I was 20 pounds underweight when I got pregnant the first time (due to anorexia), and in 2 days after giving birth I looked like I had never been pregnant. I thinned up well, due to just being waaaaay over obsessed about it, after the second and third ones, as well. It was a couple years after those pregnancies that my stomach - the bane of my existence - got out of control and I have found it - no matter how many crunches and such I do - impossible to flatten. I despise my stomach. I think a protruding lower abdomen is a hereditary trait, no matter how thin other parts of me are, like I have great thighs and legs, but because I am small boned and have long thin arms, hands, and fingers (not to mention the not most "ample" of chests), I just feel that this one annoying area of my body makes me very disproportionate. It also makes it difficult to find clothes that fit right (I HATE clothes shopping); when you are small on top, small on bottom, but large in the MIDDLE...what are you to do? It also doesn't help that I suffer from chronic irritable bowel syndrome. The IBS causes bloating, so sometimes I can look a bit more "ok", but if something sets of a bad bout of bloating, forget it....my ABOMINABLE ABDOMINAL (like that?) area looks (and feels) all the worse, and makes wearing clothes torture.