Are Women Pressured to Get Fit too Soon After Giving Birth?The Pressure To Snap Back Into Shape Soon After Birth

Are new mothers under more pressure than ever to get their pre-baby shape as soon as possible? Recent events involving Maria Kang a.k.a 'What's Your Excuse?' mom or 'Fit Mom' and new mom Caroline Berg Eriksen, 26, the wife of Norwegian soccer player Lars-Kristian Eriksen, who posted a selfie of her slender toned physique just four days after giving birth suggest the answer is 'yes'. Though the pressure to snap back into shape soon after birth has always been significant for high profile celebrities, it seems like regular women are now subjected to the same types of pressures. This begs the question: how thin is the line between 'fitspiration' and 'thinspiration'?

Fitness enthusiast and former trainer, Maria Kang, routinely gets into hot water for her assertions that everyone can get the results she got soon after birth, assertions which get labeled as 'fat shaming' and not 'motivational' as she repeatedly states they really are. After being banned shortly from Facebook last week, she managed to stir controversy once again. She was interviewed by CNN along with Chrystal Bougon, a plus-size lingerie store owner who launched a 'selfie' campaign promoting 'real beauty'.

Despite denying she is a 'fat shamer', as her critics claim, she stated that the women from Ms Bougon's photo gallery are “are not how real women look like or should look like.” She went on to imply that it's obvious from the pictures that the women are unhealthy: “A lot of people can just tell that [a] person is not healthy.”