Wedding Day Diet Ideas

Every bride wants to look her best on the big day and many women go on diets well in advance of their wedding day to shed unwanted pounds. There are thousand of good diet plans available. You can go it on your own with the help of a diet book.



The Mayo Clinic offers a long-term weight loss program for free online. Many people opt for low-carb weight loss programs, such as Atkins, which offers a free online program. Or you can join weight-loss programs such as Jenny Craig and NutriSystem that provide your food along with a support system. If you want to drop those last few pounds just days before the wedding, there are diets that promise quick weight loss. Doctors generally warn against rapid-weight-loss plans because the fat usually doesn't stay off and they can be dangerous to some people. Check with your physician before beginning any diet plan.

The Mayo Clinic Diet

The Mayo Clinic Diet emphasizes foods that are both healthy and enjoyable to eat. The diet is broken into phases. In the two-week first phase, the plan promises a weight loss between 6 and 10 pounds. After that, expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week. The diet plan relies on a food pyramid. The base consists of eating large volumes of healthy, low-calorie foods, particularly vegetables and fruits. You choose increasingly smaller amounts of food in other categories as you move up the pyramid. Food categories include whole grains, lean protein and dairy, healthy fats and even sweets.

Low-Carb Atkins Diet

The Atkins Nutritional Approach was developed in 1963 by Dr. Robert Atkins and is a controlled carbohydrate approach to weight loss. The Atkins Diet doesn't limit the amount of food you eat, just the types of food and is based on limiting refined carbohydrates to turn the body into a fat-burning "machine." In the beginning Induction Phase of the Atkins plan, the diet consists almost solely of lean protein (you can eat as much lean meat as you want), leafy greens, vegetables and healthy oils. As you get closer to your weight-loss goal, foods higher in carbs are reintroduced. Atkins offers free diet advice and recipes online.

Diets with Support

Some people find it difficult to diet without support. There are many options available and even provide most of the food you will consume on the plan. You pay for the program and the food, but you don't need to count calories or weight and measure food portions. Jenny Craig provides frozen and packaged food for it's plan and offers one-on-one counseling either in person, over the phone or online. NutriSystem ships two-week supplies of foods directly to your home and gives you a list of fresh foods to consume along with the packaged foods. Online diet support is also offered.

Quick Weight Loss

There are many rapid weight loss diets you can try to drop a lot of pounds quickly. The Three Day Bride diet is designed to quickly shrink your frame by focusing on what its creators call the body's "hot spots." The Three-Day Bride diet is low in carbohydrates and eliminates foods that cause bloating and lead to water retention. The diet is based on a 1,500-calorie-a-day eating plan, and lasts for (as the name suggests) three days. It is designed to drop water weight quickly.

The Master Cleanse--popular with movie stars and models who often need to drop a lot of weight rapidly--is a 10-day fast where you drink only lemonade made with fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, water and a dash of cayenne. You can expect to lose up to 20 pounds in the course of the 10-day fast.

Another popular quick weight loss plan is the Cabbage Soup Diet, which involves eating mostly a vegetable soup with a variety of fruits, vegetables and beef in varying quantities on staggered days. The Cabbage Soup Diet promises a 10-pound weight loss in a week.