One of, if not the most frustrating part about losing weight, losing stomach fat and achieving the body you dream of is looking in to the mirror and seeing what is commonly termed “the overhang”, “the pouch” or most affectionately of all, “the mothers apron”.

No matter how much weight you lose or how much the needle on the scales falls, when you look in the mirror you still see what can only be described as a deflated balloon looking back at you.

So what can be done about this most frustrating of fat deposits? Well the good news is that you can leap over this final weight loss hurdle – the bad news is that you’re going to have to work pretty hard for it.

Every month, a mum who is on the Lose Baby Weight plans will be writing about their journey, exercise, ups and downs and will be here to help motivate YOU and THEMSELVES along the way – and if you want to become our Motivating Mum for one month see here on how you can enter (we pay you for it too!).

And in March our Motivating Mum of the Month and taking up the challenge to motivate you was Linda Hallas.

Linda has already done an incredible job on our weight loss plans and planned to reach her target weight by the end of March – and if you read below you will see that she did it!!

She lost lost 1.7kg this week and 13cms over my body which brought the total loss for March to 7.8kg lost since she started in October to 32.5kg!! AMAZING!!

You can read Linda’s 4th week’s weigh in results below – and you can see her first week’s results here and her second week results here and her 3rd week here and her 4th week here

Most of us have gone through the experience of carrying around pesky belly fat that just wouldn’t go away no matter how many exercises we do or how far we run.

Out of all the fat that we store in our body, belly fat is the hardest to get rid of and it always sticks out like a sore thumb. There are several reasons why we gain belly fat and it isn’t just due to the fact that we’ve been keeping up an unhealthy diet (you can see everything you need to know about tummy fat here).

Aging and heredity play a major role in the development of belly fat but that’s not all, our hormone fluctuations also induce belly fat to accumulate around the lower abdomen.

In order to help you lose baby weight and eliminate most of your belly fat, here are 5 effective lower-ab workouts that you can include into your post pregnancy exercise plan.

Elbow plank

• Get into a push up position.
• Lower your forearms to the floor and keep both hands in a grasp.
• Remember to keep your elbows lined up directly underneath your shoulders.
• Tighten your abdominal muscles and squeeze your butt together.
• Make sure your head, neck, back, and are kept in a straight, strong line.
• Hold for 20 seconds and release.
• Repeat for 5 times.

Full Plank Twist

• Start by getting into a full plank position (similar to a starting push up position).

Many women have certain areas of fat on their body that they can’t get rid of, regardless of what they do – a tyre of fat around their tummy, love handles or thick thighs. Some women have problems with wobbly arms, while others suffer with a saggy tummy – particularly after going through pregnancy and childbirth.

The key to getting rid of these stubborn fat stores – and to keep them off – is to learn about why they are there in the first place.

It is thought that a number of things could be to blame for problem fat storage, including hormone imbalances, toxins and stress. Weight does not naturally go on evenly all over our bodies – some women gain weight on their face, while others gain it on their stomachs and others gain it on their thighs, and their lifestyle could determine why they gain fat in those areas.

But what about a wobbly tummy which is a problem area for most mums? How can we banish the bloat? It’s as simple as this – a wobbly tummy is linked to stress, so to banish it, you need to stress less.

When it comes to weight loss, in particular losing baby weight, there’s one area that often proves to be incredibly stubborn; the tummy.

Whether it’s post pregnancy weight, a few extra kilograms that have creeped up over the months/years or just the spot you find impossible to shift weight from, losing weight from the belly area is usually towards the top of most mums weight loss wish list.

In fact, if you type the word ‘lose’ and the letters ‘be’ into Google, the search function will predict that you’d like the search terms to be ‘lose belly fat‘. It’s a popular topic indeed!

When you are trying to lose pregnancy weight, the stomach fat area is one of the key areas for concerns or areas that mums want to lose weight from and your core forms a big part of toning this area and helping you to successfully lose this area of your pregnancy weight – you can read more about everything you need to know about stomach fat here.

Your core is more than just the six pack muscle we quite often refer to when we say someone has a ripped core.

How to lose stomach fat post pregnancy is one of the most common questions the Lose Baby Weight team is asked. And of course it is something that 99% of women losing pregnancy weight have problems with.

Our tummy area is the area where the excess weight we gained in pregnancy can be the hardest to move and it is often the last place to go when we are losing pregnancy weight and it can be the part of a mums body which causes the most frustration.

So below we have broken all you need to know down and hope this gives you the best advice on how to lose stomach fat on you post pregnancy weight loss plans

In today’s society, there’s a whole lot of pressure on mums to lose baby weight fast on some extreme fast weight loss diet and I advise following a healthy and safe weight loss plan like the Lose Baby Weight plans if you do choose to start losing your pregnancy weight.

We see celebrities drop weight in record time and in the case of Heidi Klum walk the Victoria’s Secret catwalk clad in lingerie after her 4th child only 5 weeks after giving birth.

Sure, that’s pretty aspirational and impressive but if you had a team of people helping you look after junior, cook healthy meals, train you every day and motivate you – knowing you’ll have to fit into diamond-encrusted lingerie in just a few months – I’m sure you’d be able to do a Heidi, too!

This is probably the most asked question I get from my clients. How can I get rid of my belly fat? You can see lots of advice on losing stomach fat here too but below I look at a herb that may help with loose skin

So I had a client today who was trying to lean down as she is competing in a body ‘figure shaping’ competition. She was actually looking for diuretics to strip down and look as lean as possible.

Loose skin is a common problem with large amounts of weight loss. When you gain weight, your skin has to stretch out to accommodate your extra fat.

When you lose this fat particularly quickly, or if you do not exercise whilst losing weight, your skin has nowhere to go which can leave you with loose, sagging skin.

Here are some tips for how to prevent loose skin if you have lots of weight to lose.