Woman Lashes Back at 'Fit Mom' With 'Real' Post-Baby Body Photos


At first glance, these two women, Taryn Brumfitt of Australia, and Maria Kang of California, might look like they have a lot in common.

Both are mothers of three and both are now Internet sensations after uploading post-baby body photos that have gone viral, but their messages are completely different.

"My body changed a lot after I had three children and I tried everything to get it to look like what it did before the pregnancy," Brumfitt, 35, told ABC News after making waves online for her series of post-baby body photos.

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She says that after the birth of her third child, she became obsessed with getting back to her pre-pregnancy body, furiously working out and even taking plastic surgery into consideration, which she ultimately declined.

"If I go through with this, what am I saying to my daughter about body image?," Brumfitt wrote on her website of her decision to cancel her surgery. "How will I teach her to love her body? How am I going to encourage her to accept and love her body, when I am standing in front of her with a surgically enhanced body? What type of hypocrite or mother would I be?"

And she is now showing off her current body, 20 pounds heavier with a rounder stomach, which is a post-baby body many women have called more realistic.

"I really wanted women to understand and feel supported that you could love your body before and love your body after," Brumfitt explained.

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Her photos are now drawing comparisons to Maria Kang, the "Fit Mom" of three, whose bare abs and blunt "What's your excuse?" photo caption led to a firestorm of reaction with many accusing her of "fat shaming."

"I am not a bully," Kang previously told ABC News.

Brumfitt is now speaking out against Kang, saying these ideals are unrealistic and unhealthy, and wants to encourage women to love their bodies at any size.

"Health is not dictated by someone's look, their size or their weight," Brumfitt said.

But Kang says she is simply a healthy mom trying to be a positive role model.

"I think we have to be very careful in our society not to characterize something as normal or not normal, beautiful or not beautiful," said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News' senior medical contributor.