How to remove a pregnant belly after a caesarean section

Excess belly fat is primarily manifested by the appearance of a so-called apron. A belly apron is a sagging fold of skin and fat in the lower abdomen, which can be quite difficult to get rid of. But there is no need to be upset. Those who set this goal and are ready to reconsider their lifestyle can remove the apron on their stomach without surgery. Let's consider what is needed for this.

We recommend learning how to remove lower belly fat

Why does a pregnant belly remain after childbirth?

The abdominal muscles of women who have had a cesarean section lose their elasticity. Reasons for this:

• weight gain when carrying a child;
• changes in the curvature of the spine during pregnancy and after it;
• excessive stretching of the abdominal skin and muscles.

The abdomen remains elongated until the uterus contracts completely. This takes 6–8 weeks. During the recovery period after surgery, excess fluid also leaves the body. It accumulates due to the administration of a large number of drugs intravenously.

How to get rid of an apron on your stomach: exercises

As already mentioned, it is important for us to restore muscle tone, and for this we need special exercises aimed at correcting the lower abdomen and tightening the muscles. If you need to remove the apron from your stomach, the following exercises will help:

• You need to lie on your back, place your legs in a straight position on the floor, place your arms along your body. Alternately lift one and the other leg up, then lower them, also alternately. To increase the effectiveness of the exercise, you can not lower your legs completely, but keep them at a distance of 1-2 cm from the floor.
• To cope with how to remove an apron on your stomach, you can use a fitball or leg weights. You can do this exercise without weights, but with it its effectiveness increases. You need to lie on your back, place your hands on your head, and place your legs straight on the floor. Raise your legs so that your body forms a right angle. In this position, you need to lift your buttocks off the floor and raise your pelvis as high as possible. After this, return to the starting position.
• Another good exercise is bicycle crunches. You need to lie on your back, raise your legs and bend them at the knees. Place your hands behind your head, elbows out to the sides. Pull your left knee towards your chest and try to touch it with your right elbow. Then change arms and legs and repeat the exercise.
• You need to lie on your back, stretch your arms up along the floor, and keep your legs straight. Now simultaneously raise your torso and legs, trying to touch your heels with your palms.

Also, in the question of how to remove belly fat, cardio exercises - running, swimming, cycling - will be useful.

Breathing exercises will also help remove the apron on your stomach after a caesarean section. It helps to significantly reduce the size of your belly in just a couple of weeks. Pay attention to the following exercises:

• Torso rotations help - an effective exercise for the abdominal apron. Stand straight, place your hands in front of your chest, place your feet shoulder-width apart. When turning to the sides, pull in your stomach as much as possible, tensing your abdominal muscles. Returning to the starting position, exhale to completely free the stomach and chest from air. Do the exercise slowly, controlling your breathing.
• Get on all fours, resting on your elbows . Inhale for eight counts, drawing in your stomach as much as possible. Then exhale for eight counts, sticking out your stomach. When inhaling, the spine should assume an arched position.
• Lie on your back, bend your knees, and place your hands on your legs. Relax completely. Inhale slowly for ten counts, drawing in your stomach as much as possible. Now exhale, also slowly, drawing in your stomach even more.

When can you start losing weight?

Gynecologists recommend doing abdominal exercises after six months have passed since the date of the cesarean section. However, you can start the fight against a sagging belly while still in the maternity hospital. To do this, you need to purchase a postoperative bandage in advance and put it on as soon as the medical staff allows you to stand up. The bandage will need to tighten the stomach every time the woman gets ready to go somewhere. While lying down, wearing a belt is ineffective and harmful. Doctors recommend wearing a postpartum bandage for 2 months.

Self-massage of the abdomen: removing the fat apron

Now we remove the fat apron with self-massage of the abdomen, which is recommended to be performed several times a week. The correct technique is very important here, otherwise you will not only not get results, but you may also harm yourself. The massage technique looks like this:

• The massage should only be done while standing. First, thoroughly warm up the desired area by intensively stroking the abdomen with your palm in a clockwise direction. Movements should be gentle.
• Now let's start kneading. The fat fold is collected between the fingers and pulled back. Then you need to roll it over the entire area.
• Rubbing the belly. Using your palms or the edges of your palms, rub the surface intensively. Alternate the movements several times.

To make the massage more effective, you can use massage creams and oils. A video of self-massage of the abdomen will also help you to remove the fat apron.

How to eat to lose weight

As for nutrition, it should be balanced. Ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats: 30/60/25. Nutritionists recommend using vegetable oils as a source of fat. It is better to avoid animal analogues, such as margarine or fat. It is optimal to replace simple carbohydrates with complex ones. This is oatmeal, rice, buckwheat, bread and other baked goods made from wholemeal flour. This also includes beans, lentils, peas, potatoes and pasta. The latter must be made from durum wheat. It is important that your daily diet contains at least 500 g of fruits and vegetables. Sweets, baked goods and other fast carbohydrates are prohibited. Protein foods should not be fatty. The optimal choice is turkey, skinless chicken, rabbit. It is ideal to combine meat with vegetables, such as salad. Food can be prepared by steaming, baking or stewing with a small amount of oil. The total daily amount of food is divided into 5-6 meals. Portions should not exceed 300 g. The volume of water drunk is from 1.5 liters. It is necessary to limit black tea, coffee, smoked foods, fried foods, sweet soda, spices, fatty and pickled foods. The minimum amount of calories for a nursing woman is 2500–2000.

My own massage therapist

It is not at all difficult to carry out self-massage on the problem area. The main thing is to follow a few important rules. The massage is done on an empty stomach, that is, when the stomach is empty.

If the massage is performed on a full stomach, there will be discomfort in the abdomen, the intensity of the massage movements will be low, and the result will be incomplete.

A massage always consists of several exercises to activate different muscle fibers and different skin areas. The stages of the massage are as follows: stroking, rubbing, pinching, tapping and finally stroking.

Self-massage of the abdomen

Important. Self-massage of the abdomen is performed while standing.

A few suggested exercises:

• stroking the abdomen clockwise until warmth is obtained;
• pinching the skin fold of the sagging apron until slight redness of the skin appears;
• rubbing the problem area with your hand until redness appears, you can add honey;
• kneading with your hands between your fingers, grabbing the fat fold;
• rubbing and kneading the fat roll using a massager, which is placed on the problem area and works with rollers or vibration;
• vacuum special plastic jars.

Self-made attempts will always bring results. The more persistent a person is, the more time he devotes to gymnastics, intensive sports training, nutrition control, self-massage, the better the result will be.

Procedures

Regular massage sessions will help your skin become firmer again. First, problem areas are heated with rubbing movements using a special cream, then pinched, tapped and stroked. Massage with silicone cups has an effective effect. You can buy them at the pharmacy. In addition to exercise and proper nutrition, the following can help:

1. Mumiyo. Two tablets are dissolved in a small amount of warm water and mixed with rich cream. The mixture is applied to the stomach, thighs and buttocks before bed after a shower.
2. Scrub. Shower gel or liquid soap is mixed with coffee grounds that remain after brewing coffee. You can also add sea salt there. The resulting product is rubbed onto the problem areas for 5 minutes, and then washed off with water at a comfortable temperature.
3. Cold and hot shower. Combining hot and cold water while bathing tones the skin well. This method is especially effective if you use maximum water pressure and direct the shower head onto your stomach and thighs alternately.

Apron on the stomach: reasons for its appearance

Before you find out how to remove an apron on your stomach at home, let's consider what reasons can lead to this phenomenon. Judging by the reviews, the most common are the following:

• Dramatic weight loss. If a person loses weight faster than his body can adapt to the changes, then the skin may sag, and that same fold will appear in the lower abdomen. The fact is that the muscles do not have time to contract, and therefore sag. In this case, intense physical exercise will be required to eliminate the apron.
• Pregnancy and childbirth . A fairly large percentage of women notice the appearance of a hated apron after childbirth. The reason is the prolapse of the anterior abdominal wall and the prolapse of the rectus abdominis muscles. An apron also often appears on the stomach after a caesarean section, which we will try to figure out below on how to remove it.
• Poor nutrition and overeating. If the body receives more calories than it can process, and moreover, their sources are unhealthy foods, oversaturated with fats and simple carbohydrates, then first of all, excess fat is deposited on the stomach, and only then moves to other areas.
• Insufficiently active lifestyle , weakened muscle tone. Fat is burned through physical activity, and if there is not enough of it in a person’s life, then he will probably one day notice a fat apron on his stomach. The abdominal walls stretch quite easily, and to avoid the accumulation of fat in this area, you need to maintain muscle tone.
• Hormonal problems . The apron on the stomach, which we will try to figure out how to remove, may be related to hormones. In men, the cause of this phenomenon may be insufficient testosterone and excess estrogen. Testosterone causes nutrients in the body to go into muscle mass. If there is a lot of estrogen in the male body, then it will store fats, and the lower abdomen will become the place where they will be deposited. In women, the cause of the apron may, on the contrary, be a lack of estrogen.
• Hereditary factor . If a person’s family is dominated by overweight people, then he will probably have a tendency to accumulate fat, in particular in the abdominal area.

Coping with such a task as removing an apron from your stomach at home can be difficult, but there is no need to despair. Please note that even if you remove excess fat, the crease may remain as the muscles will still hang. Therefore, you need not only to lose weight, but also to tighten your abdominal muscles.

The fight against fat apron is based on several basic conditions. You can’t do without adjusting your diet and physical activity. It is also recommended to supplement the program with breathing exercises, massage and cosmetic procedures. Let's look at these stages in more detail.

Rehabilitation

How long does rehabilitation take for mini abdominoplasty? From 2 to 3 weeks, which is significantly less than recovery with classic abdominoplasty. For the first 24 hours, the patient remains in bed in a plastic surgery clinic. Patients are discharged home only 2-3 days after mini-abdominoplasty. The cost of surgery may increase due to additional hospital stay.

During rehabilitation after a tummy tuck, the patient should:

• treat the seam with antiseptics;
• refuse to take a shower or bath so that the stitches do not come apart after a mini tummy tuck;
• take painkillers if you feel discomfort and pain in the surgical area;
• Avoid physical activity until the scar heals.

Features after losing weight

After losing weight, it is quite possible to remove a sagging belly, but you will have to put in a lot of effort - a sudden loss of body weight is fraught with the formation of wrinkles and stretch marks, which also need to be gotten rid of. Therefore, the most correct solution would be a set of measures that includes:

• proper nutrition,
• massage,
• regular exercise
• cold and hot shower,
• body wraps and sauna visits.

Cut without waiting for complications

In some cases, there is no time for all the procedures, but you really want to have a normal fat layer on the abdomen. In such cases, fat masses are removed by radically removing the apron. This will require surgery under general anesthesia.

The surgeon will remove excess fat with a knife and cut off the stretched skin. A skin incision is made in the lower abdomen horizontally along the skin fibers, so after excision of excess tissue, the skin suture heals and becomes invisible. This method is called abdominoplasty.

Important. Such radical treatment refers to aesthetic procedures and has its own indications and contraindications.

Of the surgical methods of treatment, there is a simpler one, for example, liposuction. This method involves pumping out excess fat from subcutaneous tissue.

General anesthesia is not required in this case, since the intervention is minimally invasive. During this procedure, fat cells are pumped out through tubes that are inserted specifically into the subcutaneous space.

Is it possible to remove the apron?

A sagging belly can be completely removed at the initial stage with the help of simple manipulations. If the apron is a constant companion for a long period, then it will be more difficult to get rid of it - all available means must be used, it is necessary to act comprehensively. Severely advanced cases, when sagging folds appear on the abdomen, can only be corrected through surgical intervention.