There is no truth to it taking a year for your body to get back to normal after having a baby. The average woman who makes no effort to lose weight will get back to pre-pregnancy weight in 18 months. My personal experience was that it took 7months to lose the weight after my first baby, 8 months after the second.

After the first I followed no particular diet, I just watched what I ate. After the second, the weight was not coming off with my usual diet, so I started the Zone diet. I also nursed both my daughters. As far as exercise, I did moderate-high intensity cardio 5 days/wk and strength training 3 days/wk. I also started taking Pilates and Yoga classes after dd#2, which really helped get my abs looking decent.

Are you doing any sort of strength training? After your pregnancies and dieting you have probably lost a lot of muscle mass. Increased muscle causes increased metabolism. Do you get your heart rate up walking? Sounds as if you need a new exercise program. If you have the $, invest in a personal trainer, at least in the short run. If not, do some research on this and other sites on effective workouts to burn fat. I highly recommend Body for Life. You can follow the Atkins diet while doing the BFL exercise program.

Jen