Wedding dress woes- I need to lose an inch around my waist in 2 weeks

[ISeeTheLight]

Wedding is at the end of this month.
Tried on my dress yesterday - I need to lose an inch - 1.5inch around my waist. I tried it 5-6 weeks ago at which point I needed to lose about 2-3 inches.

For context I am overweight (BMI around 35), have been eating 1200kcal a day since the start of Jan and lost in total about a stone. I have an underactive thyroid and have realised over time I need to stay under 1200kcal to lose weight, eat around 1500kcal to stay the same and if I eat more than that I gain weight. I work from home full time at a desk so don't move much. I also have a herniated disc in my spine so am limited in what I can do (no hoola hooping and the like).

Have bought some resistance bands and small weights today, will try and do gentle waist exercises.

I'm pretty desperate at this point and am also considering medication / non surgical lipo etc.

Can anyone recommend anything that delivers results very quickly, ideally in a targeted area? It's a temporary thing, I'm not looking to do this long term.

Altering the dress would be possible but it's very heavily beaded and has a complex construction and my (very capable, dress making) seamstress has said it would be possible to alter but a) difficult and b) visible on the dress so am keeping that as a very last resort.

Callanetics

OP the main thing that will make a difference in this time frame is reducing cortisol (stress hormone) and bloating agents and water retention.

Make sure you're eating your meals at a relaxed pace and chewing slowly.

Cambridge Diet. Brutal but it works fast!

www.bombshellhq.com/products/wider-than-youd-like-to-be-in-the-middle-hourglass-waist-shaper

Depends on what size you are to start with - if you're already tiny and just want to be super-slender for photos then this won't work, but if you are above a size 10 you may find this useful.

Ah, I see I didn't read your initial post properly. This might be a winner for you. It has very good reviews and waists are the whole point of the brand, so designed for reshaping a fuller figure for hourglass loveliness.

The Fast 800 diet really works at shifting weight round your middle. You honestly don’t feel hungry after the first few days. Under 800 calories & virtually no carbs. Find it online or there’s a book.

Agree with this. Plus fasting for 16 plus hours from about 5 or 6 in the evening every day. This genuinely works. For me I didn't reduce calories and I'm not even sure I've lost actual weight, but I've lost inches from my waist.

I would leave the stomach exercises until after the wedding. Whilst a strong core is brilliant, adding muscle there can initially increase waist size.

Very low calorie diet. Exante or New You plan. There’s loads of introductory offers. You’ll feel like crap for about three days but push on through and it’ll drop really quickly. You’ll then start to feel great - almost euphoric!
Best of luck.

What about a corset?

Fast for a few days. Eat a very low carb diet when you do eat. Neither are bad for you even though many think they are.

Try and do keto for 2 weeks plus lots of water, doing combined with intermittent fasting should help. Good luck and have a lovely day

Beware the downside of egg diet + under active thyroid = bad constipation ime 😤

It would be less stress to alter or buy a new dress than contemplate lipo. This is why wedding dress shops always say don’t buy a smaller size, much easier to take in a bigger dress.

Jillian Michaels that does the 30 day shred exercise dvds also has a 1 week shred version where you do a workout morning and night. I've always found I lose quite a few inches and can see a noticeable change in my shape when I've done them in the past.

Extreme measure but have you looked into the fat loss injections? They target specific areas, not sure how many sessions you need for a result though so may not be quick enough

Juice diet/skip dinner

100% this.

Please don't follow the stupid suggestions of eating 800 calories. It's too low and you'll make yourself unwell. You said you're losing at 1200 calories so keep doing that. Cut out salt from your diet, no alcohol. Keep drinking water. Move as much as you can. Schedule in a lunch break from your desk and go for a walk, then eat lunch at your desk.

Honestly OP you will risk making yourself unwell/ stressed/ constipated (the latter adding bulk to your belly if you're anything like me!) with some of these diets.

Find some decent shape wear- M&S has some amazing things to suit all kinds of dress. I've bought some of their stuff before and it's miraculous (way better than spanx). Or get the dress altered. You'll be fine 🙂

My beautician used to do a treatment called shrinking violet which apparently would temporarily shift an inch or two off key areas. Worth looking into?

Congratulations and enjoy your wedding 💒

I looked into various shake diets years ago and full disclosure, I have done one along with every other terrible insane diet in the world but when I googled, I found a very sad article about a woman who went on LighterLife to slim into her wedding dress and died of a heart attack. Very low calorie crash diets can be dangerous and put your body under a lot of stress. Better to have the dress altered or sell it and buy one that fits well and is comfortable and makes you feel beautiful as you are rather than one you have to punish yourself for and that makes you feel like you aren't good enough.

I've been doing a low-carb diet (basically keto) for the last 3 weeks in a concerted effort to finally shift some extra weight I've been carrying from an extended period of eating poorly. I have already lost almost a stone, and I've done that without having to feel hungry, because of the specific foods I'm eating. You can definitely make it more interesting than this if you need to, but I am basically rotating "meals" like the following, and having two per day:

• Poached chicken breast, which I then chop up and drizzle with soy sauce for some flavour (simplest thing to cook ever: fill a pan with water, bring to the boil with the lid on, place the chicken breast flat in the water, put the lid back on, bring to the boil again and then immediately take the pan off the heat. Then you just leave it for 30 minutes with the lid on, and the existing heat of the water cooks it right through. With this method it's also totally fine if you leave it in for longer. Sometimes I've left it for a couple of hours and it's still juicy and yummy when I take it out).
• A tin of tuna mixed with mayo and sweetcorn (sweetcorn isn't low-carb, so you could skip this, but it's a small amount so not too big a deal).
• Beef and/or pork mince cooked with some spices, red pepper, and passata.
• Two fried eggs with a sprinkling of salt.
• Serving of fish like salmon, sardines, trout etc.

With each meal I try to have some low-carb vegetables (a quick Google will tell you what these are), and I also allow myself a small bowl of berries each day, which are also low-carb — I buy frozen raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries, which means I can buy in bulk and not worry about them going off. Frozen berries also preserve more nutrients than fresh ones, as they are frozen as soon as they are picked and don't have time to start going off! I also find that having a 30g serving of cheddar cheese with the less substantial meals really fills me up and staves off hunger. It's also important to drink lots of water when eating like this. To make it even more effective, try to stick to eating both meals within a regular 8-hour period each day, so you have 16 hours without eating.

If you stick to this boring but satiating diet religiously for a couple of weeks, I think you are likely to lose an inch from your waist. The initial large drop will be mostly water weight, but it can still make a difference to your measurements. Also, the larger you are the quicker the weight will drop off initially, and given your BMI, I expect you would lose more than me in the same amount of time. I've tried other get-slim-quick-for-an-event diets in the past, and this has been by far the most effective, because it's the only one where I haven't felt constantly hungry. And it seems to be working better than a regular crash diet!

Very low carb and sugar - no bread/pasta/cereal, and no sugar, which means very little fruit. You can do it if it's only for a week or so.

I hope the wedding went really well OP and that you had a great time whatever you chose to do :)

Ps my DH - who misjudged the size of his wedding outfit and had to pay three figures to get it rush let out two weeks before the wedding - is very invested in whether or not you made it into the dress. He’s rooting for you!

I want to know too!

Hope you had the best wedding!!!