Waist Training Workouts - Do They Work?

I've seen plenty of things claim to take inches of your waist and make you drop lbs of weight overnight. Waist Trainers are supposed to make your waist smaller by not only shifting the placement of fat but by making you lose pounds through sweat. I am dubious of all these sorts of claims from the wide variety of 'quick fixes' and in all honesty don't believe any could work in the long term whatsoever.

My opinions aside however, there is evidently a lot of people that do believe in these processes, and therefore I felt that before dismissing them completely, I should put my preconceived judgements aside and actually try one, review how I found it and analyse any results.

So here is my process wearing a weight trainer during a workout! Note: All the below photographs are un-tensed to allow for a continuity in the measurements and to produce a realistic result. We don't always walk around with our six packs out!

Firstly lets talk about my starting statistics;

I measure up at a tiny bit below a 24" waist. I also weighed myself before putting on the waist trainer and was 49.5KG with my Body Fat Percentage being 14.0%.

Next I put on the waist trainer and put it on the tightest setting. Now in all honesty the waist trainer doesn't fit me great. It's slightly too big as I'm aware waist trainers are meant to be very very tight and the smallest hook is meant to be a struggle to do up. Mine feels tight but not as tight as it probably could be! This was an XS so I would have to find a different company if I was to do this again!

I then headed to the gym. I did a shoulder session and then 10 minutes of fast uphill walking. Now I normally train in a crop as I get soooo boiling in the gym, however today I had the waist trainer on and a vest top. It's safe to say I sweated ALOT.

I do have to admit, I like how pink it is and I would feel totally comfortable wearing it in the gym on a regular basis knowing its a pretty colour and matches my trainers! So how did I feel training in it, besides being warm? Well anything seated or bent over wasn't very comfortable as the boning inside the corset dug into my ribs and under my boobs! What I do have to report on, is that I did feel more secure in my lifts. I don't wear a lifting belt ever and never have felt the need too as I engage my core always. I did however feel that this forced me to engage my core, even when relaxing and could be a good idea to wear on leg day when squatting as a form of core reminder. I have also learnt that I could never wear one of these when training core as it would probably make me feel sick! I have also noticed that I have back ache since removing the waist trainer and I can only presume that this is down to using my core more than usual, which has surprised me.

So what is the outcome? Well I was actually really surprised and rather confused. I knew that I wouldn't loose inches of my waist, and I didn't.

But what I did see is a strange difference on the scales. I had a very very small weight loss (now 49.4KG) but I had a massive difference in body fat % (from 14% to 13.1%)

Now I am not under the illusion that simply wearing a waist trainer for a shoulder workout has made me drop nearly 1% of body fat. It firstly does not burn that quick, and secondly it will have been water weight that I lost not body fat%. The scales I believe have reflected the water weight lost via sweat and therefore this has slightly had an impact on the readings and it has transferred this into the body fat readings. Now if you are after a quick change on the scales, evidently there has been one. However this will not remain, and as soon as I take on board liquids I am positive that this will go back up. If it doesn't then I am investing in these as a miracle!

In conclusion I'm not sure these are for me, firstly because training my waist I don't feel is really my bag, I have a small 24" waist and if it gets any smaller I will be in toddlers clothes! I am however impressed in the way it supported my core when training and I realise it allowed me to stay supported more than I expected it to. With it being slightly to big for me and not stopping me breathing I may give this a try one leg day to see how I get on, however will not be using it ever as a form of 'quick fix' and nor do I encourage anyone else too!