Did you have a problem with stretch marks/loose skin? Any tips to help these problems for those of us still on our way to our goal?

I didn't even think about it until today but I'll feel awful if I lose all this weight and still don't feel comfortable with my body. Of course the health benefits are the most important, but I'll admit my appearance is my main driving factor.

I also wanted to give a big congrats to everyone who has reached their goals! When I slip or just don't feel motivated, I come here and read your success stories to get inspired.

Got em both. But I started tanning, which reduced the appearance of stretch marks. And the lose skin is fairly minimal, but it's not like hanging out for all to see either. It doesn't really rear it's head unless I'm sitting. But since I don't sit nekkid in public...not all that often anyway ...who's to know? I'm very pleased with how I'm shaping up. But I've been doing a few abdominal exercises for about a year now. But I really want to firm it up, so I have started doing more ab exercises, and more intense, daily about a month ago.

There's a sticky in the Maintainers forum about weight loss and skin that you might want to check out: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36040 . I have both stretch marks and excess skin, but that's just me. Nobody can tell you how YOUR skin will react to weight loss until you've reached your goal weight and stabilized there for a while. It can be quite variable and there's just no way to predict ahead of time what YOUR skin will do.

What I can tell you for sure, though, is that there aren't any big losers here who have ANY regrets about trading excess fat for whatever excess skin might be left over after weight loss.