I Tried a Waist Trainer — Here’s What Happened
If you have an Instagram, you’ve probably at least considered trying a waist trainer, even if only for a second. Don’t we all want a tiny waist, big titties, and curvaceous hips? At least for the moment, anyway. Tomorrow’s trendy body might be something totally new.
You’ve seen the Kardashians wearing them as well as some of your favorite Instagram models. If girls with bodies like that really achieved them with this century’s version of a corset, we’d all sign up. But, do waist trainers really work? Are they unhealthy for your body? Are they comfortable? Can you actually wear them out without looking like an idiot? Is there any chance of wearing one pre-hookup without making a fool of yourself?
And most importantly: is there truth to the claims that the Kardashians’ favorite waist training company’s products don’t work, as one lawsuit alleges?
I wondered, and I’m sure you’ve wondered too. So, I got my very own waist trainer, courtesy of Hourglass Angel.
I went for the classic style rather than the style for gym-use, and decided on a size small. The sizing on the website listed that size XS was for 0-2, and that size small was for 2-4. I’m a size 0-2, but I figured waist trainer ran smaller, so I went with the small. This was a mistake as the waist trainer I received was too large. Thankfully, Hourglass Angel exchanged it for an XS very quickly for me.
When I asked an Hourglass Angel representative the recommended time to wear the waist trainer, she suggested starting off by wearing the trainer for an hour a day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on how long the Kardashians choose to wear their waist trainers — is it for the time it takes to snap a selfie, or longer?
Luckily, I was going through this process in the winter, so it was relatively easy to wear the waist trainer under my sweatshirt while running errands. However, I found that the best time to wear my waist trainer was in my house. I generally tend to wear tighter clothing, and the waist trainer actually made me feel larger rather than whittling my waist. Something about a swath of extra fabric on under a tight top didn’t exactly make me feel sexy, not to mention the rolls that bunched up in the fabric when I bent over or didn’t stand up straight.
When I did suck it up and wear the waist trainer out, I did feel a bit sexier, but a bit unbalanced. The sensation was kind of like wearing a cheap pair of heels that aren’t totally symmetrical — a mix between sexy and “oh shit if I have another drink I might fall into my sugar daddy’s lap.”
The waist trainer was relatively comfortable, and didn’t seem to hug me any tighter than some of my corset-style going out tops (beauty is pain, right?). Although it didn’t necessarily make me suck in my stomach, it did make me more aware of my stomach in certain positions because of the pressure. When walking, I felt like I had more of a natural sway to my strut. I also appreciated the boost it gave me with my posture, which is normally notoriously bad. I’d have to say that the posture assistance was probably the best attribute of wearing the waist trainer.
Another aspect which was positive or negative depending on how you view your body was the natural boob boost. Because the waist trainer sat right under my boobs, it lifted them as if I had gotten a boob job. For some people, this may be viewed as a bonus. For me, someone who avoids bras at all costs and likes my natural boobs the way they are, this was weird. It almost made my boobs sit too high for my liking.
Although you would think that the more I wore the waist trainer, the more used to it I would be, the opposite effect occurred. In fact, the more I wore the waist trainer, the more I found problems with it. One of the main problems was that after about fifteen minutes of wear, my stomach started hurting. Not in a “I need to go to the emergency room or lay in my bed” type of pain, more like a “I haven’t eaten in three hours and am starving” kind of pain. Because of this sensation, I actually felt that the waist trainer made me eat more than I normally would — therefore completely eradicating the whole point of a waist trainer.
Although I set out to measure my waist at the beginning of this process (26.31 inches) and see how I measured up after wearing the waist trainer for a month, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. As someone who has always seen healthy eating and exercise as a way to shape my body, I felt that waist training couldn’t be healthy and had the potential to harm my body — not to mention that my athlete boyfriend was horrified when he came over and saw me wearing my waist trainer.
Did I feel skinnier after wearing my waist trainer? Sure. But I think that part of this had to do with the fact that I felt bigger while wearing the waist trainer, and I was now taking it off. Plus, there was no way I could shrink myself down before going out for the night in a crop top, as the waist trainer left very unattractive indents on my stomach and back from the tightness of the fabric. Check out the photo below, and see how un-sexy waist training can really be. That shit is almost worse than trying to awkwardly ditch your sticky bra during a hook-up.
Unfortunately for me, I know from common sense and previous research that waist trainers will never give you abs (which can only come from diet and exercise), and end up actually just temporarily pushing your fat to other places. The weight that does “come off” from the waist cincher is primarily temporary water weight that will be regained swiftly after not wearing the corset-like contraption, Francine Delgado explained to The Daily Beast. Not to mention that some sources point to health concerns, like constricted breathing and lung damage, with long-term use.
So, what’s the verdict? It’s easy to want to believe in an easy fix that will help you shed those last five pounds or have a hourglass figure like Kim Kardashian. Unfortunately, the celebrities that we all want to look like have professional hair stylists, makeup artists, plastic surgeons, and photo editors. Not to mention that more and more celebrities are endorsing products that they are paid to promote, and probably don’t even use themselves unless they’re snapping a selfie of it. As much as we hate to hear it, the only way to get to your “dream body” is to eat better and exercise more. But the thing is, nobody expects you to look like Kim Kardashian because you’re not a celebrity, you’re you.
