NEW! :-)

Hey! I'm Marcy! Just did my profile, new here! I'll update more tomorrow regarding my diet, exercise, etc! I'm on a low calorie diet. I need about 2,400 calories a day I believe. I'm 5'8", 195lbs. If I need to change my calorie intake, please let me know! Any help, tips, advice, and recommendations are welcome! Feel free to e-mail me and send me "meal plans" or recipes. Like I said, I'm fairly new to this! I'll keep the site updated on my progress!
Also, if you have any tips on reducing the risk of "sagging skin" with weight loss, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I'm 18, recently quit smoking cigarettes, don't drink, exercise a lot, but I'm terrified of sagging skin! I've been obese/over-weight all of my life!
Prevention is better than waiting until you have it, right? Or something like that.
Marcy.

just do not loose weight too fast trying to manage an avg of 1-2 pounds per week top and then use hydration creams (cheap ones from supermarkets work just as well as the ones marketed at outrageous prices) regularly. If you just do this at 18 it should be quite easy to avoid skin problems since when you are young the skin is very elastic and adapts itself quickly as long as you avoid crash diets

Hey Marcy,
Seeing that you (in a larger perspective of things) don't have THAT much to lose, I wouldn't worry too much about loose skin. Follow the advice that paperiniko gave you and I'm sure you'll be just fine. Make sure you lose weight slowly and healthy instead of diving in and starving yourself. It simply doesn't pay off.
2400 calories is not too strict a diet, and that's a good thing. Start with that, and you will feel that you can still allow yourself to both lose weight AND live life along the way.
Welcome aboard! You'll like it here.

If you are losing up to 2 lbs./wk. on 2400 calories then it's not too high. If after a wk. you havent lost, then you may need to lower it by 1-200 calories at a time and figure out where you do start losing weight again. As we get thinner, we need to decrease our calorie intake accordingly. If your weight loss is moderate- 1-2 lbs./wk, you shouldnt have to worry about sagging skin. It's when we lose weight too fast, that our skin will sag, because it needs time to catch up to it's new body size. Good luck!

Thanks you guys! I'm just afraid of the mean 'ol muffintop sagging!