How I'm Strategically Getting in Shape For My Wedding
I’m breaking down my strategic 7 month plan of workouts, supplements, cardio and calories so you can see how I’m getting ready for my wedding day!
I know thanks to the RONA, there’s about 8 billion of us getting married this year. I also know that as a personal trainer, A LOT of women have been coming to me recently to shape up for the big day.
I’m in the same boat so I totally get it and I’m here for it BUT, a common theme I’m seeing is girls coming to me already on little to no cals, doing a ton of exercise, stuck at a plateau, with 3+ months before their wedding.
I personally have a 7 month approach that I’m taking because even as a personal trainer, I know how hard it can be to develop new habits and be consistent with them so I wanted to give myself enough time to do things the healthy way while eating well and maintaining muscle.
Let’s start by going over my plan and then I’ll break down the WHY. For the sake of the plan, let’s break it up into weeks. (7 months = 30 weeks)
Month 1; Weeks 1-4:
Create the habit of doing 3 strength training days per week + 2 banded booty workouts. Focus on progressive overload each week and eat as normal.
Month 2; Weeks 5-8:
Continue the habit of strength training 3x’s per week + 2 banded booty days. Continue to focus on progressive overload and start having a scoop of creatine every day.
(Email me if you want me to design a personalized workout program for you // [email protected] )
Month 3; Weeks 9-12:
Continue all habits from the previous 4 weeks but now get in the habit of logging and hitting protein goal. Mine is appx 130g’s, daily.
Month 4; Weeks 12-15:
Continue all the habits from the previous 4 weeks but add more volume to weekly training. (Go from doing 3 lower body exercises on strength training days to 4 lower body exercises).
Month 5; Weeks 15-18:
Continue all habits from previous 4 weeks but now it’s time to start my first cut! Decrease calories by 500 a day and add in a tiny bit more movement via LISS (low intensity steady state) cardio. I’ll be adding in 2 60 minute walks to my week.
Month 6; First 3-4 days of week 1:
Baby Bulk. This is where I will go back to my maintenance calories from month 4 for just a couple of days. Continue to hit workouts and LISS.
Month 6; Remainder of the month:
Go back to my 500 calorie deficit and add in a third 60 minute walk to my week of 3 strength training days + 2 banded booty days.
Month 7; First 3-4 days of week 1:
Baby bulk. Go back up to my maintenance calories from month 4 one more time for a couple of days while continuing my scheduled workouts.
Month 7; Week 2:
Go into my 500 calorie deficit, add in a 4th 60 minute walk to my week + my normal strength and banded booty workouts.
Month 7; Week 3:
Go into a 600 calorie deficit, decrease carbohydrates to less than 100/day. Protein should still be at 130g’s a day. Continue 3 strength training days per week + 2 banded booty workouts. Walk a total of 60 mins 5 days a week and add in 1 hike.
Month 7; Week 4:
Keep the same workout schedule from last week but now go into a 700 calorie deficit, keep carbs less than 100 and keep protein at 130g’s.
Why This Weight Loss Works
I yo-yo dieted long enough to know that it doesn’t work. The quick fat loss, starving myself and doing cardio 3 times a day was exhausting, toxic and led to weight gain almost immediately after my vacation/event.
I’ve learned that by eating more calories and keeping up my protein, I do better in my workouts.
When I do better in my workouts, I get stronger.
When I get stronger, I build muscle which increases my daily metabolic rate which allows me to burn more calories at rest.
I’ve learned that by doing 3 SMART strength training workouts per week + walking, I am putting my body through increments of stress where it feels like it needs to and CAN adapt, without burning myself out.
This basically keeps me ready for vacations and events year round BUT it also puts me in a nice position to really tone up and drop some body fat when I want to.
And then when I DO drop body fat, I will have a lean look thanks to the muscle i’ve built rather than just being skinny.
Wedding Weight Loss Time Line
“Why is the plan 7 months?”
SO. Like I mentioned earlier, I feel like most girls come to me already consuming very little calories and not a lot of time to get ready for their wedding. The reason I picked a 7 month plan was mainly so that I could spend the first 4 months making sure I built my metabolism up to a good place so that I would have the flexibility to go into a calorie deficit.
I also HATE feeling like I have to learn 25 new habits all at once. Like to go from just living your life to feeling like you have 8 weeks to get ready for your wedding so now you have to suddenly start working out consistently, eating well consistently, tracking consistently, etc, just feels like a recipe for a hangry-bridezilla-biiiiitch.
By stretching it out over 7 months, we basically introduce 1 new habit a month so it gives you 4 weeks to focus on ONE thing before adding in something new.
Why You Need to Eat More Calories Before Cutting Calories
So, this won’t be the case for everyone of course BUT the main pattern I’ve been seeing is women eating very little cals who want to lose body fat and feel like the scale isn’t moving.
If you slowly increase your calories while staying consistent with your strength training program and focus on progressive overload in your workouts, then you will FUEL your body and send the right muscle building signals.
*Remember* muscles need calories in order to grow. So while we eat more calories, we put on muscle and the combination of constantly feeding ourselves + adding lean muscle mass to our body will IGNITE our metabolism.
This faster metabolism will start making your body burn more calories while at rest which will help with fat loss.
If you do this you should find that after 1-2 months, you may weigh the same or just a 1-2 more BUT you have less body fat and you’re eating more.
If you continue to just eat very little cals, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, your body will send signals that basically say “DO NOT BUILD MUSCLE! WE HAVE TO SURVIVE OFF OF VERY LITTLE CALS SO WE CAN NOT AFFORD TO TAKE CARE OF MUSCLE”
Or something like that ;)
Also if you eat very little cals and want to lose weight - you don’t have the option of reducing calories any lower! Now your metabolism just sloooowwwwsss way down and you become frustrated.
Why Creatine and Protein Are Some Of The First Big Habits
We’re focusing on introducing habits slowly and in order of long term importance + difficulty.
The main goal in the beginning is to just focus on getting stronger. Creatine is one of the most, if not THE most widely researched supplement in the fitness industry due to it’s many benefits including cognitive function and STRENGTH GAINS. So basically before creatine you might be able to hip thrust 280 pounds for 12, and after taking creatine consistently, you might be able to hit a 280lb hip thrust for 15.
This will help you gain that muscle that we need to put on before we go into our cut.
If you look at the schedule above, you’ll see that we don’t even start counting calories until month 5! We do although, start paying attention to protein in month 3. We do this for two reasons. 1). Because protein is VITAL when it comes to building and maintaining lean muscle mass. Eating more calories DOES NOT just mean eating as much in-n-out as possible, unfortunately. 2). Protein helps us feel sooo full and turns off our cravings so getting in the habit of eating protein and knowing how much you need before we look at going into a deficit is very important.
Let’s talk about the first calorie deficit (CUT)
So this is going to be different for everyone. I was getting a DEXA scan at Body Spec on the 17th of every month to measure my body fat %, lean muscle mass and overall weight. After 3 months I was able to only gain 2 pounds and was eating about 2,300 calories a day on average.
This is what I mean by being in a good place to go into a caloric deficit. So when I go into my CUT in month 5 and decrease 500 cals, I’m still able to eat 1,800 cals a day!
Why We Increase Calories After Being In A Deficit
This is what I like to call, a “baby bulk”.
A baby bulk is when we go back to the cals we were consuming before our mini cut. We do this because our bodies love to adapt so by being in a deficit for 4 weeks then spending about 4 days at our old maintenance, it throws our body out of what it thinks is it’s new normal.
Then after 3-4 days of that we go back into our cut. If I were to just stay in my deficit for weeks and weeks, my weight loss would most likely plateau the same way it plateaus when you are only eating 1,200 cals a day and can’t figure out why you’re not losing weight.
THE BODY ADAPTS. It’s goal it to keep us alive so when we decrease cals for too long it says “Hold up…something doesn’t feel right…I’m not sure when we’re going to get our normal amount of food again so let’s hold onto the body weight that we have".
End quote.
Cardio For Weight loss
Don’t go overboard on the cardio
You’ll notice that in month 5, we finally start introducing a little bit more cardio through 2, sixty minute walks. I currently average about 7K steps today according to the Health App on my iPhone so once I get into month 5 I’ll bump that up to about 8,500 a day.
(I figured this out by knowing that I get about 5K steps in 60 minutes so if I average 7K steps a day and then add in a 60 minute walk on Saturday and Sunday then my average turns into this:)
7K + 7K + 7K + 7K + 7K + 12K + 12K = 59,000.
59,000/7 = 8,428 steps.
I know most women will start doing hour long high intense cardio sessions multiple times per week, MONTHS in advance but you don’t want to adapt to a schedule you can not maintain.
Think about cardio the same way we we’re just thinking about eating too little cals.
Eat too little = body adapts by holding onto fat to survive.
Do too much cardio = Body eventually adapts by slowing down the metabolism so that it expends calories slower so that you CAN run longer.
Your body really thinks it’s helping you because it knows you’re going to run so it wants to keep you going but it’s really just back firing on what you WANT it to do.
To Summarize
Our goal is to do as little as possible while eliciting the best results so we focus on strength training then add in more movement through walking and then as we get closer to the event, we can ramp up the cardio for 3-4 weeks. We start with a 500-calorie deficit because that’s typically a good amount to break us out of our current weight and we stick with that juuuuust until our body starts to adapt, then do our baby bulk for a weekend.
We do two rounds of that then slowly peel back calories and carbs in the very last few weeks.
By month 7 you will have put on lean muscle mass, you will be used to hitting your protein goal so you will be MAINTAINING that lean muscle mass, and you will be burning fat through low intensity steady state cardio and a calorie deficit.
Please let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment or shooting me a DM or E-mail.
I will be keeping you guys updated on my progress over on my Instagram!
x