inches

Hi I am trying to lose weight to get in my dress, I need to lose 5 inches. How many pounds would that be? Thanks

Replies

  • HellYeahItsKriss
    HellYeahItsKriss Posts: 906 Member
    There is no set pounds, people lose inches without losing any pounds or vice versa, also. weight can come off one spot and not others or come off everywhere.. you could lose weight in places not needed to fit into your dress..

    you will fit into it eventually, but you will have to just wait.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    You could try a lifting program... that kind of thing seems to work wonders for changing someone's shape, even if they end up actually weighing more than they used to! But it takes time.

    Check out this blog for an idea of what I mean.

    But as the others said, there's no real way of knowing where the inches will come off when you lose weight. I've lost at least 8" off my belly, but that took about 60lbs (and 18 months) and it's still a Buddha belly. Whereas other areas look much smaller in comparison now!

    Depending on the occasion (I'm guessing probably a wedding) and how long you have, you might do better to consider having the dress altered to put in some side panels and make it bigger where it needs to be, rather than stressing yourself out about losing that many inches.
  • GemstoneofHeart
    GemstoneofHeart Posts: 865 Member
    Not sure why you need to be in that dress in particular, but what happens after the event? Do you just go back to old ways? Why not focus on making sustainable changes for life rather than just focusing on wearing a dress.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited January 2018
    You need a different dress. Why did you buy a dress that was 5" too small? Or is it someone else's and you want to wear it for sentimental value? Thank the person and tell her you love her and would like to honor her by wearing her veil instead. Or her pearls. And then buy a dress the fits you. I mean fits you right now. It is much easier to take a dress in than add panels or all sorts of lace and do-dads to make it bigger.

    FTR, I have lost 60 lbs., it took well over a year, and my waist is only 4" smaller.
  • ja20102004
    ja20102004 Posts: 349 Member
    I bought this dress before I had my 3 kids then I had a premature baby and we had to focus on her instead of my weight.
  • MichelleLaree13
    MichelleLaree13 Posts: 865 Member
    I have looked up this question and the best answer is 10 pounds is roughly 1 inch. That being said, I worked out a ton this last year, lost about 5 pounds and 3 inches off my hips and another 4 or so inches off my waist. I am 5’2 and 5 lbs usually is an inch off my hips and an inch off my waist.
  • WhereIsPJSoles
    WhereIsPJSoles Posts: 622 Member
    I've lost 16 lbs and not a single inch off my hips and maybe 1 off my waist. So y'know...might be a thing, might not be a thing.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    5 inches over all or from a specific place like your waist? 5 inches overall doesn't take much weight loss, but from a specific area could take a lot, depending if it's where you genetically lose weight first or not.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Unfortunately, there's no way say for sure. As you lose weight, you'll lose it from different places on your body. And different people will lose different amounts of weight from different places on their body. One person might see a change in their waistline with 5lbs, others might need 15. So there isn't really a good x lbs = x inches.

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    you cant spot reduce.

    how soon is the wedding? having the dress taken out will likely be the best option, if the wedding is anytime in the next year :/

    and why didnt you buy a dress that fits?

    but guess thats a different issue .....
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    you cant spot reduce.

    how soon is the wedding? having the dress taken out will likely be the best option, if the wedding is anytime in the next year :/

    What?? Why should it take a year to lose 5 inches?
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I guess I missed that this is a wedding dress. That does make a difference.
  • Unknown
    edited January 2018
    This content has been removed.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    you cant spot reduce.

    how soon is the wedding? having the dress taken out will likely be the best option, if the wedding is anytime in the next year :/

    What?? Why should it take a year to lose 5 inches?

    it shouldnt. but we also dont know the persons habits, level of dedication, or patience. or even when the wedding IS.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    you cant spot reduce.

    how soon is the wedding? having the dress taken out will likely be the best option, if the wedding is anytime in the next year :/

    What?? Why should it take a year to lose 5 inches?

    Depends how big she already is and where she wants those inches to come from. .it may be impossible to lose that many inches.

    Or it may not. Seems a very arbitrary bit of advice without knowing more.
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
    What size dress are you in now and what size is the dress you want to get into? For me I usually drop a dress size every 15- 20 pounds.

    But as everyone else has said there are too many variables to be able to tell you exactly.

    Just put your stats into MFP weigh and measure everything you eat, stick to the calorie allowance it gives you and you will lose weight. As you lose keep trying the dress, you will fit into it eventually.

    Or you may have to buy another dress that fits you now if it is for a special event coming up very soon.
  • HellYeahItsKriss
    HellYeahItsKriss Posts: 906 Member
    you cant spot reduce.

    how soon is the wedding? having the dress taken out will likely be the best option, if the wedding is anytime in the next year :/

    What?? Why should it take a year to lose 5 inches?

    Depends how big she already is and where she wants those inches to come from. .it may be impossible to lose that many inches.

    Or it may not. Seems a very arbitrary bit of advice without knowing more.

    Exactly. I agree
  • Jingsi84
    Jingsi84 Posts: 126 Member
    A reddit study found: "Multiple regression tells us that on average, for every 8.5 pounds lost, people dropped an inch off their waist. (And for every 1.5 kilograms lost, people dropped a centimeter off their waist.) Every 10 pounds lost was accompanied by 1.18 inches of waistline reduction.
    "http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/2014/11/14/size-will-lose-weight/
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited January 2018
    you cant spot reduce.

    how soon is the wedding? having the dress taken out will likely be the best option, if the wedding is anytime in the next year :/

    What?? Why should it take a year to lose 5 inches?

    I think it depends on where. If she means 5 total inches of a combined loss on, say, her bust, underbust, waist, hips, calves and upper arms, probably not, if she is eating at a deficit and doesn't fall off the wagon, experience stalls, and somehow achieves an exact downward trajectory of loss in an exact, bumps-along-the-way-free pace. OR she might lose more than "5 inches" and now be too small for the dress, for that matter.

    But I know for me, anyway, it took me over a year to lose just 4" off my waist, and that was 60 lbs.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited January 2018
    ja20102004 wrote: »
    I bought this dress before I had my 3 kids then I had a premature baby and we had to focus on her instead of my weight.

    So this is an older dress, obviously, not one you just bought. Why do you need to wear it now? Can't you buy a different dress instead? Or have a seamstress add panels to this one in order to make it fit you, if it has some sort of sentimental value or some specific meaning for you?

    I just think trying to decide in advance that you "will" lose 5 inches (from somewhere?) given Plan X being shaky enough (even two people being more or less equal in height, weight, age and activity, eating the same amount of calories may experience a different weight loss trajectory, and if say you have been losing about a pound a week that doesn't mean you won't lose 2 lbs. next week, or maybe not lose at all for the following 2 weeks...see what I'm saying?), trying to shrink to a specific dress doesn't have a stellar chance of succeeding. ANYTHING can happen between now and whenever it is that you want to wear that dress.

    1. Buy a new dress, or have panels added to it to be at least large enough for you right now.
    2. Start a diet program (and exercise if you'd like) that is achievable for you.
    3. If you do lose a lot of weight/inches/size/whatever before it's time to wear the dress, you can have the stuff cut back out of it, or some of the stuff cut out of it to whatever size you are then, OR you can have the new dress you bought sized down. ETA: Or I guess the smartest way to do this would be to just go for one alteration (or alteration series) once you're very close to whatever the event is.
    4. Suggestion: if this is a wedding gown (I'm guessing it is) and money is the issue, perhaps try to sell it on ebay or elsewhere (there are also used clothes places specifically online, I think, you may get a higher amount there, check around) to recover some of the cost toward a new dress.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    ja20102004 wrote: »
    I bought this dress before I had my 3 kids then I had a premature baby and we had to focus on her instead of my weight.

    So this is an older dress, obviously, not one you just bought. Why do you need to wear it now? Can't you buy a different dress instead? Or have a seamstress add panels to this one in order to make it fit you, if it has some sort of sentimental value? I just think trying to decide in advance that you "will" lose 5 inches (from somewhere?) given Plan X being shaky enough (even two people being more or less equal in height, weight, age and activity, eating the same amount of calories may experience a different weight loss trajectory, and if say you have been losing about a pound a week that doesn't mean you won't lose 2 lbs. next week, or maybe not lose at all for the following 2 weeks...see what I'm saying?), trying to shrink to a specific dress doesn't have a stellar chance of succeeding. ANYTHING can happen between now and whenever it is that you want to wear that dress.

    1. Buy a new dress, or have panels added to it to be at least large enough for you right now.
    2. Start a diet program (and exercise if you'd like) that is achievable for you.
    3. If you do lose a lot of weight/inches/size/whatever before it's time to wear the dress, you can have the stuff cut back out of it, or some of the stuff cut out of it to whatever size you are then, OR you can have the new dress you bought sized down.

    my sister in law (as of thanksgiving weekend lol) fell in love with a dress that was too small in the bust area. She had it altered so it was a corset back. looked beautiful.

    its an option.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    ja20102004 wrote: »
    I bought this dress before I had my 3 kids then I had a premature baby and we had to focus on her instead of my weight.

    So this is an older dress, obviously, not one you just bought. Why do you need to wear it now? Can't you buy a different dress instead? Or have a seamstress add panels to this one in order to make it fit you, if it has some sort of sentimental value? I just think trying to decide in advance that you "will" lose 5 inches (from somewhere?) given Plan X being shaky enough (even two people being more or less equal in height, weight, age and activity, eating the same amount of calories may experience a different weight loss trajectory, and if say you have been losing about a pound a week that doesn't mean you won't lose 2 lbs. next week, or maybe not lose at all for the following 2 weeks...see what I'm saying?), trying to shrink to a specific dress doesn't have a stellar chance of succeeding. ANYTHING can happen between now and whenever it is that you want to wear that dress.

    1. Buy a new dress, or have panels added to it to be at least large enough for you right now.
    2. Start a diet program (and exercise if you'd like) that is achievable for you.
    3. If you do lose a lot of weight/inches/size/whatever before it's time to wear the dress, you can have the stuff cut back out of it, or some of the stuff cut out of it to whatever size you are then, OR you can have the new dress you bought sized down.

    my sister in law (as of thanksgiving weekend lol) fell in love with a dress that was too small in the bust area. She had it altered so it was a corset back. looked beautiful.

    its an option.

    Wow, that sounds so cool and corset backs are so on trend, not to mention romantic, IMO.

    OP, this sounds like a really great idea. How about it?

    Meanwhile, start that weight loss plan. You can get healthier...so many of us have.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    my sister in law (as of thanksgiving weekend lol) fell in love with a dress that was too small in the bust area. She had it altered so it was a corset back. looked beautiful.

    its an option.

    My colleague is getting married in May and hopes to lose a bit of weight by then, but she deliberately chose a dress with a corset back... if she does manage to lose a few pounds then she can tighten it, but if she doesn't, she said she'll still feel fabulous in it!

    Interesting question and here's my 2 cents worth. I just recently got my old wedding dress back from my sister who had lost it. I decided on a lark to try it on because I'm about 20 pounds lighter than I was when I got married. Unfortunately I couldn't get in to it. the shape of my body has changed. But I've had 2 kids and many years of weight gain and loss. You may find the dress doesn't fit the same even if you do lose the weight.

    I had the same issue - I have a few dresses from about 30 years ago that I'd hoped one day to fit into again. Most of them I can now wear, including my wedding dress, even though I'm still a few pounds heavier than I was back then. One dress, though, which I'd made myself, is very fitted and shaped at the waistline, and there's no way I can get into that one because my shape is so different. Even if I do lose some more weight, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to wear that particular dress again.

    OP, you haven't said if this is a wedding dress or not. If it has some kind of sentimental value, or if you just really love it, then look into the cost of having it altered in some way to fit you nicely.

    If it's just a question of finances and you don't have any special attachment to this particular dress, then perhaps the suggestion of selling it on eBay and putting the funds towards buying another one might work better for you?