So I love reading tabloids and celebrity magazines. In one of them it said something about post baby bodies refering to women who have 1 to 2 year old children! So DH and I got to talking about how long you can use these types of phrases..."Post Baby Body" "I just had a baby" and "Baby Weight"

How long do you think women can use these terms after giving birth? Can you refer to your extra weight as baby weight if your "baby" is a toddler?

[Jody317]

I personally feel like I should of lost any baby weight by like 6-8 months. I was perfectly able and Isla was more independent. For sure it is not a post baby body after 2 years.

(In my opinion)

[HavensMomma]

I think once your baby is not a "baby" any more it's a lame excuse... JMO, but I think 12 months?

I was thinking 6 months for "I just had a baby" and 9 months for baby weight or post baby body....Reason being '9 months up, 9 months down'.

I agree that after one or two years you really can't blame your baby for extra weight. I know someone IRL who always posts stuff on FB about working out to lose the baby weight. Her kid is 4. I just see that and think that's not baby weight. It's overweight.

[mom2avaG]

Yeah, I agree the excuse is long gone after 12 months. I haven't even tried to loose the weight- ( I have along road to go down!).
But my husband lost 30 lbs since I gave birth, taking up running!
Time to face the music...

[tela]

while i agree that it is odd to refer to it that way past 12 months, we ALL have a post-baby body, regardless of how old our babies/children are! some of us have better post-baby bodies than others. and some women's metabolism changes due to pregnancy or age, making it much harder to lose weight. i think it's a bit mean to generalize and say that every woman should be able to lose the weight by a year. sure it sounds funny blaming the baby weight on a child who's 4, but if the weight came on during pregnancy, then it kinda is!

[Anitha]

I tend to agree with Katrina. I personally didn't have to work out or watch what I ate prior to becoming pregnant. I was 112 and to me that was perfect. But now my body is a diff body, not just in terms of the extra weight, my body functions differently and my metabolism is slower for sure, I am finding that eating just a little carelessly immediately shows on the scale, but what little exercise I do does not have any effect whatsoever. While my eating and lifestyle prior to my baby didn't affect my wt. now it does. So I need more time to actually get rid of it. I wouldn't judge that lady with the 4 yr old who is still struggling to lose that extra wt. at least she is trying. Every person has a diff body type. JMO.

[zeldot]

to katrina and anitha. even if I get back to my pre-baby weight, I'll NEVER have my pre-baby body back. :-/

[Lo_and_Behold]

I agree with Katrina, Anitha, & Kelly although hearing someone with a 4 year old say that does sound kind of funny.
I think I stopped saying "I just had a baby" around 6 months PP. I'm still 6lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight though (gained 62). I lost 35 within the first few weeks & then worked hard to lose another 10-15 & then I just got stuck. I would fluctuate between 4lbs +/- but I could not get lower until about 2 months ago. Now I've lost 15lbs in 7 weeks I'm not sure why my body wanted to hold on to the extra weight but I do know that it's been hard trying to get it any lower. I never say that I still have baby weight, but I always say that I'm still "x" lbs away from my pre pregnancy weight. I guess I think the wording sounds less like I'm just using an excuse
But for what it's worth, when I was in my early-mid 20's, it was A LOT easier to lose weight than it is now in my (early) 30s!

[Sassymom-to-2 boys]

I agree with Melissa, Anitha, Katrina, and Kelly. I would never say post 6 months post partum that "I just had a baby". I did lose 20+lbs post baby but I gained 30 lbs so I have about 8-10 lbs to go for that. And after two kiddos, my age, and my genetics (my mom still looks 8 months preggo and she had her last kid 17 yrs ago) its not going to be easy for me to get back to pre-pregnancy weight. I worked my tush off and did a triathlon and in that time I put on some muscle and lost inches but didn't lose a pound. I took a few weeks off and now I am back on the horse so to speak and going nuts with the Turbo Jam videos and after my bike has a tune up I'll kick my training up a few more notches and I do yoga on Wednesdays....I'm not exactly slacking. I also walk and take the stairs whenever I can, minimum I get about 15 city blocks of walking in not counting what I do indoors and I go up and down the stairs at work 4-6 times a day. I have lost a whopping 2 lbs in 4.5 mths....

So ya I have some baby weight to lose but I also have some flab to lose.

Saying that I just had a baby when your kid is 4 is a little much but you don't have to be mean about it. Weight is a sensitive issue. At the same time, I don't think we should give ourselves endless amounts of latitude and reward ourselves with massive portions of food either.

[artisticmind]

i kind of agree with a little of everything said. while we will always have "post-baby" bodies at a year or even a year and a half out it is no longer "baby weight." it is your body's new "set point" due to whatever reasons being your activity level or your eating habits or your new bodily functions after having a kiddo or two. And 4 years out is definitely not an excuse to call "baby weight" even if it did come on after baby or never left after baby. It's kind of like people saying kids in their late teens still have their "baby fat" and they'll lose it. My mom said for years "oh you'll lose your baby fat one of these days" and I was like "mom, it's not baby fat, it just fat!" LOL. 16 months PP for me and i flucuate about 4lbs above or below my weight when i got pregnant which was 210, i'm "lucky" because that seems to be my body's set point, anytime i lose weight and gain it back it seems to stop at that point, though i wish it was lower but wishing doesn't burn calories (if it did i'd be a skinny minnie! LOL) and it's my own fault. i could work harder to lose weight but i don't. i get a good workout routine going and then blow it for one reason or another

[Mommy2Aiden369]

I have to agree... I could of lost all the weight, probably, by now... but things get in a the way and sometimes your body just doesn't wnat to loose all that weight. I get down to low 120's then I stall, for weeks and weeks... and I really should be more like 110. I think only using the excuse that you just had a baby when your kid is 4 is a bit crazy, but honestly, My body looks the way it does because I had a baby... even if it was 16 months ago.

[Banned-Pumpkintime]

I would have to say 18 months. Not everyone looses baby weight at the same pace. and if you are breast feeding you have to eat alot more until the baby is weined.

[Banned-pauldavis985]

Thanks for the information