Waist Trainers, Belly Bandits & Belly Belts

I recently got few questions about belly binders / belly belts / waist trainers and about wearing them during exercising and also on daily basis.

Let’s start with some clarification first :))

BELLY BELT is used during the pregnancy and I recommend it 10/10. It is mostly a huge relieve for hips, lower back and any other discomfort area.

BELLY BANDIT is what we call the belt AFTER pregnancy. Wearing the belly binder right after having a baby can be very beneficial. Talking about few hours after giving birth (if you can actually get off the bed :)) up to about 4-6 months (at this time it shouldn’t be full day at all ). The inner core muscles and all abdominal muscles are very weak and stretched after the pregnancy and the binder can do a big favor “holding it all together”. This applies twice after having a c-section when the entire ab wall is weakened and most likely not functional. It can help to prevent an injury of e.g. lower back (imagine lifting a baby off the crib etc.) But I would recommend wear the binder less and less during the day and eventually get rid of it completely and strengthen the core muscles with correct breathing patterns and exercising. While the binder is a huge help right after having a baby eventually it obstructs the muscles from getting stronger because the muscles rely on the binder.

WAIST TRAINER. I’ve heard and read many reasons but these two are the most common so please let me explain: - “to protect the core” - uhm, what? You want your core muscles to get weaker? Those are the most important muscles in the body, why would you want them not to be engaged during workout? It’s actually much more beneficial to learn how to workout with proper form and technique (just to make it clear - I’m not talking about wearing belts while heavy lifting - that’s completely different category when wearing the belt has its reason). This is injury prevention - if you’re lifting weights at the gym but your core is not being trained and then you need to do some “everyday life” movement like push or lift something your core is not being trained for that and there’s a chance you will injure yourself. I would also like to point our that some of the belts have nothing to do with physiological shape of the body and in long term run - “to sweat the fat out” - you can not sweat the fat out. Let me repeat it one more time: SWEATING IS *NOT* THE FAT LEAVING THE BODY! You don’t even burn more calories by sweating more. Sweat consists of mainly water and salt (that’s btw why I recommend to replenish minerals after a harder sweaty workout). Sweating is a natural function of your organism to control the body temperature. It protects the body from overheating. Exercising and high temperatures of course cause your body to heat up and then sweating is natural reaction. Also please remember that if you didn’t sweat during your workout it doesn’t mean you didn’t have a good workout session. Btw. loosing fat is done by deficit in calories intake (be smart with this and never EVER eat less than your metabolic rate but we can talk about this another time). Loosing fat is not about how much you sweat. Also and most important related to the belly belt - YOU CAN NOT SPOT FAT LOSS. This is all genetics and where you loose the fat is decided already by mother nature. If you hear a fitness trainer telling you you will loose fat in your abdomen area by wearing the belly belt then run away. If you see a workout called “abs fat loss” then unfollow. It is just words and marketing but not how the body actually works.

In other words - there’s absolutely no benefit for wearing the waist trainer. Please be smart and don’t waste your money on these ;)