A lot of brides are gearing up for their special day in 2022 thinking, “It’s time to get into the best shape of my life for my wedding day.”
If that’s you, you’ve come to the right place because I’m here to tell you exactly how you can feel as confident as possible in your own skin as you walk down the aisle this year.
Before we get started though, I have to offer an extremely important disclaimer.
This article is all about how you could lose weight and look “super hot” for your wedding, but no one here at IVRY is telling you that you should lose weight or need to lose weight - or that you can’t look beautiful on your wedding day just the way you are.
You absolutely can.
I just know that there are plenty of brides and grooms who do want to shed body fat, build muscle, and “get hot” for their wedding day and honeymoon, which is why I’ve decided to write this article.
So let’s get into it.
You Need to Figure Out What You Mean When You Say “Lose Weight”
A lot of brides will say something like, “I want to lose weight for my wedding.”
And, to be fair, I know what most women mean when they say that, but I do think it can be an unhelpful way of thinking about “looking good” on your wedding day.
What do I mean by that?
Some people literally just want to see the number on the scale go down while other people care more about achieving a certain look.
These are very different things, which means…
You need to decide which person you are.
Do you really just want to lose weight? Or do you want to look a certain way?
The reason it seems like I am always teasing out this point is because it has a significant impact on the way you set up your diet and training.
In fact, it’s the very reason we call ourselves body recomposition coaches instead of weight loss coaches.
“I literally just want to lose weight and feel slimmer overall. If my butt looks like a sad raisin, I’m cool with that.”
If you literally just want to lose scale weight, I would encourage you to prioritize two simple things above all else:
Creating a moderate to aggressive caloric deficit through food
Burning calories through activity
In terms of practical application, that means you could go on something like a no-carb diet and commit to five classes at OrangeTheory per week.
The diet is straightforward and simple to understand, and there’s no thought to the workouts, which means you just show up and burn hundreds of calories.
But remember, this isn’t going to make any of your muscles grow in any meaningful capacity because you’re only focused on losing weight - not body fat - just weight, which could be fat, muscle, water, or even just less food in your digestive system at any given moment.
At best, you’d be hoping to maintain any muscle you already had while getting smaller overall.
Nonetheless, you could very easily be “hardcore” for the few months leading up to your wedding, get the weight loss results you apparently want, snap the wedding day photos, feel “hot” on the beach and…
Oh, shoot.
Then what?
BEWARE THE EPIC HONEYMOON REBOUND
Unfortunately, you would probably rebound harder than Tom Hanks once he ditched Wilson and finally made it back to civilization after island life in the movie Castaway.
Why?
Because crash dieting and reckless amounts of cardio just aren’t sustainably-designed or meant to bring anyone long-lasting results.
Not only that, but a traditional honeymoon experience sometimes involves the overconsumption of both food and alcohol, which results in an extremely high-calorie experience that could lead to anywhere between 3-10 pounds of fat gain.
This is why I warn against it.
But hey, maybe you’re not interested in a more phasic, long-term approach, and that’s totally fine!
You can make that decision for yourself.
Some people literally just want the shortest route from A to Z and they don’t mind crashing and burning as long as Z is a good time.
Would I recommend it? Not at all. I think it’s shortsighted and destined for long-term failure, but I really don’t say that with judgment. It’s just my honest position.
But let’s address the brides out there who want to channel that shapely, fill-your-dress-out-in-all-the-right-ways type of lean bride vibe on their wedding day.
We’re talking about strong yet feminine legs and glutes, a lean back peeking out from behind your straps, “toned” arms while you clutch the bouquet, and a flat tummy as a bit of icing on the cake.
Do I have your attention yet?
“Okay, yeah. I’d rather put in the work to be shapely yet feminine! How do we do that?”
Sweet. That’s what I thought.
So, if you’re wanting to lose mostly body fat (rather than just weight in general) while maximizing muscle retention or even building lean tissue on the way down, I would encourage you to do four things above all else:
Create a modest caloric deficit through food
Eat protein in doses of 20-40g per serving 3-4 times per day
Train 3-6 times per week with weights in an overloading fashion
Become a walking enthusiast
And here are some quick tips on how to achieve each of those numbered points without diving into too much detail.
Create a Modest Caloric Deficit Through Food
This is the most important thing on the list because the old saying that “you can’t out-exercise a bad diet” is absolutely true outside of Olympic athletes, genetic outliers, and those skinny eighth grade boys at the pool with a six-pack for no reason.
This comes down to identifying a caloric target for yourself that will have you losing around 1% of your bodyweight per week at most.
As a 200-pound guy, that means I’d be hoping to lose about 2 pounds per week.
Now obviously you can’t do that forever, but the point is to lock-in on a caloric target that can bring you that general weight of loss for 4-8 weeks.
So if you’re a 150-pound female looking to get the ball rolling, you would set up a diet that would have you losing around 1.5 pounds (at most) per week for 4-8 weeks before adjusting.
Sample Fat Loss Pace for a 150-Pound Female
Week 1 - 150 pounds
Week 2 - 148.5 pounds or so
Week 3 - 147 pounds or so
Week 4 - 145.5 pounds or so
Week 5 - 144 pounds or so
Week 6 - 142.5 pounds or so
Week 7 - 141 pounds or so
Week 8 - 139.5 pounds or so
That would be a great start.
But I know what you’re probably thinking.
“Well, are you going to tell me how many calories to eat?”
And the difficult answer to that question is no!
There is no one-size-fits-all caloric script that we can write because everyone is different.
That being said, I have found that starting most women out around 1800 calories is a great place to begin.
If you’re significantly overweight, you’ll probably lose plenty of body fat for quite awhile.
If you’re only slightly overweight, you’ll still probably start trending downwards, which is great.
But, women who are already relatively lean or who might just be very small people could benefit from starting their caloric target lower than 1800.
In some cases, eating 1800 calories per day could even cause you to gain weight slowly, but…
This could even be a good thing since it will give your body an optimal energy for muscle growth, which could even accentuate your muscular yet feminine curves despite a gentle uptick on the scale.
But again, did you just want to “lose weight” or did you want to look a certain way?
Now that’s true body recomposition, and it’s what lights my fire more than anything else as a coach.
The point of starting at 1800 calories per day is to kickstart the process because, well, you have to start somewhere. You can always adjust once you’ve accumulated about 14 days worth of bodyweight data.
If you’re losing weight around 0.5-1% per week, you’ve found the sweet spot! Slower than that? Maybe make a 100-calorie reduction to 1700 and continue to observe.
Others have speculated that you can take your current bodyweight in pounds and multiply that number by 10-12 for good estimation of a caloric target that should get you dropping some body fat.
Eat Protein in Doses of 20-40g per Serving 3-4 Times per Day
This is the second most important thing in my opinion because protein is the macronutrient that preserves and builds muscle.
So, if you want to look svelte when the DJ cues up Canon in D, you’ll want to make sure you’re giving your body an optimal amount of protein to support your goal.
In short, I like to recommend a maximum of 1g of protein per day per pound of your goal body weight.
So if you’re 150 pounds and you know you’d be excited to be a lean 140, it’s probably a decent idea to aim to eat between 98-140g of protein per day while you’re shredding for the wedding.
If you want more nuance on that, you can also check out our full article on just about everything you could ever want to know about structuring your protein consumption.
But, to keep with our 140-pound example, you could easily do the following assuming it doesn’t violate any food intolerance you might have:
8:00AM - 35g of protein from a plant-based protein shake with soy milk
11:30AM - 35g of protein from a tofu salad
5:30PM - 35g of protein from a chickpea pasta with salad
8:00PM - a piece of fruit for dessert
It really doesn’t have to be too complicated. Just make sure to keep your calories controlled to the goal.
Train 3-6 Times per Week with Weights in an Overloading Fashion
If you’re trying to look “uber hot” according to modern cultural standards, you’re probably going to need to be lifting weights multiple times per week.
In other words, thick bums and strong legs are in.
Can you do group fitness classes or hot yoga or pure barre or something similar? Totally.
But it’s probably not going to build the muscle you might be drawn to when dreaming about your ideal wedding day physique.
Those types of exercise are good for general health, fitness, flexibility, and burning plenty of calories, but they aren’t overloading enough to build an optimal amount of muscle.
Does that make sense?
So back to lifting.
For brides new to lifting, you really can’t go wrong with what we call the “push, pull, legs” split, which means you’d do the following:
Monday: 4-8 pushing exercises (chest, triceps, shoulders)
Tuesday: 4-8 pulling exercises (back, biceps)
Wednesday: 4-5 leg exercises (quads, hamstrings, calves, abs)
And then you could easily repeat that for Thursday, Friday, Saturday while resting on Sunday if you want to make a 6-day split out of it.
You could also do 3 full body days a week or even a 4-day legs, push, pull, legs split if you’re a bride that wants to emphasize the lower half of your body (as most do).
For more information on how to structure a workout for optimal muscle growth, check out my article called How to Build Muscle Effectively Using the Rule of 7’s and 11’s.
Become a Walking Enthusiast
I’d recommend tracking your steps and aiming to hit the same semi-challenging number each day.
There’s nothing magical about 10,000 steps, but it’s a nice, round number that people like to see pop up on their phones or watches after a successful day of walking.
When I lost around 30 pounds in 2020, I eventually had to push my walking up to 15,000 steps per day in order to see the continued results I wanted.
Whether your number is 10,000 or 7,000 or 15,000, get after it and get consistent.
Walking burns way more calories than most people give it credit for, so if you’re in an area that allows for outdoor walking, I suggest you maximize it during the months approaching your wedding.
Seriously, if you think walking is silly advice, you’re probably unaware of the fact that most bikini competitors walk for 1-2 hours per day in the weeks leading up to their shows in order to achieve that fit yet feminine look that many brides are after.
So get to walking!
Looking for a more in-depth discussion on how to tailor your walking to your fat loss advantage, I’ve got you covered.
Manage Your Timeline Intelligently
The hard part about writing articles like this is that I can’t nuance every piece of the puzzle for everyone at the same time, but what I can do is remind you to be sensible about your timelines.
If your wedding is in two weeks, you’re probably a little late to the party.
At that point, “losing weight” probably comes down to wearing a trash bag in the sauna and chewing on ice like a high school wrestler. Don’t do that.
If your wedding is in a month, you could do an accelerated mini-cut for 4 weeks and lose a few pounds of body fat with an aggressive protocol.
But you really have a great chance at reshaping your physique if you’ve got 3-12 months until your special day.
The point is to tailor your approach to the time you have to achieve the goal, so if you’ve got plenty of time to make meaningful change, don’t put yourself on an unsustainable starvation diet.
Instead, go back to those four main areas of focus and start figuring out how to implement those strategies into your own life repeatedly for the duration of your engagement.
And, of course, if you need help doing any of this, these are the exact services I personally offer as a body recomposition coach, and I would be happy to walk alongside you for this process.
All you have to do is reach out for help.
Consider the Bigger Picture
As cliche as it may sound, every bride wants to feel like the most beautiful woman on the planet on her wedding day, and the photos you capture with your loved ones will be the moments you hang on the walls of your home for years to come.
Which version of yourself do you want to be looking at for the next 50 years?
Not only that, but they’ll be the photos you one day share with your children, and I can’t help but think it would be a very proud moment to one day hear your daughter say,
“Dang, Mom! You looked HOT on your wedding day!”
And lastly, launching yourself into your married life with a strong, healthy, and confident body could be an excellent gift to your future spouse.
Again, not because you should get fit or need to get fit, but more simply because it’s a token of discipline that communicates, “I want to be healthy and fit and present to live a full and thriving life with you.”
I think there’s something selfless and very romantic about that.
In fact, that’s one of my own greatest motivations for staying lean and muscular - to set myself up for a long life of romance within my marriage, adventures in the mountains and along the beaches, and (if I should be be so fortunate) fun spent with my future daughters and sons that will inevitably want to keep dancing or playing soccer with Dad for as long as he can keep up.
Is there any part of you that shares that sentiment?
Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content.
Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.
If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!
And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.
Cheers, everyone!
-Andrew