Need help fixing this mess *pic*

1. Great job on some tremendous progress. It really shows
2. Your doctor was right, the skin will tighten up in time.
3. As you continue toward your GW, make sure you are on a good, full body, progressive lifting program. That will greatly improve your chances of being pleased with your body when you reach goal weight.

you look great, your body is not a mess! your skin will change, give it time.

YOU GO GIRL!

Posting pics is really hard and kudos for doing it! It's really not as bad as you might think.

I would recommend starting a lifting program. A great place to start would be Stronglifts 5x5, the whole program and lots of instruction is available free on their website.

Weightlifting will get you where you want to be.

Your skin will come back- make sure you're eating a well balanced diet with enough fat. Additionally, I would suggest looking in to compression garments for any high-intensity running or jumping type exercise- you want to minimize stress on the connective tissue in the loose skin for best results in the long-term.

this all the way! you look fantastic !

My wife had similar issues with the added burden of being some number of years older.

Mid-way through her weight loss journey she was getting discouraged because although she had made significant progress as far as the scale was concerned the "issues" had not diminished in a corresponding fashion.

It wasn't until she approached her goal weight that everything started to fall into place.

For example: She started at 147 with a goal of 125. At 137 the underarm issue was still there, hardly any visual change. At 130 ditto, but starting to see progress. Just the 5 pounds between 130 and 125 resulted in a significant improvement. Now she has overshot her goal and gotten down to 121. Even more improvement, she looks fantastic.

Don't get discouraged, you're doing great. Keep going. Step by step...

Try the Stronglifts program. It's a great progressive lifting program. You start with just the weight of the bar but continue to add weight as you progress. The goal of Stronglifts is to gain strength. The side benefit of gaining strength is your body composition changes.

Someone should also tell you that you are far more critical of yourself than others are of you. You see it far worse than it is. You have done a great job losing the weight, and you will be able to get where you want to be with more time. Don't get discouraged- you will have the body you want, it just takes more time. The Bottoms Up book by Joyce Vedral has workouts that double strength training and cardio and really focus on fixing loose skin- you can get that book pretty cheap because it is an old book, but it still works, even on older women, so with youth still on your side it should really help.

I agree you look great. I have had 5 kids and what I know how your body is after pregnancy. Power pilates is an awesome workout and mixing strength training with cardio is also what I do:) I do not lift heavy I just lift 5-8 pounds and my kids LOL! Great job on the weight loss:)

I think you look great! For me, weight lifting helped a lot, but alas, after my 2nd baby I had to turn to plastic surgery to get my stomach back in shape. My third baby is now 5 weeks old! It takes time and dedication, I see a huge improvement and 2.5 months really isn't that long!!! I personally have had some luck with certain lotions, if you'd like info feel free to message me......and NO I don't work for any of the brands!!!

All of the above plus to shift the excess skin you can try brushing and massage.

Body brushing is brilliant, it increases circulation and this will help get all the nutrients to the upper dermis. Massage with almond oil, nothing synthetic or expensive store bought needed, after your bath/shower spend 5 minutes working the problem areas. This is also good for muscle recovery so has other benefits.

When you get fatty deposits in the top layers it is hard to shift with diet alone, you'd need an incredibly low bf %.

this is brilliant advice, and almond oil is indeed one of the things I use religiously!!!!

Hey, great job so far, you CAN notice the difference, quite a big difference, actually.

As for a lifting program that thee dude was talking about up theree (he is right, that is what will change your body the most)

read this page: http://rippedbody.jp/2011/09/22/training-the-guide/

There is enough information about lifting there for you, the entire site is great source of information...

1. Great job on some tremendous progress. It really shows
2. Your doctor was right, the skin will tighten up in time.
3. As you continue toward your GW, make sure you are on a good, full body, progressive lifting program. That will greatly improve your chances of being pleased with your body when you reach goal weight.

This.

Honestly and truthfully, my body looks better at 110-112 pounds than it did at 100 pounds. I did nothing but cardio and ate like a bird. Now I eat more, and spend most of the time in the gym lifting heavy weights (I do 2 days of cardio/HIIT on the treadmill), my skin has firmed up so much and my cellulite is practically gone!!! Lift, lift, lift!

1. Great job on some tremendous progress. It really shows
2. Your doctor was right, the skin will tighten up in time.
3. As you continue toward your GW, make sure you are on a good, full body, progressive lifting program. That will greatly improve your chances of being pleased with your body when you reach goal weight.

This.

Honestly and truthfully, my body looks better at 110-112 pounds than it did at 100 pounds. I did nothing but cardio and ate like a bird. Now I eat more, and spend most of the time in the gym lifting heavy weights (I do 2 days of cardio/HIIT on the treadmill), my skin has firmed up so much and my cellulite is practically gone!!! Lift, lift, lift!

So nice to read a woman saying this..

props +1

A Big thanks to everyone who has posted.
I will be checking out some of these things for sure, though I cannot really afford it do you think it would be worth a personal trainer?
I think you can pay for them for just one session and then continue the workout on your own from there?

OR are there at home programs which would work just as well. Hrm.

You can get a trainer to show you proper form and then continue on your own.

You can learn to lift at home. I bought some weight lifting equipment on Craigslist, and read some books. There are a number of great resources. New Rules of Lifting for Women has a lot of great info and is worth the read (though I did not do that complete program, I only did about 3 months). I'm now doing Nia Shanks. Starting Strength, or Stronglifts are other popular programs that a lot of women here are doing.

Keep your head up...you look FANTASTIC!!! It just takes time and patience for everything to work itself out. You are on the right track!!