I’m sure we have all seen the advertisements for this growing trend of waist trainers. They look like a modern day corset and are meant to be worn to help you get that hourglass figure everyone wants. I, myself, have bought one so I feel I am well suited to talk about the pros and cons of this product. The advertisements you see show the product on someone so you can see it works in giving that flawless hourglass look for wearing tight dresses or shirts. Then they show you how people have lost weight or changed their figure from this product.
Let me start off by telling you the pros of using a waist trainer. I think they are fantastic for using if you want to fit and feel sexy in that tight little black dress that you own. It does a great job in hiding flaws in fat distribution along your mid-section and “love handles."
Waist trainers are also a great tool for NPC bikini bodybuilders to use during “peak week” before a competition. I know this from experience -- peek week is the week before the competition where the competitors are trying to dry out or dehydrate themselves essentially.
A waist trainer comes in handy during this because if you work out with it on and do cardio, it helps in sucking water out of the mid-section. Yes, this makes it appear as if you had lost weight or fat, but don’t let it fool you. As soon as you start drinking fluids again normally, you will gain that all back.
Now let’s talk about the cons. The advertisement for the waist trainer shows people who have lost weight using the product. Though they have obviously lost weight, I doubt it was because of the waist trainer. Like I said above, it only helps to heat up your body so that you sweat more in your mid-section and lose water. It is not sucking out fat.
The only reason the fat is going away is not because of the waist trainer, but because you are going to the gym and working out. There will also be people telling you that wearing it all the time is most effective. DON’T DO IT. In an article on People, Julie Mazziotta wrote about this extreme kind of waist training.
She included a quote from Dr. Nassif saying,”I don’t like the idea of waist training. I’ve read about so many complications in regards to lung problems and intestinal issues.”
The lung problems and intestinal issues come from the waist trainer reshaping the structure of your ribs to curve in more, causing unnatural internal pressure on those organs. Not to mention, scientifically, if you have this waist trainer that supports your spine and core so that your muscles don’t have to, you will weaken your core muscles. It’s the concept of “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. So if you stop using the waist trainer after using it for so long you may develop muscle aches from you back and core trying to get strong and support you again.
Waist trainers are being seen everywhere now, supported by celebrities as being a great weight loss tool. I just wanted to shed some light on the true pros and cons of this product. They aren’t all bad, but they aren’t all good either. Please take my words into consideration in your decision to purchase a waist trainer.
