It’s the beginning of a brand new year, and many people have health and fitness on the brain. One common question we get is how to use a waist trainer to lose weight and achieve your weight loss goals.

The short answer is: yes! We highly recommend using a waist training plan as a part of your fitness and weight loss journey. However, we can’t stress enough that waist training is not a magic bullet for weight loss (there is no such thing!). It’s just one piece of the puzzle if you want to slim down and tone up. If you just slap on a waist trainer and expect to lose weight without incorporating it into a healthy lifestyle routine, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

But if you use a waist trainer strategically? You’ll be wowed with the results—just check out these before and after stories!

If you’re serious about your health and fitness and you want to start waist training (no matter what time of year it is), here’s everything you need to know about getting the best results.

Waist Training: How it Works

In order to effectively use waist training to supplement a weight loss plan, it helps to understand how it works. When you wear a waist trainer, it stimulates thermal activity in your core and causes you to sweat around your midsection. This is especially noticeable—and beneficial—during workouts.

• More sweat means your body is working harder and you’re getting a more effective workout.
• That’s why many beginners start with a workout band in order to get a feel for how waist training works.

But it doesn’t just stop there.

While wearing waist trainer that fits well, you’ll notice an instant drop in your waist size, typically about 1–3 inches. With those kinds of results, you may want to take your waist training beyond the gym.

• Women who wear waist trainers daily for eight or more hours get the instant results of a slimmer waistline and flat tummy all day long.
• While wearing a waist trainer, your clothes can fit better, you may have better posture, and you may experience a boost in confidence and positive perception about your body.
• This can provide a tremendous amount of motivation to help you stick to your weight loss goals and the associated lifestyle habits that go with it.

What kinds of results you can expect from waist training largely depend on multiple factors including what type of waist trainer you use, how dedicated you are to wearing it, your weight loss goals, your lifestyle and even your body type and genetics.

Someone who wears a waist trainer all day every day, has a lot of weight she wants to lose, and makes a significant shift in her lifestyle will see very different results from someone who may have less weight to lose and just wants to enhance her workouts. Both may effectively use waist training for weight loss goals, but their journeys will look very different.

How and Why To Start a Waist Training Regimen

One of the key factors in order for waist training to be an effective part of your weight loss or waist-slimming journey is having a consistent plan. In order to see noticeable results from waist training—aside from the instant effect you’ll get from putting a waist trainer on—you need to be waist training daily.

While you might be inspired to jump right in and start wearing a waist trainer 24/7, it doesn’t quite work that way. Like a new pair of shoes, new waist trainers need to be broken in. And if you’ve never worn one before, it takes time for your body to adjust to the way it feels.

• You’ll want to start out wearing a new waist trainer for only about an hour or so the first time you put it on.
• Make sure that it fits correctly—it should slim your waistline instantly and create a flattering look for your figure.
• While it should be snug and might be a challenge to put it on for the first time, it shouldn’t be an ordeal.
• If you can’t pull the clasps shut, your garment is too small (check out these tips for trying on your waist trainer).

Once you get a feel for it, slowly increase the amount of time you wear your waist trainer each day by about 30 minutes to an hour.  A great way to get started is to wear a waist trainer whenever you work out. Not only will you sweat harder during your workouts, but you’ll also love the way you look whenever you hit the gym—a great motivator.

Once you’re wearing a waist trainer for longer periods, you might find it helpful to break it up into a couple of shorter sessions per day (i.e. two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon). From time to time you might want to take a break for a day, but don’t stop for longer than that so you don’t lose momentum!

If you follow this plan and scale up your waist training daily, you should be able to comfortably wear a waist trainer all day every day after a couple of weeks.

What kind of progress can you expect?

It varies. We recommend taking waist measurements as well as pictures weekly so that you can track your progress.

Note that if you want to wear a waist trainer daily, we suggest having two that you rotate through your wardrobe. This ensures that you will always have a fresh one to wear that is designed for the activity you’re doing.

• For example, workout bands are designed to withstand vigorous movement, and we don’t recommend that you wear one all day.
• Everyday waist trainer corsets, on the other hand, are ideal for wearing at the office or dressing up, but usually aren’t designed to withstand repeated hard workouts.
• If you’re serious about following a waist training regimen, be sure you have at least one of each.

Some people also prefer using a steel-boned corset for optimal waist training results. Instead of providing compression with latex, these garments use steel boning and a lace-up back to provide a custom fit each time you wear them. Because of the design, a steel-boned corset can last longer than a latex waist trainer if properly cared for. Use this style to step up your daily waist training regimen, particularly if you’re experienced and want to experience precision slimming. Check out this guide to learn more about steel-boned corsets.

Nutrition Tips to Maximize Weight Loss While Waist Training

As we’ve said, waist training is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to weight loss. It’s essential that you also follow a sensible diet while waist training.

In general, our advice is simple:

• Drink lots of water
• Stick to whole foods
• Avoid processed foods and sugars

Portion control is also important for weight loss, but it’s easier to implement if you’ve got a great meal plan each week with lots of delicious, nutritious food you’re excited about eating. You’re not as likely to go overboard eating too many fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean proteins and plant-based fats as you are with refined foods.

A waist trainer does have a little side benefit in that it can help you with portion control by making you feel full sooner while wearing it. We don’t recommend depending on your waist trainer entirely for this purpose (after all no one’s stopping you from eating when you take it off), but it can help you be more mindful about what you’re eating throughout the day.

Want some more tips about how to eat healthy while waist training, especially if you want to lose weight? Check out The Hungry Girls Weight Loss Rules.

Exercise Tips

Finally, to experience optimal weight loss while waist training, exercise is pretty much a no-brainer. But what type of exercise you do can make a big difference with your results.

We recommend following a workout plan that incorporates a variety of exercises including strength training, cardio of varying intensity and stretching. You should aim for at least 4–5 days a week of workouts that are challenging and fun. Don’t forget to pack your waist trainer!

In particular we like to emphasize strength straining and high-intensity interval training as the most effective ways to stimulate weight loss and improve your metabolism. And don’t worry, unless you’re intentionally training to build mass, women’s bodies will not naturally “bulk up” with a regular routine of these types of exercises. Instead, you’ll efficiently burn fat and tone up.

Need inspiration for waist trainer workouts? Check out these simple, quick and effective fat-torching cardio workouts.

We hope these tips clear up some of the confusion about waist training for weight loss. When you consistently follow a waist training plan in conjunction with smart nutrition and exercise habits, there's no limit to how high you can set your goals!