Workout Tips for Brides-To-Be, with Paul Salter RD, MS

Paul Salter RD, MS, Bodybuilding.com Nutrition Editor and the founder of Fit In Your Dress discusses the best workouts for brides-to-be: the best ways to guarantee you look your best in your wedding dress.

2.3 million couples get married every year in the United States according to SoundVision.com.  With wedding season in full swing, brides will be seeking the best ways to feel fit and strong just before the big day. NMFIT chatted with Paul Salter the founder of Fit in Your Dress and Nutrition Editor at BodyBuilding.com to reveal the best ways to get into that wedding dress.

With wedding season here below are the top tips that Salter suggests from one year ahead of time. 

12 Months Before:

·      Commit to a form of exercise you enjoy a minimum of three times per week.

·      Focus on improving one area of your nutrition.

·      Write down three adjectives to describe how you want to look and feel on your special day…keep these close; on the fridge, by your bed, on your planner.

9 Months Before:

·      Continue with exercise but if you haven’t already, shift focus to include two forms of resistance training each week, which is necessary to maintain muscle mass during a diet and helpful in driving fat loss (weight training, boot camp workouts, CrossFit, etc.)

·      Begin dieting with a goal rate of weight loss of 0.5 - 1.0 percent of your bodyweight per week.

·      Continue with diet for 10 – 12 weeks – this will put you a heck of a lot closer to your wedding day physique/confidence goals before wedding stress picks up.

6 Months:

·      Increase exercise frequency to four times per week (minimum); keep resistance training a focal point at least twice per week (all four sessions is great!).

·      STOP DIETING. Begin gradually increasing food and reducing any additional cardio that may have worked itself in.

o   More information:

·      Begin adding calories at the rate of 10 – 15% every 3 – 4 weeks.

3 Months:

·      Continue with at least four workouts per week (at least two resistance training).

·      Begin another wedding weight loss journey: 8 – 10 weeks.

·      Begin dieting with a goal rate of weight loss of 0.5 - 1.0 percent of your bodyweight per week.

2 Weeks Out:

·      Continue with at least four workouts per week (at least two resistance training).

·      STOP DIETING. Begin with one calorie increase of 10 – 15%. This will help to significantly reduce physiological and psychological diet-induced stress and make navigating these stressful moments easier and more enjoyable.

·      More information:

What words of motivation can you offer brides to be that may be going through a drastic transformation before their big day? What is the best way to keep the weight off and stay committed after the big day?

·      Absolutely write down your goals…daily.

·      Start planning your nutrition and exercise program as far in advance as possible.

·      Do not diet the entire length of your engagement – choose the best 8 – 12-week periods interspersed with weight maintenance phases of the same duration.

·      Find a community of women chasing the same goals and striving to be the best version of themselves (check out the Fit Bride Tribe, which is a sisterhood of brides-to-be dedicated to providing not only diet and fitness information but also a safe space to talk wedding stress (we know how you feel!) and how to make planning your wedding an enjoyable experience. We talk self-care, health, and wellness, and put your well-being at the forefront of every article we write and a topic we discuss!

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