Brides-to-be often feel pressure to lose weight to meet cultural body image ideals. A 2008 study in Appetite found that over 90% of women tried to lose or maintain weight for their ideal wedding body. Many turn to crash diets for quick results. While these may improve weight in the short term, they fail in the long term because they are unsustainable.

When Should You Start Your Wedding Weight Loss Journey?

Think of your wedding as a big sporting event and bridal prep as your preseason strength training. Just as athletes prepare off-season to stay strong and eat well, it’s a good idea for brides to plan ahead and do the same. Start early and make small changes along the way. This article will show you how. First, we need to learn why crash diets are detrimental to health.

The Dark Secrets of Crash Diets

Crash diets are not effective for long-term weight loss for numerous reasons. A meta-analysis of weight loss studies showed that over half of the weight lost during crash dieting was regained within two years, and more than 80% of the lost weight was regained in 10 years. This research suggests that only one in five people who are overweight manage to maintain long-term weight loss. That is one reason crash diets often fail—they focus solely on hitting a target weight but overlook the crucial maintenance phase.

Crash diets that omit food groups can lead to nutrition imbalances and deficiencies, which can be detrimental to wedding day planning. For example, juice cleanses omit solid foods entirely, replacing meals with fruit and vegetable juices. Eliminating essential nutrients through crash diets can be harmful. Those nutrients are vital for healthy hair, skin, and nails, which can help you feel and look best on your wedding day.

Crash diets can negatively affect you by promoting extreme calorie deficits. Calorie deficits often result in muscle loss rather than fat loss. Over time, this can make it harder to sustain weight loss, impact your physical strength and energy levels, and even affect your skin, hair, and nails due to nutrient deficiencies.

Crash diets can impact your hunger and satiety hormones by increasing your appetite and making you crave calorie-dense foods. That is a natural process that helps your body maintain energy and prevent malnutrition. However, when crash diets create extreme calorie deficits, hunger becomes imbalanced, which makes it harder to sustain weight loss for your wedding day.

Tips for Losing Weight for Your Wedding

There are many steps that you can take to improve your nutrition so that you can feel and look your best self on your wedding day.

Get Quality Sleep

Sleep seven to nine hours per night or until you feel well-rested. Sleep deprivation is associated with higher rates of obesity. That is because those who are sleep-deprived are prone to snacking and choosing low-quality foods, due to an imbalance of hormones that regulate hunger/fullness cues. Maintaining proper sleep can help keep weight off as well as improve your mental health, stress levels, and overall wedding experience.

Start an Exercise Routine

Complete at least 30 minutes of physical activity at least 5 days per week. According to the American Diabetes Association, doing at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week is more likely to support long-term weight loss. Consistency with exercise is key for lasting results, so it is important to make regular exercise a habit.

Get a Personal Trainer to Help Create a Healthy Weight Loss Plan

Find a personal trainer. One study compared the efficacy of individual and partner training to the effectiveness of personal training and found that only the group with personal trainers (PT) saw improvements in fat loss and body shaping. The other groups showed no significant changes in fat mass. This indicates that personal trainers can be effective in achieving wedding weight goals. Additionally, personal trainers help you increase your muscle mass, which can increase metabolism and prevent muscle loss while you are experiencing a caloric deficit.

Increase Fluid Intake

Drink 12C water per day. There is considerable evidence that increased water intake leads to weight loss. That is because adequate hydration can change eating behavior by helping to regulate appetite, leading to fewer calories consumed. Adequate hydration can also help improve metabolism and reduce body fat. The RDA for women ages 18-70 is 2.7L/day (~12C/day).

Monitor How Many Calories You Consume Each Day

Monitor calorie intake. Weight loss is achieved by eating fewer calories. There is no universal diet that will help you do this, but it generally involves consuming less processed foods and the right types of macronutrients. That is why working with a dietitian such as those provided by Sarah Lynn Nutrition is important. Dietitians can help you find the best weight loss strategies to fit your specific needs. One strategy that can be helpful is to monitor how many calories you consume with a calorie-counting app.

What is Post-Wedding Weight Gain?

Post-wedding weight gain can occur due to the change in routine, reduced focus on pre-wedding diet and exercise efforts, and the relaxation of weight-related goals once the serious wedding planning is over. Maintaining weight loss by sleeping well, exercising regularly, working with a trainer to build lean muscle mass, staying hydrated, and monitoring calorie intake can help keep your weight loss.

Conclusion

In your journey to lose weight for your wedding, it’s important to focus on sustainable lifestyle changes rather than quick fixes. Sarah Lynn Nutrition can help you make gradual, effective lifestyle changes that include personalized nutrition plans, exercise guidance, and ongoing support to ensure you achieve your goals in a healthy way. By taking these steps, you’ll feel your best on your wedding day and maintain your weight loss efforts for the future.

Sources

Cox, C. E. (2017). Role of physical activity for weight loss and weight maintenance. Diabetes Spectrum, 30(3), 157–160. https://doi.org/10.2337/ds17-0013

Neighbors, L. A., & Sobal, J. (2008). Weight and weddings: Expectations about wedding-specific body weight and shape ideals and dieting and exercise behavior among university students. Eating Behaviors, 9(4), 430–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2008.06.003

Papatriantafyllou, E., Efthymiou, D., Zoumbaneas, E., Popescu, C. A., & Vassilopoulou, E. (2022). Sleep deprivation: Effects on weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Nutrients, 14(8), 1549. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14081549

Research says fad diets don’t work. so why are they so popular? www.heart.org. (2023, January 24). http://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/02/18/research-says-fad-diets-dont-work-so-why-are-they-so-popular

Richard Joseph, M. (2022, May 11). What is a successful mindset for weight loss maintenance?. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-a-successful-mindset-for-weight-loss-maintenance-202205112742

Tahreem, A., Rakha, A., Rabail, R., Nazir, A., Socol, C. T., Maerescu, C. M., & Aadil, R. M. (2022). FAD diets: Facts and fiction. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.960922

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