Loosing weight and preventing excess skin?

Im 21, currently 14 stone (196 pounds) and i want to cut down to 10.5 stone (147 pounds) so therefore i wanna loose 3.5 stone (49 pounds)





I plan to loose 2 pounds a week at the most by eating better and going swimming about 3 times a week (which should therefore take about 7 months to do)





My biggest worry is having excess skin as ive been overweight for quite a few years. My plan is to loose the weight gradually but i feel sagging skin may be inevitable due to the length of time ive been overweight, though i am still young





Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent sagging skin during weightloss/after or even if i would get any





and no surgery is not an option





many thanks

Loosing weight and preventing excess skin?
take it slow and keep the whole exercise thing going, I'm 30 and lost 3 stone in about a year and didn't have any problems, don't make your schedule too rigid though if you do and you don't manage to stick to it then it's easy to give up.
Reply:Look at your fingers. See the wrinkle in the skin at the knuckle? If the widespread belief in "loose skin" was true, that skin should hang below your finger, not fold on top of it.





If you are at your ideal weight and you have excess skin, you're still fat because your body composition is off. You will need to build muscle to build a good muscle/fat ratio.





Generally, loose skin is only the condition given to people who take shortcuts to uber-quick weight loss (like gastric bypass). If you lose weight at a healthy rate, "skin flap" should be a minor inconvenience at best.
Reply:massages


creams


little vibration things


thers a few perscription creams that you can buy and run it in


itll increase skin elasticity


therefore making it a little tighter





excess skin might be inevitable though, so buy high waisted pants unless you notice its not all that saggy...





nothing more you can really do since surgery is not an option...
Reply:I've lost 4 stone over a year I've swam and excercised regulary i have no saggy skin and my secret is drink your 2 litres of water a day every day and more if you can if you're dehydrated it can cause saggy skin good luck
Reply:Considering you're still young, you have a better chance of not having that extra skin....but you should definitely work out ALOT...not just swimming, but try to lift weights and stuff like that and do a lot of walking so your skin can stay tight and tone.





Good luck!





Also, if you eliminate carbs all together for a while (except for the healthy ones) your skin will also benefit from it.
Reply:Use skin firming lotions all the time; those with shea butter, collagen, elastin and vitamin E will help. The key is to loose weight gradually and with exercise not just diet because you'll loose muscle and the skin will look saggy.
Reply:then, make fat into muscle. and the extra skin is when you loose a huge amount of weight. like on that game show, they were really big and end up super skinny.
Reply:Wow, can't believe your story is so much similar to mine. I started off at 200 pounds and today I am at 145 pounds. Let me assure you that at your age there should be no problem of any sagging skin, provided the weight loss is gradual. Though you might notice some stretch marks - a reminder of your earlier weight. But its hardly noticeable if it does occur and is mostly restricted to the area near the joints - like shoulders and hips.





Your plan of loosing 2 pounds per week sounds right on track. Though I wouldn't count on getting rid of all the weight in 7 months. A major portion - yes, but later on you are bound to hit plateaus which can last upto 3-4 weeks. The key is to keep working on it.





One tip for maintaining healthy skin during this time is to drink lots of water to get rid of all the toxins that are produced during weight loss.





All the best!!
Reply:The Best Way to Lose Weight





According to the British Nutrition Foundation "To lose weight, the energy intake from food must be less than the energy output". This is why calorie counting is the most effective weight loss method. It goes straight to the heart of the problem - no fad diets, pills or special eating plans are necessary.





Losing weight through calorie counting is relatively easy. You won't have to put normal life on hold while calorie counting. Added benefits are that calorie counting raises your awareness of what your body needs; educates you about what's in what you eat, and helps you learn how to eat healthily for life.





Starting to Calorie Count





First you'll need to work out how many calories you need each day to maintain your current weight, and how many to lose weight at a rate of 1-2lbs a week.





Next you need to keep track of how many calories are in the foods and drinks you consume each day, to make sure you have a negative calorie balance.





You can do this by keeping a food diary and checking the calorie content of what you eat.





If any method of losing weight could be described as 'painless' - this, I believe, is as close as it gets. Simply having real awareness about the things you eat and drink each day, the number of calories in them, and the number of calories you use, enables you to start losing weight by making relatively small changes. Better still, you're much more likely to develop eating and lifestyle habits that you are happy with, and can therefore maintain.





Recommended Daily Calorie Intake


http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/log...





The Calories Chart will help us count calories in food and drinks that are regularly eaten.


http://www.caloriecounting.co.uk/resourc...





Eating healthily isn't complicated once we know the basics. The Balance of Good Health will help us plan our meals and be healthy.


http://www.warburtons.co.uk/your_health/...





Use the Ideal Height Weight Chart to look up your healthy weight range.


http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/log...





It’s the method use in Supersize vs Superskinny a British documentary magazine show I’ve been watching.





The programme features a superskinny (undereater – consume less calories) swap diet with an overweight (overeater – consume more calories).





The extreme diet swap is for Superskinny to gain weight and for Supersize to loose weight. And to make them realise they both have a dysfunctional relationship with food – that eating too much is just as bad as undereating. The swap will kick start a whole new regime of balanced and healthy eating that is meant to re-educate them and transform their relationship with food and weight.


http://celebritybodygossip.com/2008/01/2...


http://www.showbizspy.com/2008/01/23/sup...


http://www.channel4.com/health/microsite...