I figured I'd post this here since skin issues might be a bit different for people in their 20s.

Background: I've been overweight for about 8 years, obese for about 5 of those years, and morbidly obese for about 1 year. I'm 25 years old now and have never had kids.

I've lost a significant amount of weight so far (with still a lot to lose) and have started to notice the problem of sagging skin and breasts.

I drink a lot of water per day, somewhere around 80-90 oz. When I shower I vigorously scrub the loose skin and other skin where I have stretch marks. After showing I rub lotion on that skin.

I walk 3 miles 5 times a week and have just begun weight lifting following the 6-month plan in the book New Rules of Lifting for Women.

Since I'm only 25 and have never given birth, do I have any hope of tightening this skin without surgery? Or was I overweight for too long and stretched my skin til it's completely ruined? Also, are my breasts doomed to be saggy forever without surgery?

Thanks for any help

Im curious to know the answers you get. This is a great question. Im about your size (286) and Im so worried about my skin. How long did it take you to drop the 80 lbs?

I wish I had good stuff to say....but it probably wont go anywhere...there is only so much that toning can do. I have the skin on my stomach and thighs... My arms don't have any but my arms weren't that large to begin with

I started in November but wasn't really serious til December but still I would say it's taken about 5 months to lose 80 lbs.

That is faster than a doctor will recommend but when I started making changes my diet was absolutely horrendous and I never got any exercise at all.

So at first I lost weight very, very fast by substituting more fruits and veggies into my diet and (you're gonna laugh) doing some old Richard Simmons VHS tapes. LOL! At 300ish lbs with a sedentary lifestyle I could barely make it through half the Richard Simmons tape but I kept pushing myself until I finished the whole thing. I would try to do a complete tape 3-4 times per week. After I lost about 40 lbs I was feeling confident to begin walking outside so started doing that and have increased the distance slowly over the past few months. I started around 1.5 miles at a somewhat slow pace but now I walk about 3 miles in an hour, Mon-Fri. I've started a weight training program to help tone some of the persistent flab on my upper arms and stomach. I do weights Mon, Wed, Fri afternoons and sometimes aerobics Tue, Thur, or Sat afternoons (depending how tired I am).

As for diet, I don't count calories or weigh food but I don't eat anything fried, too salty or greasy, or smothered in sauce. I also avoid chips, cookies, candy, etc. When I'm exercising hard I don't want to ruin my hard work by eating a junk food snack I don't really care about so I dont really miss it at all.

Aww, that is a bummer. I might consider surgery once I've maintained goal weight for 6 months-a year or so.

I've always been overweight as an adult woman and for once would like to feel physically sexy.

I haven't worn a swimsuit in probably 10 years and have never worn lingerie and those are two things I look forward to once I've slimmed down. I do want a smooth body while wearing those things, though!

I haven't been overweight as long as you and I have had a kid so it's a bit of a different perspective here (also, I'm in my late 20's so a bit older too). My skin seems to be snapping back just fine at this point. My stomach is still pretty jelly like but I've had a kid and 2 pregnancies so that's to be expected. My arms still have those lovely bat wings but it's clearly still from fat and not just loose skin.

I think a lot of it's genetics but lifting will definitely help so keep it up! I don't think it's guaranteed that you will have loose skin but I don't think there's much you can do to prevent it either.

Oh, BUT one good thing for you. I see in your signature that you said that you'll no longer be obese at 180lbs. That's way too low!!! I'm 5'6" (you say you're 5'8") and I'll be out of the obese category at 185lbs so there's no way that 180 is correct for you. I actually just checked and you'll be out of the obese category at 196lbs so not that far away at all, congrats!

I have the same problem with my stomach..but I have 2 kids too. I don't think it necessarily has alot to do with the fact I had kids..I think it has a lot to do with the fact I was overweight all my life. Hopefully it will tone up the more and more I work on it. If not I will probably just deal with it the rest of my life because I've had 2 csections and I dont want any unnecessary surgical procedures! lol

i have "loose skin" when i'm above 160 or so. once i hit 160, it dissapears. it's just more fat. skin is paper thin. we gotta be REALLY honest w/ ourselves before we consider surgery.

as for toning, that doesn't exist. you either build up the muscle through years & years of consistent weight training & lose the excess fat covering it or not. there's no such thing as toning.

but yea. just keep going. skin is way more forgiving. if it jiggles, it's fat. the human body is funny in that it gets rid of the "stubborn" places last, only because there's just so damn much of it there, & it takes forever for aaaaaall of it to go away.

after i lose these last 18 lbs once again, i will no longer have these issues.

best of luck!

TRANCEDREAMER I like your statement that if it jiggles, it's fat. That's what I keep trying to tell myself when it comes to me and my body. Do you know how to get rid of that fat though, when you someone weighs what I do and still has a body fat % of like 28??? I have pictures buried deep somewhere in this forum lol. I am 29 and have four children.

Im curious to see what my body does. I have had 2 kids though, so who knows how different or not that makes things. I do know that Ive got some crazy skin on my belly these days, I look like I have literally melted. I prefer melted than stuffed for now though

Keep at it, hit that gym and lift those weights, your body will never cease to amaze you!

Lifting. It's the only way. If you have such a high body fat percentage at that weight (have you got this checked by a professional that seems amazingly high!!!). I haven't lost much weight in the last month but inches have been melting away due to lifting. You need to build up muscle.

Let me put it this way: you are likely losing weight at a much faster rate than your skin could possibly keep up with. I feel blessed that I was so young when I lost weight that I had some elasticity working for me. I still have some "pockets' of loose skin, such as the skin around my triceps and my thighs. My stomach is the worst. That just didn't rebound. My boobs took some time and I hated them in the beginning, but now I think they look great. I think you will find some areas to be permanently affected and others will be fine. It's a trade off though, and I am pretty happy with how things turned out.

Yes, I had that checked by a PT using fat calipers! At the weight I am at now, and my height, you can still literally grab loads and loads of fat off of my body I did lose all my weight very, veerry slo-o-w-w-l-l-y, and my new goal is to try to reach 117 (which at the moment is seeming nearly impossible, ugh)

I don't think that weight caliper is very accurate? When I got my body fat % read, I had it done electronically - they put sensors on the bottom of my feet ,and wherever else, and sent a pulse thru my body which gave me a percentage.

I've heard people say that it helps to keep your skin moisturized during your weight loss journey but I have no idea how much that does.