Woah, wait...I have to wear a dress?!?

[Statistical Anomaly]

So, I was asked to be in my friend's wedding next year. Naturally, I accepted.

Here's the problem: bridesmaid's dresses, as many of you probably know, tend not to be very flattering to those of us who are on the heavier side. Especially me, since I have no curves, no boobs (well, not literally), and a bunch of hanging flab (Too much information, I know), clingy dresses are not a good thing.

So, I'm asking for your help. Loosing poundage would be great (and probably necessary), but I'm more concerned with being well toned.

Currently, I weigh 200 +/- 5 pounds (Down from 295, woohoo!). I'm 5'4"-5'5", and a size 16 pants, womens XL/men's L shirt. I'd love to get down to a 12 or so by the time of the wedding (approximately 1 year).

I work out 5-7 days a week, 5-7 days cardio (avg. 30 min/day) and 3 days of moderate weightlifting. I eat pretty healthily, with the occasional splurge.

Any suggestions?  

[dangerousfish]

Sounds like you're doing pretty good. You might want to see if you can up your cardio to 45 minutes and do intervals. Go flat out for 30 seconds - 1 minute and then bring it back down and do those short bursts a couple times during your workout. For most of your workout you want to go moderately intense which means you can still talk without huffing and puffing (65-80% of your max heartrate). Push yourself until you can't talk and then back off until you can.

You could also up your weight and see faster results in the muscle area. You should reach temporary muscle fatigue in 8-10 reps. 12 is the highest you'd really see gains in how "toned" you are. Adding more muscle will burn more fat, as well. You won't bulk, I promise. ex-rx.com has a great list of different lifting exercises to give you variety.

My personal routine: (full body, every other day)
chest press 15lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets
chest fly 10 x 10 x 3 (alternate with the press)
overhead press 8 x 10 x 3
bicep curl 10 x 5 x 1, 8 x 10 x 3
tricep extension 5 x 10 x 3
(alternate overhead, bicep, tricep)

Most bridemaid's dresses seem to be sleeveless so you probably want to push it on the arms and shoulders. If you feel like you're getting too big just up your temp muscle fatigue to 12 reps but I think you'll like what you see at 10. Of course this is all assuming you have the correct set of weights to get to temp muscle fatigue in 10 reps.


crunches: (every other day) Imagine your belly button touching the floor and don't hold your neck. I actually do my crunches with my arms stretched forward.
20 standard crunches
20 bicycle crunches (arms behind head (not touching) to bring my elbow to my knee)
20 reverse crunches (arms on straight out on the floor)

Squats:
100 every other night (no weight)

Tricep dips (best tricep exercise (for me) evar), every other day
10 x 3 (off coffee table)

cardio: 5-6 days, one day rest
walk away the pounds 3 mile tape with 2 pound balls
walk away the pounds 4 mile tape
walk/jog with the dog (20 minute)

random switch up:
windsor pilates 20 minute workout

And obviously I've worked up to these numbers. No way I started out doing 100 squats, cold. I love squats, the results in the butt and thighs is amazing.

My weight lifting thread has a ton of good links in the first post. Stumptuous has a great guide to starting to squat.

While I am anti-low carb dieting eating plenty of lean protein (.5-1 gram per 1 pound body weight) really makes a difference in how I feel and how much fat vs "weight" I'm losing. low-fat cottage cheese and nonfat yogurt are some of my best friends. I also mix my own post workout protein shake but not everyone wants to mess with powders. I'm too cheap for the premade stuff, most of it tastes horrible, and most of them are geared towards lifters on a bulking phase and have too many calories. I use designer whey in chocolate for a mere 100 calories (x 2 scoops), one cup lactaid for 80 calories in a shaker crammed full of ice and topped off with water and I have a great post workout mini-meal.

Hope this helps, rock on.  

[Divash]

I started a Weight Watchers Discussion thread in this guild, and posted their Good Health Guidelines. If you follow those guidelines, you can absolutely get down to a size 12 in a year's time. In one year's time, I've lost 50 pounds and gone down from a size 22/24 to 12/14, all by following those guidelines. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Good luck! smile