  If that is so, why would my muscles be tight when i went in for surgery and loose when I came out?

I am not going to argue with you, but the physiology just doesn't support lap surgery significantly weakening muscles in and of itself.  Even people who have many abdominal surgeries (Iap or even open) -- IF they do not have muscles stretched out by having to accommodate a lot of internal fat -- absolutely CAN tighten those muscles themselves.  Most of us, however, are not in that boat.  Yes, they do a lot of work ONCE INSIDE with a lap surgery, but they are still making VERY small incisions in the muscle, and the surgeon SHOULD be adequately repairing the incisions.  If having a lap surgery -- or even an open surgery -- automatically significantly weakened the abdominal muscle, ANY surgery AFTER a tummy yuck, and especially an open one, would ruin the tummy tuck (and that just is not the case).

As anyone who has dieted for years can attest, just working the abdominal muscles does not contribute to fat loss in the belly.  Otherwise, after having a tummy tuck someone should be able to get rid of any and all residual fat around the waist... and that doesn't happen.

Lora

No one can really answer that.  It is possible that additional weight loss might get rid of it, but it is also possible that, unless you become almost emaciated, you will not lose it.  It also depends on how much of it is actually fat as opposed to extra skin and supporting tissue.  You cannot un-grow skin and tissue that your body created to cover your additional girth.  If that is what you are dealing with, plastic surgery is the only way to get rid of it. 

Lora