How much weight can you actually lose in time for your wedding?
I have watched way too many women try to lose weight at rates that the rules of biology won’t deliver and destroy their metabolism in the process. Remember that getting into shape includes taking care of your overall health.
Love your body by understanding what it can deliver without wrecking itself.
You want fat loss, not weight loss
If you are exercising as well, you will be gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat while taking up lesser volume.
This means you will have weeks where you see an increase in weight while your waist decreases. This is indicative of your body swapping fat with muscle—a thing to be celebrated because now you look fitter!
This is why I strongly recommend that you pay attention not just to weight but also at least a waist measurement (ideally also other body measurements) to track progress.
This information is something to consider strongly when setting a weight goal for the wedding as you may look fitter at 150 lbs with 23% of it being fat versus at 130 lbs with 27% of it being fat.
Calculating how many pounds you can lose healthily
Here’s the formula to use:
Healthy weight loss = Number of weeks to wedding x 1-2 lbs
For example, if there are 12 weeks to your wedding, the amount of weight you can lose healthily = 12 x 1-2 lbs = 12-24 lbs.
That said, if you are overweight (BMI > 25) and have a lot of fat to lose, you may see more rapid drops week to week compared to someone who is leaner.
WARNING: if you want to lose more weight than is healthy
If you’re considering the steeper weight loss approach, I want you to go into it with your eyes wide open. Here’s what to expect:
- You will feel more lethargic which means all the twitches and restless motions you do naturally throughout the day will disappear, thus causing you to lose that source of calorie burn.
- The lethargy will also affect your motivation to do focused exercise. You’ll have to rely more on your well of willpower or motivated workout buddies.
- Your body thinks you’re in midst of a famine so it’s going to pump up your hunger hormones. You’ll be thinking more about food than you thought possible.
Hopefully this helps illustrate why focusing just on losing lots of weight may not be the best approach. Your overall fitness is just as important for feeling great on your wedding day.
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