Celebrity Moms and Baby Weight

A more realistic post-baby body: Reese Witherspoon. She looks good...not stick thin and not huge, but pleasantly healthy looking. You can tell she hasn't had anything done to her body, but I'm sure there are tons of celebs who do get tummy tucks.

I've also heard of scheduled c-sections...Madonna had one. They schedule you to deliver 6 weeks before your due date so your baby is smaller and you don't get as bad of stretch marks. IMHO, that's not only stupid, but bad for the baby as well. Certain problems can arise from low birth weight.

It's kinda dumb to compare Gwyneth's metabolism and body to mine.

She's never had an obesity problem, no matter how often she wore that fat suit.

Obese people, will never have the metabolism of gwyneth.

But we can focus on things that will help us manage our weight.

It's stupid for Gwyneth Paltro to say that it will all go back when for a majority it will not. even with exercise and diet. It makes other mothers feel inadequate.

I gained an astonding amount of weight when pregnant, and I used the "type of" weight gain as an excuse for many years to only trim down a bit. then when the kids started middle school I got very serious at the gym--s l o w l y--so slowly I didn't even notice--the saggy baggy went away! it firmed up! I guess because I was diligent and stuck with it rather than saying "It won't happen" hey nothing is impossible--I always said rich people could look great since they could get plastic surgery--it made me feel righteous to say that--justified my own fat and sags. My abs are better now than they ever were--but I have to stay active to stay toned-- many celebs work out daily, not all rush for surgery- but if we all insist they do, we can remain helpless as far as our own sags and bags go.
hey I excused myself for years! Then I started being real. But it is fun to pick on people who have made good and become famous. I miss not so fit famous people like Elvis a lot.

I think what Gwen was trying to say was that she didn't do any extreme dieting some stars do to lose the baby weight. In some ways celebrities have it harder because you have tabloids with fat headlines about people who aren’t even overweight.
I learned to love myself loose skin and all. I am not against people who do this type of surgery but
at this time I don’t feel I want it.

Some people's skin goes down the more they lose weight but part is how much they have to lose, how fast they lose, how long they keep it of, and genetics.

The faster you lose the more loose skin you have.
The slower you lose the less loose skin you have.

I hope what she said was true as I am not a big believe in surgery for weight loss and body appearance. Healthy nutrition and exercise is by far the absolute best way to lose weight.

I think that before saying anything like this, people should educate themselves first (especially a celebrity that people look up to) and not give the wrong info to other people to make them feel bad about themselves. You cannot lose excess skin simply by eating well and exercising a lot. Whether that loose skin will go away or not really depends on your genetic and the elasticity of your skin. Skin is not a muscle that you can manipulate.
Because some people eat well, exercise a lot and lose the skin after a few months after giving birth does not mean that they lost the skin because of what they did; they were simply blessed with good skin and all just coincided. Even if they did not do any of that, the skin would still go back eventually because it's meant to be that way.

For people who are not blessed with one, no matter how much money they spend on creams, diet, exercising, it wouldn't make any difference, the only way to get rid of it is going under the knife. I know this first hand, I am a very tiny woman, had my huge baby 9 months ago, leaving me with a lot of excess skin; been eating very healthy, exercise like mad a few times a week, but there is not even a difference at all in the size of my excess skin. Then, reality sets in and I have accepted that I am not as blessed as Gwyneth is.

My friend, who I mentioned in another post, had two babies, both born a month early for different reasons (one was a twin, the other baby died at 4 months gestation; the second because, and I'm not joking, she was struck by lightning). She can wear the tiniest of bikinis and you would never know she had kids. No loose skin, no stretch marks. And the kicker: She didn't diet or exercise to get her body back.

Her sister had one kid, born near full term, and exercized consistantly to lose her baby weight. She was left with big ugly stretch marks still visible after 4 years and her stomach isn't quite as smooth and tight as it was.

Both were in their early 20's when they got pregnant. My friend's two kids are only a year apart. If she got held as the norm for what happened after babies alot of women would be very angry, feeling quite cheated. She knows she lucked out, I know she lucked out, and her sister says she (the sister) got cheated.

I in contrast after gaining 45 lbs, and having a 6.5 lb baby boy, lost the baby weight, but had stretch marks, that eventually turned white. Didn't get the loose skin, but that was baby number one.

Eight years later, gained 55 lbs and had an 8 lb 2 oz baby girl. Stretch marks faded, but don't know how the skin will recover still having almost half the weight to lose. It looks okay, but that could be due to the extra weight.

Point being? All three of us are close to the same height, different body frames, and had our kids at around the same ages, even tho we aren't the same age. Women are different, we can only do so much to make our bodies look the best they can after we have our babies. Genetics does play a big part of it, and even having similar genes doesn't guarantee the same results.

Sandra, Thank you so much for you words of intelligence. You are so right! Before I got pregnant with my first child I was 135lbs (5'9'') - I gained 40lbs with my son. Within 4 months I was back down to 128lbs. When I had my daughter (my children are 18 months apart) I had gained a total of 50lbs! By the time my daughter was 6 months I was back down to 130lbs. I lost and gained the weight so quickly that my skin became extremely loose and saggy (and for those of you who don't understand - I mean saggy, not flabby - think of a very elderly person. Do we tell the elderly that their wrinkled skin can become tighter if they exercise??) My daughter is now 15 months old and I am back to 130lbs, work out 3x/week and see a nutritionist every 2 weeks. And still no change in the saggy (wrinkly) skin. My nutritionist said that eventually (and he meant years) that the skin will improve a little, but the elasticity lost will not come back) - the rapid weight loss was definitely to blame for "some" of the skin - as you said - genetics is to blame for the rest (guess it didn't help that I gained so much weight during pregnancy :-)

A lot of moms can be prejudge-mental, condescending, and down right self-righteous when it comes to judging other moms for their pregnancy experiences, outcomes, and decisions. I could never understand this. However, for me, I am choosing surgery (a tummy tuck). I have decided that this is the best decision for me. This doesn't mean that I am not an advocate for a healthy diet and exercise (because obviously I live by that reason) - however, I have decided what is best for ME; and this may not be the same for every woman here. Thanks again for your post.