I’ll go full disclosure here, I tried a waist trainer back when I started on my health journey dropping nearly 100lb and you’ll find out what happened simply by reading through this article.
Waist training has become popular after multiple celebrities have been seen pushing these as sponsored ambassadors for companies which has led to more and more individuals wondering what their actual effectiveness is on their pursuit of a smaller waistline.
You will get some pros here (yes there may be one or two) along with the cons of waist training.
First things first, let’s look at what you’re really trying to do.
You have developed a portion of fat you actually want to get rid of around your midsection in order to flatten your stomach.
You are not going to make your bones change shape.
Unfortunately when people say that genetics play a part, then yes if you are big boned you aren’t going to change that shape, but it is important to know whether it is bone you are trying to change or if it is dropping fat.
So in order to make your waist appear smaller and build your confidence up, you need to find out if it is actually fat around your stomach.
The Positive…
Waist training has got it’s positives if used correctly in the right situation.
For example if you are postpartum and want to assist your body in bringing your rectus abdominis back together, note, ‘assist’ in doing so, it won’t actually bring them back together it will just hold them in the place for the body to do the rest through time, correct nutrition and recovery methods.
They can help you improve your posture, this can, in turn, boost your confidence but all they are actually doing is making you aware of your body and how you’re holding it throughout the day.
They won’t strengthen the muscles, actual exercises will be needed to help you stand up straighter with your shoulders back looking proud, the waist trainer will just hold you in that position.
The Negative…
What are you actually trying to do?
Drop fat, right?
Waist trainers aren’t going to do this by wearing them, they are going to squash fat and then it will return to where it was afterwards.
They aren’t going to increase your calorie burning and they certainly aren’t going to make you mold your physique to the point you can stop doing any exercise.
What may happen is a slight bit of weight loss when they’re worn in the summer.
This weight loss is actually only water.
It is through dehydration, sweating from having an extra layer of insulation around your waist.
Unfortunately it will just make you feel sluggish and even get a headache, not burn your body fat.
In fact, it could potentially decrease the amount you move due to how dehydrated you get, meaning your body doesn’t function as effectively, you don’t then move as much and burn less calories directly as a result of wearing the waist trainer.
When I used the waist trainer one thing I did notice was that I ate less, having a tight object wrapped around you made it hard to intake as much food.
That was good, in theory, but it also made my digestion levels go down and not get the right nutrients from food due to the pressure.
I would experience a lot of acid reflux when wearing one (I only had it on for a couple weeks for an hour or two, not the amount people usually wear them.)
Which shows how bad they really can be. Then when I took it off later in the night I was bloated but craved a lot of rubbish food from the dehydration and the sudden expansion of my stomach coming out of the trainer, it wasn’t good.
On the note of wearing the waist trainer for a long while, this can have the complete opposite effect.
In theory, to get a tighter stomach you have to strengthen your core, you have your own waist trainer built in and it needs to work to hold everything in.
If you don’t train it then it will get weak.
Putting a wrap around waist trainer on your body in order to ‘train’ your waist is setting yourself up to allow your muscle to weaken.
Not what you want as this can mean when you lose the trainer you end up with nice relaxed waist, in other words, your abdominals will hold your waist in less than when you started.
What we need to be honest about with these gimmicks that you see a lot of celebrities promoting is that first off they are getting paid to promote, is that a bad thing?
Well, if I had built up my brand to become an influencer of millions then got paid millions my views may be different.
I honestly hope they wouldn’t be but they are working, they are getting paid and most of the time they will use that money to pay their trainer, to pay their nutritionist and their massage therapist to keep them in the shape that they’re saying they get in by using these items.
There is hard work that goes into it, there is a good diet, there is a good recovery plan in place, these aren’t results which are happening simply from grabbing a quick fix, that doesn’t just go with waist trainers but also with a lot of the supplements such as slim teas, detox pills and many more we see day in day out on social media.
There’s no getting around the truth and that is the long game will always win.
Getting patience and sustainability into your life, focusing on movement, stress management and nutrition that will allow your body to thrive is the key to dropping belly fat and flattening your stomach and not waist trainers.