So I am 26 years old, but I've been overweight since I was a young child(6-7), and "obese" for part of adulthood. My highest weight was 211 lbs. I carry fat right on my stomach and lower back, much like many other members of my family---and I hate it. My body shape has a perpetual "muffin top" even without restricting clothing or jeans, I just have wide "sides" and a pooch and then it narrows around my hips and legs. I have probably been asked "so when are you due?" more than 20 times in my life--and I have never been pregnant.

I honestly have never seen myself without this stomach pooch. It's been there my whole life, even as a child. I know my body no other way. I am 5'7" and even at my lowest adult weight of 154, which is at the higher part of "a healthy range", I still had this obvious pooch. I guess I'm skeptical that it will ever disappear or be minimal to the point that it wasn't obvious. I worry that if I were to ever get to a point where it was almost gone, that the stretch marks there along with the fact that that area has never been flat, ever, would mean it would be saggy and squishy. My brain just can't comprehend a world where it does not have a round, wide, belly. I worry that because it's been this way for 20+ years, it may be more unlikely to change than someone who was thinner and gradually gained weight.

Thoughts, experiences?

I'm built very similarly, and after the age of like 7 or something, I was always overweight/obese (usually a few lbs into the obese category). Until like a few months ago when I broke into normal weight (working to get back there now).

I noticed that with me, my stomach pooch (I have the perpetual muffin top, too) didn't really shrink at all proportionally until I got to 142.

So my best advice would be to keep doing what works and eventually it'll shrink. You're young, so the skin is likely to tighten up somewhat eventually. I hear that takes about a year or so, depending. The stretch marks won't ever go away, but I think that I would feel far worse weighing my highest weight of 207 with stretch marks forever than being thinner and having stretch marks forever.

ohhh yes, the perpetual muffin top ( hey, i still have mine when im naked, when theres nothing for the muffin to top over hahaha ) but let me tell you, it DOES go away it just takes time you gotta keep working at it and maybe thats just one of the last places your body loses weight..

I was very similar to the OP- I was always overweight/obese and have those same worries. I tend to carry weight on my stomach and my thighs- my stomach still has a little pooch right above my bellybutton and that lower-tummy non-sense and my thighs have cellulite, BUT it's not noticable at all with clothes on. In fact, my stomach has started looking pretty flat under my clothes. I've really noticed my stomach flattening in the last 10 lbs, especially the pooch above the belly button- something I never thought would happen. Sure there are stretch marks- I've had them since I was 12, so I've long accepted that they are just a part of me. I'm at my lowest adult weight, so I have no idea what will happen, if things will tighten, if that cellulite will ever go away, but I keep hoping that lowering my body fat percentage will help all of these things. A girl's gotta hope, right?

In the meantime, I've become completely obsessed with having muscular arms/shoulders/back. Not in a manly way, but I just want them to look strong. I think this obsession is firmly rooted in the fact that I can have that right now and other parts of my body might never get quite there . But the only way to find out is to stay positive and keep working at it.

i also have had the stomach problems for a long time...definitely after the birth of my second child...what has helped me, besides just losing some weight, is that i'm not eating things that tend to bloat my tummy like sugars and flours, that helped alot too

I've been obese since kindergarten, and in 40 years, I've only spent a total of about 6 months close to a healthy weight. I've been at a weight of 250 or higher for almost 30 years.

My current weight loss is the most successful, and longest lasting of any weight loss I've ever acheived (and I dieted more often than not all of my life, I just have the ability to gain weight much faster than I can lose it).

Even at your lowest weight, you might not have exactly the body you would like to have, but hey a lot of supermodels aren't happy with their body either. You can only do what you can do.


I look at it this way. I may not get the body I want. I may not lose all the weight I want, but I'm pretty sure I can do at least a little better than I'm doing right now, so that's all I focus on - the little bit better.

I tend to focus on weight loss this way, I tell myself "Even if weight loss doesn't feel possible, I know I can keep off what I have already lost, and maybe with a little effort I can lose "just one more.")

By focusing on the one pound ahead of me, and not the 160 lbs ahead of me, I don't worry about the end results not being what I hope for. My results may never be perfect, but I'm pretty sure I can do better, so I just work on the better, and try not to worry "how much better."


I've also wondered whether or not it's harder for me because I've been fat so long, but I can't change that about me, so it's pointless. I know there are many people who will find weight loss less difficult than I have. I also know there are many people who will find weight loss more difficult than I have. Those people don't matter to me, because I cannot become them (and they cannot become me). I've got to deal with the body I've got, so I have to be careful not to let envy "the lucky ones" convince me that my situation is hopeless (it isn't , it's just different).