diff --git a/frontmatter/default_handlers.py b/frontmatter/default_handlers.py
index 41d42e3..344d446 100644
--- a/frontmatter/default_handlers.py
+++ b/frontmatter/default_handlers.py
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ def format(self, post, **kwargs):
             content=post.content,
             start_delimiter=start_delimiter,
             end_delimiter=end_delimiter,
-        ).strip()
+        ).lstrip()
 
 
 class YAMLHandler(BaseHandler):