Don't we all want visible abdominals these days. We see picture after picture with perfectly shaped stomachs on women. If that is your goal, you will probably soon discover how hard it actually is. I for example have almost never had visible muscles on my stomach no matter how much work I have invested in getting them. I have been doing abdominal exercises for more than twenty years and they have never been very visible. How come, you may wonder. Well the truth is that you have to have minimal amount of belly fat to achieve that visible effect and I have always had some extra fat on my belly. Only If I became super skinny the belly fat would disappear, but so would my legs and breasts, and I don't want that, so I have decided to be satisfied with having achieved a flat and strong stomach and not focusing that much on having abdominal muscles that you could count only by looking at my stomach. Another factor that is relevant to achieve visible abs and/or getting a really nice looking stomach is the excessive belly skin many of us mothers have. After my first pregnancy the skin on my belly shrank back really nicely but after my second pregnancy, where I was even bigger than the first time, the skin is much more damaged and stretched. Now, you can do something to affect the size of your abdominal muscles and you can diet all you want until you have absolutely no belly fat (some women store their fat on other places than the belly and they will obviously not be forced to fight as hard as I have to minimize the belly fat), but one thing you can't affect is the size of your skin. That's why you shouldn't compare yourself with women who haven't been pregnant. You are fighting a completely different battle. There is however one thing that can be done to improve the "loose-skin-situation", you can become bigger by building more muscles so that your fuller body will fit the post-pregnancy skin better.
//Nicole Hellgren
