Waist Training
I survived a week of waist training ... and it was great for my posture. Amanda Remling/IBTimes

I cannot lie -- I’m obsessed with Kim Kardashian’s waist training photos. Whether you love her, hate her or love to hate her, I think we can all agree that she’s got a rockin’ body. With that said, I’ve got nowhere near that type of shape and I’m A-OK with that. But when I got the opportunity to try waist training, I totally jumped at the chance.

Waist training involves wearing a corset in order to slim (or reshape) your waist. Similar to shapewear, the garment is designed to scale down your midsection while also contouring it. The twist with waist training is that, while you look like you have an “instantly slimmer figure,” you’re working to create one as well.

Hourglass Angel sent me the “Amia Classic Cincher Waist Trainer” to try out waist training for the week. Made with PowerLatex and Flexi-boning, the garment claims that it can “visibly reduce your midsection 1 - 4 inches. I decided to take the challenge to see if waist training like Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose or Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi was feasible for an average woman living a normal life.

Just to get the facts out there -- I’m 26 years old, somewhere between a size 2 and 4, and love to wear loose-fitting clothes. Getting “all dolled up” means swiping on some brown eye shadow and exchanging my favorite flannel for my finest denim top. And, if I want to look “sexy,” I break out some red lipstick and 2-inch heels. The point I’m trying to get across? I'm not the type of person to go out and buy a corset.

Day 1 was a little rough. It took me almost two minutes to put it on, and when I finally had it all fastened I realized it was upside down. Once I figured out that the top shouldn’t be as flared out, I popped open all the hook-and-eye closures and tried again. This time around it was a lot easier, only taking me a swift 57.38 seconds to get that bad boy on. Unfortunately I ended up taking it off again 10 minutes later when I realized that I had a two-hour commute into work and that this probably wasn’t the best thing to sleep in on the bus to the city. (I kept thinking back to that scene in “Pirates of the Caribbean” when Keira Knightley’s corset is so tight that she accidentally passes out and falls into the ocean. I did not want my bus driver to have to shake me awake.)

Eventually I arrived at work and got the corset back on -- and it was awesome. For starters, I felt totally cool because no one knew I was rocking a corset. It definitely helped with my posture as well. I have a bad habit of slouching, but the corset forces you to stand up straight and sit tall. Usually by the end of the day I’m sliding down in my chair and go home with a backache, but by the end of the first day I was still going strong.

That wasn’t the best part, though -- the corset kept me warm. I am ALWAYS cold and the corset causes “thermal activity.” I wasn’t visibly sweating at my desk, but I was definitely comfortable and didn’t need to break out my top secret space heater.

Day 2 and Day 3 went the same. I wore the corset for six hours each day and my speed in getting it on increased. I also tried wearing it to the gym. The Amia cincher I was wearing isn’t specifically made for working out like other corsets, but I decided to go wild by wearing it on the elliptical for 30 minutes. Nothing crazy happened. My midsection was definitely warm, but I didn’t feel lightheaded or uncomfortable. Based on an interview a colleague had with Hourglass Angel CEO Ruben Soto, I steered clear of doing crunches. According to Soto, the company does not suggest doing abdominal exercises while wearing the corset. However, in order to strengthen abdominals further, users should incorporate core muscle training into their workout regime while not wearing the corset.

I survived the gym, but things took a turn on Day 4 when I brought leftover Mexican food to work. The night before I feasted -- without wearing my corset -- on quite possibly the best enchiladas I ever had. Being lazy about putting together lunch, I took home a nice-sized portion to bring to work the next day. I got through half of it before feeling sick. The corset is supposed to help you eat smaller portions, but I wasn’t going to let the “best enchiladas I ever had” go to waste. So I took off the corset and immediately felt better -- and continued my lunch.

It doesn’t matter how you try to lose weight -- it always comes down to eating healthy and being active. I’m a vegetarian and go to the gym three times a week. Would I love to “tighten” my midsection? Of course. But nothing is going to stop me from enjoying some delicious Mexican food.

Another struggle with waist training was the temperature outside. Day 5 was in the low 60s, so I walked for 20 minutes during my lunch break. It felt more like I worked out for an hour. Since I went to the gym wearing the corset, I didn’t think twice about going for a walk while wearing it. While I must have burned some serious calories, I couldn’t imagine wearing it on a summer day when the temperature could be 80 or higher. I didn’t experience any dizziness or shortness of breath, and my attire -- lightly lined jacket, long-sleeve shirt and jeans -- certainly could have been the reason. However, I would have been more comfortable without the corset on.

Waist training was not a bad experience for me. My waist went from 27 to 26 inches. For those looking to test it out, I didn’t use it excessively (12-plus hours a day), didn’t sleep in it and made sure I was paying attention to my body. Doctors say that restrictive shapewear like corsets can cause shallow breathing and numbness, but I didn’t experience any of that. Marie Claire also reports that prolonged use can result in “crushed organs, compressed lungs and fractured ribs.” Bad signs to look out for if you need to slow down or not doing the corset diet properly include numbness in the legs, shortness of breath, sharp stomach pains or pinching.

These are my pros and cons from my week waist training:

Pros

  • Better posture
  • “Warmth”
  • Felt good about myself

Cons

  • Not being able to binge eat Mexican food
  • Can get too hot depending on situation
  • Visible under some clothing
  • My boyfriend says it looked like part of an “Edward Scissorhands” costume

It’s now past my week of experimenting with waist training and I still have the corset on. I’m not leaving it on for many hours at a time, and I cheat and take it off when I’m eating something I really enjoy. But overall I feel good about myself – and that’s all that matters, right?

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