Hey all!

I'm a 19 year old student in Scotland who is desperatly loosing weight, and thankfully suceeding i might add . I started off at 255lbs 10 days ago, i am now 245 lbs. According to the "loose 1 pound a day trend" that I have seen that by my 20th birthday in December i will hopefully reach my ideal weight of about 180-190lbs, something that I would be very happy with, hopefully i can get it smaller but i am a tall guy aswell, so i dont know if i could get lower than that. So I still have another 85lbs to loose and I think now more than ever that it might be attainable from reading the stories and seeing the evidence that it can be done on this forum thanks to all you wonderful people.

I do have some questions however regarding what i would consider rapid weight loss. My doctor assures me that 1lb lost a day is perfectly balanced for a person of my age and height and for the exercise that I do. But the largest concerns that I am having is with loose skin and stretch marks. I've seen some horror pictures from other websites where people who have lost about the same wight as me has had terrible loose skin problems, i just wanted to know is that purely on a per-person basis or does it strike us all equally. And would a tummy tuck be a viable option should that happen to me? Another fear that I have is strechmarks lingering. Is there anyway to get rid of them or do they naturally just fade away over the period of a few years?

Thanks,
gsk

Firstly, I would question your doctor...EVERYWHERE I've read and heard says that 1-2lbs a WEEK is healthy for weight loss (in order to keep it off when you're done). I think that's where people get loose skin from; when they lose too fast. Some people lose more in a week than others though.

Stretch marks, I believe are permanent

I don't mean to discourage you; if you are eating healthy, not cutting calories too far, and exercising, you just may lose more than 2 a week. Who knows?!

I think they fade away over time. My mom had some after losing a lot of weight, at first they were red, but now (a few years later) you can hardly see them.

I was blessed with some wicked growth spurts through Jr. High, I had stretch marks from my elbows to my shoulders and across my back. They were an angry red for a while but eventually they faded. You can't really see them unless I get a sun burn or if you look reeeaallly close.

Maybe it's just pregnancy stretchmarks that are permanent...

well.. ok, the ones on my arms were from about 12 years ago and they were pretty fine... I have some ugly ones on my belly that look like deep cuts that have healed over. If they're THAT bad then yeah.. your looking at perminent.

I've spoken to a few people about this over the past 6 months and it seems to be different in each case. Some will get saggy skin from fats weight loss, some won't. Some will get it from slow weight loss, and others won't.

I do think that it helps if your young!

Ray