Losing weight on a crunch

emillie1014189

Hey, I’m new here! I’m hoping to lose 15 lbs before mid April because I know my long term boyfriend is planning on proposing sometime around then and I want to be confident in pictures! Please give me any advice you can 💕

briscogun

It's hard to be able to give you any concrete advice without knowing much about you (age, current weight, etc), but generally speaking its recommended that you can't lose more than 1% of your body weight in a week. You have about 6 weeks+ until your target date so that would be an extreme goal (unless you are starting from a very high weight which from your profile pic seems unlikely).

You could try to set MFP goal to a 2 lb per week rate of loss and try to follow that but it might mean eating under the daily recommended calories for a human being, keep that in mind.

MFP is generally set up for tracking your calories so you can make life long changes for a healthy weight, not crash course "diets", so this may not be the best tool for you.

Good luck with your journey though!

Theoldguy1

As mentioned above based on your provide picture you don't have a significant amount of fat to lose. You might want to consider a bodybuilder/figure athlete pre-contest cut diet/exercise approach. The weight loss will not be sustainable, but it could get you in the range you mention for a few days.

AnnPT77

Yeah, maybe - that's very extreme, probably not health promoting, quite possibly not appearance-enhancing. Two pounds a week might be possible, but if you're under 250 pounds, you're heading into a loss-rate range where 6 weeks out is often about the time hair starts thinning from sub-par nourishment, and a vivacious, healthy appearance can be turning to a dull, listless, haggard one. Is that certain to happen? No. But it's a risk.

Losing 15 pounds in around 6 weeks means losing about 2.5 pounds a week, which means eating on average 1250 fewer calories daily than you burn. You look fairly young, but I don't know anything about your height, weight or activity level. An average sized woman at age 25 might be expected to burn 2000 calories a day if somewhat active, maybe 2200 if more active. So, if you're in that ballpark, we'd be talking about eating 750 to 950 calories daily on average.

I don't know how you eat, but just as an example of the idea I'm talking about, a Big Mac is 563 calories. Add a large Coke for maybe 360 calories, and there you'd be at 923 calories already. Yes, there are more nutrient-dense and filling choices than those, but it's still maybe a couple of thin-spread peanut butter sandwiches on whole grain bread plus an apple. The best option would probably be to cut it back to something like 3-4 servings of chicken breast (around 128 calories per modest serving, no skin, not crispy) and quite a heap of broccoli (31 calories per cup, without butter/oil or similar), maybe a glass of skim milk and some nonfat, no-sugar yogurt. Throughout, each of those examples would be all the food for the day. I'd have trouble keeping that up for 6 weeks, but maybe you can.

Instead, I'd suggest a moderate calorie cut, something realistic; maybe some appearance focused added exercise (not to lose faster, but to look more attractive); and focusing on finding some confidence building outfits.

Your boyfriend loves you the way you are. I would hope you could find confidence in yourself with something a little less difficult or radical, honestly.

Alatariel75

You've got some really good advice above about the health issues and practicalities of losing weight, but I also want to add an aesthetic view... straining yourself to lose weight in a short period of time for a proposal or a wedding so you look good in pics might seem like a good idea, but so often you end up with the weight creeping back on because of the temporary measures for rapid loss, and you look at those pics and there's an element of sadness to them because you don't look like that anymore, even though the pics only represent a moment in time, where you strained yourself to be that size for that moment.

Let the pics show who you really are, who your boyfriend loves. Don't create false optics for something you'll be looking back on for life.

PAV8888

Look after your health.
Your looks will follow.
The opposite is not always true.

age_is_just_a_number

If he is going to propose, he loves you the way you are.
IMO, you are better off to embrace a healthy lifestyle with a modest caloric deficit to lose 0.5lbs a week and then you’ll have lost the 15lbs in seven months and keep it off for the wedding.

totameafox

You are beautiful. So I'm not sure why you would not feel confident about being in pictures. Since you know when he will propose look for a flattering outfit for the body you have and lose weight in a slow healthy manner.

I have seen small women in jeans too small for their body and yes... that makes you look 'fat'. worry about what you wear which is what the camera will see, not what's under your clothes.