A coworker of mine once gave up his best-secret-observer-but-never-comments-upper-management impression long enough to tell me something that made me actually pause mid sandwich last month. He said that his father used to wear a “reducing belt” under his suit in the seventies, some sort of rubber abomination that slowly cooked him to death from the waist down, and that what kids these days call a waist trainer in the gym is just that same concept redesigned for “tube sock” fitness video watchers instead of GQ readers. My immediate thought was he’s completely wrong about its history but entirely correct about its function because a waist trainer doesn’t have any mystical quality to it; it does one thing, one single thing, and only for as long as you wear it.
I couldn’t very well lead into this without mentioning that, so let’s get it out of the way. A men’s waist trainer compresses your midsection. While it’s on you. That’s it.
There is no lipolysis taking place, no reshaping of your waist overnight no matter how much the name would imply it does that, and certainly no magic for this thirty two year old writer who thought buying one would counter ten years of midday sandwiches in six short weeks. It gives you two benefits worth mentioning while it’s on your body, though neither of them are what sales articles want you to believe.
What It Actually Does While It’s On You
The first, and most obvious benefit, is appearance under a dress shirt. When trying it on for the first time I slipped mine underneath a fitted white and headed out to dinner with clients just to see how it handled for a night out. My shirt laid across my stomach better than it has in years, not through any magical body alteration but simply by smoothing out the surface so my shirt could lay how it was intended to when I bought it two sizes too small 10 years ago. That’s it. Basic physics expanding your torso the way women’s shapewear has been doing for time immemorial; with about 40 years less stigma attached, which is fine! The Internet has made it clear that guys can wear women’s clothes now if they want to, why shouldn’t we get to use some of the same shortcuts they have if we want to look our best for one night without it having to mean something deeper about how we feel about the iron?
The second, and far less expected perk is posture. I’ll admit that I did not see this one coming at all and was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it. The right trainer, ones with adequate boning or stiff paneling down the front, literally will not allow you to slouch when sitting at your desk for a meeting the same way your unprotected midsection otherwise will. I found myself sitting up straighter on airplanes after buying one; able to sit in the same position for four hours without gradually flattening into my rib cage by the time the seatbelt sign turned off like I normally did. That is not your core strengthening itself overnight friends, no matter how good it feels. That’s just what a damn brace does, it forces your posture to be better because it removes your ability to do otherwise. Your body immediately returns to normal as soon as you take it off too, just like how standing up straight all day at your desk doesn’t come with you to the elevator.
The second it stops being worn is the second it stops doing anything useful, that was my finding as well tracking my own waist size every day for three weeks straight like it was supposed to be some magic floral diet. There is zero change. Zero. The lies that claim you’ll gradually, permanently shrink your waist by wearing it day in and day out are bullshit garbage sales pitches that are nothing like actually investing in the stock market, okay maybe there is some parallels but hear me out bullshit. Real gains are far, far slower than what they advertise.
Why The Fit Is The Only Variable That Actually Matters
This is where I’ll level with you and admit I screwed up when I tried it the first time around. I went by my normal pant size based off the damn tag alone and whatever size fits my 32inch waist according to their sizing guide wound up restraining me like I was three days into a hostage situation. Waist trainers follow their own unique set of sizing rules that tend to run one, sometimes two sizes below what you normally wear thanks to that tight compression, and skipping that crucial step meant I wound up with something far too tight on my initial order. So tight I wasn’t wearing it anywhere but under my shirt until it occurred to me that maybe I should just return it for something closer to my actual size.
Where sizing gets really tricky, though, is in what you intend to do while wearing yours. Unless you’re planning on sitting at your desk eight hours a day every day your waist trainer is on your body it has an entirely different job than staying put and holding in your gut. Ones that fit fine for all-day work will generally be made with lighter materials and less ambitious compression than something you want to wear to stand up at a wedding in or throw under a shirt during a weightlifting session. I got lucky and found one that works for long days at my desk, but have a much tighter version now that I couldn’t sit in to save my life past sixty minutes that I learned to use for those occasions that have me standing all day. That isn’t a flaw with either product, that’s simply me learning that different jobs require different tooling rather than buying one designer shoe and expecting it to do weddings and the weekly nine-to-five like some do.
The plain truth about fit is that if you go too small, you’ll hate your experience for two reasons. First it’ll hurt.
Second, it will also show. There is no worse feeling under a slim shirt than feeling that ridge they wear creates around your stomach, pushing all the clothes you were trying to smooth out up and over itself into a literal pouch. If your trainer is too loose it’s no less painful, just far less embarrassing. It just feels dumb, like swinging a jug full of sand around all day because you forgot to dump it out. Find a trainer that fits comfortably within the first 10 minutes of having it on and trust me you forget it’s there.
No, it’s not your father’s “reduce thirty pounds in thirty days” belt. No, it will not reshape your body after wearing it 24/7 for a month straight. It is, however, something that can offer you real, tangible benefits for as long as you keep it on, and I promise you it’s worth considering if you’re right in the sweet spot on fit. That magical midpoint between too loose and too tight where you feel it working but not quite itching to remove it is where you know you got a good one, and they do exist for men, I promise you that as well.
Ade works in finance in the City and treats his wardrobe like a portfolio, which he admits is a slightly mad way to think about a blazer. He writes about office clothes that survive twelve hour days, back to back meetings and the odd video call.
