Is Restrictive Shapewear Actually Destroying Our Bodies?

Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Sarah Hyland have admitted to wearing more than one pair of Spanx shapewear at a time to achieve their ideal shape. Similarly, stars and influencers like Kylie Jenner, Jessica Alba, Nicki Minaj and Coco Austin have promoted waist trainers to get an hourglass figure. Beauty may be pain, but at what cost?

HuffPost spoke to six experts, including doctors and physical therapists, about the good and bad of shapewear and corsetry.

The most common reason people wear shapewear and corsets is to change their body’s shape and smooth out their appearance. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look your best, but overdoing it can have serious consequences.

“Shapewear isn’t inherently good or bad — it all depends on how you wear it,” said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a chief medical adviser for Garage Gym Reviews.

Bhasha Mukherjee, a general practitioner and medical correspondent in the U.K., said, “I’ll refer to the old saying: The dose decides the poison. It depends on how many hours you’re wearing it, what kind of waist trainer/corset/shapewear you’re wearing, and how tight it is.”

“At the very least, wearing shapewear daily can result in discomfort, but it could also exacerbate anxiety, poor ventilation in the lungs or even musculoskeletal conditions,” said Dr. Michael Masi, a sports doctor and certified personal trainer. “Any body region where movement is repeatedly restricted over prolonged periods is subject to tissue deprivation, where muscles and tendons become weaker and less resistant to stress.”

“Although the use of shapewear might have specific benefits in certain situations, I never recommend them for day-to-day use,” said Darcie Pervier, a women’s health specialist, physical therapist and owner of Newburyport Wellness.

Let’s see all the different bodily functions they can affect.

“If [shapewear] is too tight and restricting your diaphragm, it can create difficulty breathing, restrict deep breathing and cause shortness of breath, dizziness or lightheadedness,” said Dr. Laura Purdy, a board-certified family medicine physician.

“You don’t often allow enough space for your lungs to expand when taking a deep breath, so you might end up not taking in enough oxygen,” Mukherjee said. You also might struggle to expel all the air from your lungs, leading to a fainting episode (either from too little oxygen or too much carbon dioxide), she explained.

“When shapewear puts pressure on your stomach area, it can cause digestive issues like acid reflux and heartburn because of the acid traveling up the esophagus,” said Purdy. It can also detract from the normal rhythm of organ movement, which can “disrupt how well the diaphragm, liver and gut move and shift.”

Compression garments can also cause a hiatal hernial, ”where part of your stomach is forced up and can protrude through a hole (hiatus) in the chest,” said Amy Cooke, a women’s exercise specialist.

Masi has noticed gut issues come up for a lot of his clients when they wear tight-fitting garments for a prolonged time. “The organs are designed to move and expand to accommodate, propel and mechanically digest food. If restricted, people may experience abdominal pain and digestive issues and may cause or exacerbate conditions such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) as well,” he said.

With shapewear, Mukherjee said, “essentially, you’re putting more and more pressure on the pelvic floor, which then pushes on the pelvic organs. You can sometimes have difficulty controlling your bladder.”

“Pressure from shapewear can cause the bladder, bowel, uterus and rectum to move lower down, increasing the risk of them prolapsing (bulging) into the vagina,” Cooke said.

“I have seen more than one client managing early-stage uterine prolapse use shapewear without realizing it could negatively impact their symptoms. Sadly, this can cause a mild prolapse to become significantly worse,” warned Cooke.

Depending on how tight the garment is and how long you wear it, you may experience irritation. “It can cause pressure sores on your skin from the pressure of the garment, which can result in skin irritation,” Mukherjee said.

“Some people notice that their muscles feel weaker or sore if they wear shapewear all the time, as it keeps your body from moving naturally,” Dasgupta said.

Shapewear can even cause you to go numb: “If shapewear is too tight and is digging into your skin, it can cause numbness from the pressure on the nerve,” Purdy said.

“As a physical therapist, I sometimes see people with symptoms related to peripheral nerve compression, such as tingling or numbness in the thighs — a condition known as meralgia paresthetica. This results from the compression of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve [a nerve of the thigh],” Masi said.

It depends. “Worn occasionally, shapewear can smooth out lines under clothes and offer some light support to your back, which might help you stand up straighter,” Dasgupta said.

Mukherjee noted that shapewear and corsetry may be helpful after any abdominal surgery, including pregnancy. “Your abdominal muscles can become weaker, you can get tears in the fibers in between, and that’s why some women after pregnancy have a physiological hernia. Essentially, the wall of the abdomen isn’t very strong, and your inner organs can poke through. Using a waist trainer can prevent hernias and give extra support to those muscles,” she said.

“Some say it helps with posture by activating and supporting your back,” Purdy said, but noted that shapewear may also weaken the back and abs with extended use.

Mukherjee agreed — ribbed corsets force you to sit upright, which can help you avoid slouching. However, a permanent posture change it’s likely related to habit formation rather than the corset itself, she added.

“Shapewear can also give extra support than might be lacking in the abdominal core muscles,” Mukherjee said, and recommended breathable fabrics, like compression garments, that aren’t too tight and can also help with inflammation of scars or burns.

How about those waist trainers that you can wear in the gym to sweat more and shape your waist? Thanks to their shape, waist trainers (which should not be confused with weight-lifting trainer belts used to support your back when weight lifting) are essentially corsets.

The experts agreed that wearing waist trainers or other restrictive clothing while exercising should be avoided for various reasons, including sabotaging your workout.

“Physical activity requires a full range of motion, adequate breathing capacity, and proper core engagement. Restricting the diaphragm can lead to shallow breathing and reduced oxygen intake. The added external support of a corset may reduce the intrinsic support from your core, leading to less engagement and less effective exercise,” Masi said.

Plus, wearing something restrictive while working out will make sweat linger on the skin and may also cause skin barrier irritation or fungal growth, Mukherjee noted.

No type of waist trainer helps with weight loss or fat burn. “The garment doesn’t reduce body fat, increase muscle tone or permanently reshape tissues,” Masi said. “Compression garments are not a substitute for exercise, as they don’t effectively engage the core or other muscles in a way that would lead to long-term body shaping.”

“It is important to recognize that wearing shapewear for a night out is just fine as long as you have no other medical issues,” Pervier said.

If you have to wear shapewear or corsets occasionally, you must pick the right size and ensure they aren’t too tight. It shouldn’t be too restrictive, as that’s when issues arise. “The key is wearing shapewear in moderation and in a size that fits you,” Purdy added. Wearing them overnight is an absolute no-go!

All of the experts we spoke to agreed that wearing them all day, every day, isn’t recommended.