By Megan Ginnaty-Moore, staff writer
Every few years there is a new diet trend being promoted by one celebrity or another. This time, the trend is waist training: wearing a corset with the hope of making one’s waist narrower and maybe even make the user eat less.
The trend was made popular by reality star Kim Kardashian after she posted a picture of herself on Instagram wearing her waist trainer. Some doctors stand by the trend, praising its effectiveness. Others say the waist trainer could be detrimental to the wearer’s body.
Dr. Alfred Johnson, a Dallas-area physician warns people of the dangers of waist training in a May 2014 USA Today interview. Waist trainers can be very dangerous for people to wear if they are not done growing. The corsets can be detrimental to many different things like organs, digestion, and even bowel movements if tied too tight. The corset will make the waistline appear skinnier, but to do that it will push everything in and up, including the stomach.
“Any weight loss is probably due to the compression of the stomach, forcing the wearer to eat less,” said Johnson, in the USA Today report.
Johnson admitted the waist trainer can make people more mindful of what they eat and improve posture, but he recommends not wearing the corset for long periods of time or during exercise, as it can impede breathing.
Those who wear the waist trainers say they have lost inches off their
waist. In an interview with a local news station in Indianapolis, Ind, Jessica Lovejoy claims she went from a 36-inch waistline to a 27-inch waistline. Lovejoy wears her corset for eight hours every other day.
Still, the cost of wearing these trainers can be detrimental to the organs inside the body. There have even been reports of acid reflux, crushed ribs, blood clots, and increased pressure on the heart.
“The harm is damage to your organs. Your intestines, brushing your kidneys… [ladies who wear] they get so short of breath, they can’t breathe,” said cosmetic surgeon and OB/GYN, Dr. Michelle Jones-Singer in an interview with Fox 6 News in January, 2016.
This type of diet trend might not be worth pursuing, as the results are not permanent. According to Jones-Singer, while the body will adjust over time, the lungs and organs will eventually go back to their original position.
Jones-Singer said the only way to whittle down your waist is to eat healthily and exercise regularly, but if people feel pressured to follow the trend, at least do it safely by wearing the waist trainer for no more than two hours and avoiding intense workouts while wearing it.
“The idea of beauty changes with society. It’s up to a woman to decide what’s her body type, what’s right for her and what she can tolerate that’s healthy for her,” said Jones-Singer.