Waist Trainers: To avoid or to consider?

Colorscheme

HWeatherholt wrote: »

A version of a waist trainer has been around for centuries. They use to be called corsets. And when worn everyday, and tightened everyday or every few days, they can cause permanent changes.



But from my understand can be very painful and deadly especially if taken to extremes. I will admit that I own several corsets and slimmers. I wear a slimmer almost every weekday, just to help smooth things out, but I'm not expecting to change anything. As far as my corsets, they do temporarily change my appearance but I maybe wear them 4 times a year for a special occasion.

Actually, there's no such thing as a permanent change with corsets. There are so many myths and misconceptions. Even in the Victorian era, tightlacing was NOT normal. Girls wore corsets from a young age into adulthood and it took on average, ten inches off the waist. But as soon as you stop wearing one, your waist starts going back to the way it was. Also the average woman can comfortably take off 4-6 inches just wearing a proper corset without any tightlacing, it all depends on your squish factor. Then there's the fact that corsets only rearrange tissue, not organs. The Victorian illustrations of what happens to your organs during corsetting was what they thought would happen at the time.

Oh, and one more thing: believe it or not, retouching was super common in the 19th cent, so those pictures of super tiny waists from that era have most likely been giving the retouch treatment.

I'm really into historical costuming so stuff like stays/pair of bodies/corsets, etc are fundamental to getting the right shape, so I've had to learn a lot and do quite a bit of research before constructing anything period accurate. Every decade has it's own shape and different way of wearing things.

Source: http://www.marquise.de/en/themes/korsett/korsett.shtml

Scroll down to the "legends" section.

To the original poster: waist training and corsets are really not necessary to lose weight. They do help posture and DO add support if you're large busted, but so does a good bra :P

maria0104

I see these things a lot, particularly on women on Instagram showing them off over their physique.

In fact the link you mentioned is the one particularly peddled by people such as the Kardashian family.

They aren't gonna make the difference you want, and I doubt they'll give you the feeling of reward you seek.

It's a shame, because I see them all the time on 'celebrities' on Instagram etc with captions about how awesome they are etc, but really they're just promoting a product and targeting young women looking for an easy out.

Save your money, they've got enough without your dollars.

star1407

A good quality corset is a joy to wear, supportive and sexy, gives you wonderful posture. But I'm talking for an evening. Working out in one is bloody stupid, unsafe and restricting your diaphragm is dangerous
I'd say for a weekend to look sexy then great, but get a good quality one

Nachise

Try woodchops with a kettle bell or Russian twists with weights. Save your money.

cerise_noir

grinning_chick wrote: »

Snip.

Although, I must admit I wouldn't mind owning a fainting couch. When are those coming back into style?

When smelling salts make a come back.

bmcc18

I have a waist trainer and I used to wear it for about 7 hours when I first got it on weekdays. I loved it and found that for me I believe it helped shape me the way it said it would with the whole "2-3 inches" lost as they say. I did work out in mine to help produce more sweat and it wasn't as bad as it may seem. It works best if you diet right and have at least light exercise. However, I don't wear it anymore because it's gotten too big for me and they are expensive to replace with a smaller one. Mine did not last me long at all. It did not bother me very much with the tightness but I was also used to wearing back braces that fit similarly. I have found that it has helped me with my posture even when I don't use it so that is also a plus!