Hey everybody. I have decided to start up a new club. I think this acutally might spark some peoples interest.

Now my sister and her boyfriend are getting really serious and are planning to get engaged this May and then getting married in the summer of 2009.

I would love to have all of my weight off by the wedding which is a good year and a half away.

I'm sure there are others out there that are going to be in a wedding, getting married, or even just going to a wedding.

I thought maybe we all can join forces and talk about our weight loss journeys of getting into a wedding dress, bride's maid dress, or a tux.


Please feel free to post your thoughts about this. Talk about your wedding plans and ideas. Talk about whatever you want when it comes down to you fitting in that outfit for that wedding.

Happy Posting!!!

I totally need this club! I am *unofficially* engaged, and I are getting married late this summer. I always have such trouble with staying motivated. My other problem is finding time to exercise--I spend a lot of time commuting to and from work, and it gets down to choosing between exercise and seeing my husband to be. He has suggested we run together, but I don't want that to be the ONLY thing we ever do! I need some lovely advice from you all. I live in terror of being a fat bride. Is it even possible to lose 30 lbs in 8 months without starvation diets/pills? I want to lose weight healthily and keep it off.

You can totally lose 30 pounds in 8 months. I've lost 55ish in 7 months, and may hit 60 before the 8-month mark, without starvation or drugs. Or insane amounts of exercise.

Really? What sort of program are you following? How much do you exercise?

This is what works for me, and I had a good idea that it would work for me, because similar methods have worked for me in the past. It may not work for you (heck, it may not work for anyone else!) - you have to take your own body and preferences into account.

I don't have a specific program that I follow, or a specific amount that I exercise. I was enough overweight when I started that just making a conscious decision to eat smaller portions and to minimize refined carbs got me down about 25 pounds in 4 months. At my heaviest, I was having nerve-related foot pain that kept me from doing any standing exercise (including walking more than short distances - I was hobbling everywhere), but that loss got rid of the pain, and since I'd noticed my loss rate slowing down, I added some exercise and calorie counting.

I'm not a super-strict calorie counter (I eyeball stuff, and make educated guesses), in part because my work requires me to eat out a lot. But I do try to make an educated guess, and when I first started, I did try to weigh and/or measure as much as possible, so I'd know what a cup of food looks like on a plate, for instance. And I record everything I eat (using Fitday), even a nibble here and there. (Which reduces the nibbling, because it's a PITB to record nibbles.) I suspect I actually get 10-15% more calories than I record, due to measurement and other error. And that's OK with me, because it's a fairly consistent 10-15%. If I spent half my time eating prepackaged, preportioned food (so was getting pretty exact calorie numbers) and the other half eating estimated quantities of foods other people prepared (so had very inexact calorie counts), it would not work for me.

I have a calorie range goal in mind, but it's a long-term average. So I don't worry about eating less one day or more another, but I do worry if it doesn't balance out over a week or so. If I go overboard, I try to get back on track as soon as possible. I leave enough room for a treat every day. Some days it's a big treat (I've got a recipe for Oatmeal with Pear in the Recipes section, and that's nearly 400 calories for a bowl); some days it's a single square of Lindt 85% dark chocolate (53 calories). I like to snack in the evenings, so I save my calories for evening snacking. I try to get at least 100g of protein and 25g of fiber every day, and mostly I succeed. I drink a lot of water, because I like water.

I do exercise. When I was first starting to exercise, I found a 15-minute-a-day plan I could commit to doing every day. After about 3 months of that, I got bored, so now I'm doing something else. At the moment, it's 10,000 steps a day (which for me means adding about a 2-mile walk plus spending my evening moving around the house, rather than sitting on my rear). When I get bored with that, I'll do something else, either instead or in addition to.

I weigh myself every day, which is very much a personal choice thing. I find that I've never had a problem either losing or maintaining (depending on which was my goal) when I weighed every day. And I've gained weight very, very quickly (to the tune of 40+ pounds in 6 weeks one time, which was in large part related to going off some medication - but I ate every one of the calories to get me there) when I wasn't weighing every day. I've done it long enough that I know when to expect gains, what weeks I'm not going to see any movement on the scale, and what weeks I'll see big losses. So if I'm up or down 2 pounds from the previous day, it's not a big deal. I use the Hacker's Diet software (free online thing) to calculate the long-term trend, and that's what I use to make sure I'm on track.

Welcome to the club! Congrats on being unoffically engaged lol! One thing I have learned about exercising with other people is walking is a good place to start. You could go on an evening walk just the two of you...good time to talk too. You could also go to the gym together. But remember everyone exercises at their own pace so this might not be the thing for you. You could also maybe take up a class together. By doing this you get to spend time together while learning something new and meeting new people.

30lb in 9 months is totally possible. Giving yourself 8 months to lose 30lbs is great too. You have a lot of time to get the weight off plus some. So losing only 4-5 lbs a month is totally in reach. Tipically you can loss that in about 2-3 weeks but there is no rush. Don't work yourself to death. If you have time then use. The longer it take to get the weight off the longer it will stay off. It takes time to make a life style change. You can't change the way you have been living for the past few years in only a few weeks or a month. It takes trial and error. With the support of all of us here on the forum and your boyfriend will keep you going.

Good luck!

Great job!!

Thanks for all the tips! Hearing about other people's success is so helpful!

Unfortunately, I have never lost weight with ease. I don't have rapid gains either. I've weighed the same amount+/- 5 lbs for years. I did lose some weight by having a low calorie diet one summer, but I can't sustain that. I already eat pretty healthfully. I think cutting sugar completely out of my diet, combined with regular exercise and no snacking may be effective, but I have never sustained all that at once. Cutting sugar alone, or exercise alone doesn't have immediate effects. I often lose motivation when I don't see results for a month, so it's probable that if I kept it up for 2+ months I would start to see some changes. It's just so hard when I don't see results!

HELLO!! I am getting married on July 18, 2009 so I have a year and a half.. but I want to lose at least 80lbs! I am excited about this club!!! I started out at 271 and I am currently at 250.8! I would LOVE to be down to 200 by this summer... I am going to work REALLY REALLY hard!!!!

Katie

Hooray! We can do it!

Hi and welcome!. My sister is planning on getting married in July of 2009...she is actually think about July 4th because that is their anniversary. Good Luck to ya...we can all do this.

3 easy steps:
1) eat lots of rice and fiberous food including vegetable and drink lots of water.
2) exercise!!!
3) To help with metabolism even more, use a well-known diet pill like slim 30 (ei ta mei), zantrex or trimspa.

I have personally followed this plan and have seen tremendous change. And yes always go for the brown or purple rice you can get from wholefoods or grocery store near you! For exercise I did simple ab crunches with the exercise chair you can get from linen n' things Linens 'n Things for a while but then eventually I had to join a gym, worth every penny! The pills - I tried a few but the best are the 3 mentioned. Slim 30 I used to buy from ebay but found a cheaper source: Encure eShop :: Slim-30 Ei Ta Mei Natural Herbal Weight Loss Formula That Works! (don't buy from the encure.com's front page, they charge you more!) as for Zantrex-3 I'd recommend ebay or your health food store.

It seems kind of strange that people "plan" to get engaged at some future date. Makes me giggle. Cultural differences I suppose.

I'm getting married at some point this spring or summer (more likely summer). My fiance is ridiculously fit, with little effort (ok, he does a lot of push-ups/sit ups during the week, but makes it look easy, and i still don't understand how this alone can give him such a perfectly defined musculature) and I'm flabby and lazy. I've lost 20 lbs so far, 40 to go. I really really hope I won't have too much loose skin by the end, I'm not sure what determines this.

I bought a DDR dance mat a couple months ago and it rules my universe. I still enjoy it. I want to add some weight training but I dont know what to do it. I might just try to come up with some routine using my body weight for resistance.

My goal is a 18.5-19 BMI, and the ability to support my own body weight with my hands in case I'm ever perilously hanging off a cliff.

Also I want to be able to do a handstand for a good 10 minutes or so.

I'm 5'7 and 160 lbs or so currently? I've been doing really badly these first few days of the year! need to get back on track.

OK lets get this going! I am 23 and getting married June 28th 2008. That gives me about six months to lose ~25 lbs. totally possible! I am more worried about my body on my honeymoon, because I am going to be wearing a bathing suit EVERYDAY. I already have my dress and it is a very tight size 10(should have got a 12 but I was optimistic). Anyway, I am in school to become a teacher, so I have very little time I am up by 5:30 and dont get home until aprox 7 on most days. I think I will do better getting up a little earlier to exercise , because I am so tired at the end of the day. I would love some exercise advise from people who are crunched for time as well. good luck everyone!
Im 5'3 ~155lbs

Well, my fiance and I just finalized out wedding date, and it's June 19, 2008! 3 months earlier than I had planned. That means I only have 6 months to lose 30 lbs. I have cut out sugar from my diet, (and that has already made me feel so much better! I can't tell you how sluggish and bloated sugar makes me feel). I am seeing some results on the scale, but I'm not sure if that's because it's a different time of day or if I've lost weight. I think it might be a combination of both. I'm going to try to weigh myself in the mornings from now on so it's consistent.

Good luck to you, liddieloo! Our wedding dates are pretty close together--lets make sure we get into a size 10 I'm a 14 right now, and I would LOVE to be a 10.

liddieloo, i am currently a medical student and work at the hospital at crazy early hours prob similar hours to you and then have to come back and study.....so i totally understand how you feel about not having enough time. Sometimes when I'm so exhausted and don't feel up to going to the gym, I pop in an exercise dvd. I am currently using the biggest loser volume one dvd, and it definitely gets you going. For the cardio parts, you don't even need any other equipment besides yourself! I can tell you that I always feel sore the next couple days after doing it . They have segments that are as short as 20 minutes, so you can def. squeeze that in at some point during your day! Anyway, I'm not actually getting married, but getting in shape for SEVERAL weddings this summer! I'm Indian, and at our weddings, our outfits typically show our stomachs, so I def need to get into better shape