Need urgent advice to lose weight quickly- bridesmaid dress doesn’t fit!

I had this with my wedding dress. Not a meringue just a monsoon one. Side zip. My dressmaker altered it without issue.

Personally I'd just give this up as a bad job and attend as a guest instead.

Cut out carbs completely (bread, pasta, rice etc) and no alcohol or sweet treats. Plenty of lean protein and veg. You can defo lose up to 5 lbs in a week but make sure you eat enough calories for breastfeeding. Good luck

Each pregnancy stretched my bastard ribcage. You can't diet ribs back once the baby has bolted.

Slim fast shakes only ?

@AngeloMysterioso

On the assumption that you are in the UK, it sounds as though there wouldn't be enough time to ask the company which made it to alter it or send a larger one.

I wouldn't advise crash-dieting, especially when breast-feeding. You don't want to feel light-headed on the day.

Could you retrieve the dress from the bride over the weekend and locate a good seamstress in your area who could come to you to see the dress on you, with a view to advising on whether the dress could be altered in some way?

The shapewear is a good idea too.

If the dress were only a little tight, could it be that the shapewear could be all you need after all?

Here is a link and it gives three approaches so choose the one you like best.

www.chelwest.nhs.uk/your-visit/patient-leaflets/bariatric-dietetics/liver-shrinkage-diet-for-bariatric-surgery

Why don't you speak to a local dressmaker and see if there's anything they can do? They might know where to get hold of similar material. It can be hard to shift a few pounds while feeding. My body stubbornly clung on to the last few I till I stopped.

I had similar with my wedding dress. Bought it two sizes too small and of course didn’t lose all the weight I needed to lose. It wasn’t a traditional wedding dress.

A good friend was really good at sewing and we bought the closest fabric we could find and she inserted a narrow panel into each side of the dress. It looked like it was actually meant to be like that on the day.

Is there anyway you could do similar with your dress?

Find and beg a seamstress. You want to be comfortable on the day.

My friend was a BM. She had a dress from a department store, she had tried on and bought with bride. Bride then noticed dresses had gone on sale so had returned dress and reordered online (only saving a few pounds, was a mega expensive wedding).
When friend got the dress on the day, it said it was the same size, but it wasn’t. So she forced herself in it, said she cried at one point. Her parents drove hundreds of miles to bring a different dress for the evening. But she hadn’t been able to eat/drink (it was really tight on the chest) and said the whole thing was misery.

get it altered and be comfy.

Wear the dress for only the time you absolutely have to.
Have a panel put in the back or the sides by a seamstress.

Baby & mother comes first.

There is a pre surgery diet I got to shrink your liver. I'll try and find it. Stick to that and you'll lose half a stone and be slimmer from your shrunk liver and it's healthy but only for two weeks (I know you're doing one)

This happened to me a week before my sisters wedding. Don't focus on the weight. That's irrelevant really you need to get smaller. You also need to eat and drink enough to BF.

Spanks / skims might help if they can let it out a bit. I managed to get into mine although it was still tight and had correcting in it, my ribs were bruised by the end of the night.

Good luck!

This! 👏👏

Also, eat foods high in protein - tuna, chicken, nuts - and move as much as you can. Protein burns slower than fat - so the fat comes off first!

Get onto eBay, vinted, marketplace etc and find the brand and colour of your dress. Any size at this point and use the fabric as donor material. Bonus if you find the right size for you.

Seamstress, now!

Dieting is a bad idea as 1) not sure it will even work with breastfeeding, your body won't let go of that fat easily and 2) if it doesn't work, it will be too late to do anything about it day before the wedding.

And don't feel bad. It was really silly of the bride to order dresses from America that arrive so soon before the wedding. There's all kinds of reasons why a type of dress you tried on in February, won't fit in August. It might even be that the dress itself wasn't tailored properly.

Is it worth talking to the shop to make sure it's been made correctly? Could you ask for more of the same fabric, and pay a seamstress to alter it?

I think you need to attack on as many fronts as possible. Losing weight may not make much/any difference to your size or in the right areas. So industrial strength shapewear and a dressmaker are needed too.

how much size do you need to lose? You were 2kg lighter when you ordered but that doesn’t translate to needing to lose 2kg now. How many cm do you need to shift across the top to get it to zip up?

try again with shapewear on, and it might be possible to add a new zip with a bit of a panel in the side, won’t look perfect but could give you the extra space if you only need a small
bit more room.

Also, as above, you are going to really struggle to find any seamstress who has space to help with just a week to go! You can phone around but be prepared for lots of no's and to be charged a rush fee.

This is the closest I can find to what I'm describing, especially if there's no extra fabric to work with.

I wouldn't risk reducing my milk supply when I'm breastfeeding for a wedding or for anything really.

I lost 3kg in the first week of doing this.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide

I cut out all sugar & carbs - missed breakfast & didn't eat from 7pm to 11am the next day - egg salad for lunch [no dressing] & porridge at teatime.

Op, you're breastfeeding so it's unrealistic to do any quick fixes I'm afraid.

Please don't listen to those recommending low calorie/ drink based diets 🤦🏼‍♀️

I hope you find someone who will be able to adjust the dress

A good dressmaker won't have availability to do this by next weekend!

I think it'll have to be a drink based diet

Don't do a drastic diet when you are breastfeeding.

How much does the dress not zip up by?

Could you be getting into it slightly wrong? Make sure your bust is properly lifted into the cups before zipping up. Zip half way then readjust again.

I'm a wedding seamstress and something many people don't know is that many dresses can be stretched slightly. So if you only need a little extra space that might help. If you have a steamer use that, or if not then a steam iron. DO NOT iron the dress, just use a little steam from a small distance to very, very slightly warm and moisten the dress on the inside. Then gently pull and stretch the fabric in the areas you need more space. Get into the dress (make sure it isn't hot from the steam) and zip up as much as possible. Repeat. If it works and you can zip it all the way up then stay in the dress for a while to make sure it 'sets'.