HELP!! Bride to be stuck in a rut!

It is hard to say without seeing your food diary, but don't forget that for women, our body weight can fluctuate from week to week without having anything to do with our diet. So that's that haha. But if you stuck to your calories and didn't go too much over or under, then just stick to it and you will see results. If you want to try some different things, you could always up your water intake and work out a bit harder. But don't worry, so long as you are sticking to your calorie plan, you will see results. The only time I have not lost weight or gained weight while on myfitnesspal was when I just simply didn't follow it. Good luck!

40 lbs by September is kind of pushing it; 2 lbs a week is pretty much the fastest you can expect to lose safely and sustainably. September is in 15 weeks, so if you managed to keep your net calories low enough for the entire summer, you could reasonably expect a 30-lb loss by the first weekend in September, which is still nothing to sneeze at if you can accomplish it. If your wedding timeline will allow you to begin the dress search a few weeks later, you can hit that 40 lb mark.

That said, you've been doing this for seven days, max. It's going to take time to show - you didn't gain all the weight in a week and you won't lose it that fast, either, so just be patient. I suggest weighing yourself less often - twice a month (i.e., every other week), max. If you even choose to weigh yourself at all that is--I don't know how big you are now, but you might get more reinforcement out of taking your measurements regularly. MFP has a widget somewhere in the Check-In section for tracking the measurements of your neck, waist, and hips; there are some bodyfat% calculators that have you take that measurement as well as your bust, arm, and thigh.

Overall, though, you should focus more on improving your diet to something you can stick to indefinitely, and finding an exercise you enjoy doing. Fitness is not a "quick-fix"--you are changing the way you /live/, because if you don't continue living like this after you reach your goal, all the fat you lost will find its way home again.

Are you going to be able to maintain that weight loss until your wedding next year? I think you should be very honest and realistic about what is do-able here. Also, I think you should start thinking about what sort of dresses will flatter the body you have as well as the body you want.

Wow, that's encouraging.

By the way, from last week (when OP started) to the end of September is 19-20 weeks, so her goal is not so unrealistic.

OP, my advice is to really focus on logging your food--make sure you log EVERYTHING, and weigh/measure your food so that you know the counts are accurate. Do you go out to eat a lot? That can really wreak havoc on the accuracy of your food diary, because it's so difficult to gauge how many calories are in restaurant food. Even if they post the counts, you can never be sure that the chef makes it exactly according to the recipe every time. Cut back on eating out if you can, or go for items where you can accurately estimate the calories (for example, at breakfast, get eggs hard-boiled or poached rather than in an omelette where you have no idea how much oil they used).

40 lbs in less than 3 months is a LOT of weight. As a fellow bride to be, my advice is to lose weight at a healthy pace, start dress shopping in September, and continue to diet and exercise until the wedding. You can always have your dress taken in, and you will still have the time to lose the weight before the wedding.

I managed to lose about 20 pounds in 3 months. I found that to really do this, I had to exercise EVERY DAY. I just insisted on making it part of my life. That not only helped my weight loss, but helped me shape my body a lot differently. Now, I am pregnant, so just doing "maintenance" calories, but I am still exercising every day.

If you want some good motivation, you could always try on a few wedding dresses before you start your official hunt. I know that trying to squeeze into some of the tiny sample sized wedding gowns was great motivation for me!