is it possible to avoid loose skin?

If you lose weight slowly, then your skin has enough time to recover... There's this girl I follow on Instagram who has lost 110lbs and she has no loose skin at all... she said that using a neoprene belt while doing cardio helped her keeping her skin tight.

It;s actually called "waist trimmer"

Here's one http://goo.gl/KZaETB it's supposed to help you lose water weight and inches from the waist... I might get one

Moisturize like lotion is going out of style. It will help.

If you are under 40, you should still have a lot of elasticity in your skin. If you are over 40, not so much. Look at my picture.....my profile says I have lost 56 pounds.....but 10 years ago I lost twice that. I do have lose shin around my middle, and would love a tummy tuck, but I really NEEDED a car. So, I don't wear bikinis....I never could wear one anyway. Put things into perspective. If you don't lose excess weight, you are at risk of heart disease and diabetes.....lose skin isin't as bad at that, and it can easily be covered up. Someday you will think...new car or plastic surgery. At this point in my life, I'll take the car. I hit my goal weight this week, and just picked up my Mini Cooper Convertible!!! Best of luck on your journey.....Peace be with you.

Lose it slow, eat balanced meals, lots of water and exercise will keep that away. Make sure you add resistance training in a few days a week along with your cardio. I lost before and it wasn't loose. Now I am back again because I didn tkeep it up.

Honestly, you won't know til you get there. But I absolutely prefer my loose skin to the extra pounds, and can't imagine deciding to keep the weight on to avoid it.

i'm older and have not lost much weight yet but i have noticed my skin is somewhat looser... i hope it tightens up as i lose more- plus i am concerned about the 'mother's apron' getting any worse - and i have stretchmarks from pregnancies so extra 'skin' from that as well. But I think being fitter, healthier and leaner will make up for it.....isn't that why then invented spanx? :-)

you're young ---- any problem would likely be temporary as someone else mentioned and it's motivation to lose the weight now rather than prolong it.

wondering it there any older members who have lost 50+ pounds found what helps our ol'folk's skin?

No one wants to think that loose skin is what's waiting for them after putting in all this effort, but honestly, it's better to be thin and healthy with loose skin than to be obese.

STRENGTH TRAINING!!!! Even if it's just body weight stuff!! You need to build muscle to burn the fat, not just do cardio to lose quickly. Too much cardio without a balance of strength training will make you "skinny fat" - aka your body fat percentage will go UP and you'll end up with the extra drape-age that you're trying to avoid.

Did you get stretchmarks from gaining 100 lbs in a relatively short period of time? That might be an indicator of how elastic your skin is.

If I were you I'd lose the weight slowly, but also not put off starting the process. Your skin has it's best chance of bouncing back right now. The longer you wait, the older you get - and skin gets less forgiving with age.

I'm doomed I think, I get stretch marks very easily. I'm losing slowly, but I'm worried mostly about my lower stomach and my arms... UGH

Did you get stretchmarks from gaining 100 lbs in a relatively short period of time? That might be an indicator of how elastic your skin is.

I do have some very light stretch marks on my stomach but no where else. They really don't even bother me. so is that bad or good?

I would say that's good! You skin stretched to accommodate 100 lbs without without cracking so you probably have pretty good elasticity. I still have stretch marks just from just from getting hips and boobs when I hit puberty, so my skin...probably not so much. lol

wondering it there any older members who have lost 50+ pounds found what helps our ol'folk's skin?

I'm 60 and lost 58 pounds a couple of years ago, mostly from my torso. I sagged initially as though the skin all over my torso was a size or three too large, but have tightened up almost completely since then. No obvious evidence of loose skin shows up in the mirror at all now, so long as I keep my still somewhat misshapened belly button covered with the palm of my hand. Well... my boobs sag, but I am 60. I probably could have expected that in any case.

My big worry wasn't loose skin, which I didn't even think about until more than half of the weight was gone. It was muscle loss. I had been naturally slender as a young adult and blamed metabolic rate lowering muscle loss from advancing age and the change in my hormonal status for the fact that I needed to lose weight in the first place. And I knew it would be really hard to regain any muscle at my age, so I was strongly motivated to hang on to as much of my remaining muscle as I could. That meant:

A well balanced, nutrient rich diet with plenty of protein.
A moderate calorie deficit, aiming for a pound/week loss for the first 30 pounds or so, then a half pound/week.
Strength training, typically around an hour per session, 3 times a week. I used the resistance machines at the gym.
Rarely more than a half hour at a time of steady state cardio, which can shred more than fat if you over do it.
I ate back my exercise calories (At least 2/3rds to correct for MFP's obviously inflated estimates).

I think all of that benefited my skin even though that wasn't the primary motivation. The one thing I did just for my skin was apply coconut oil from head to toe after every shower, which - if nothing else - is at least a great moisturizer.