Can wearing tummy tuckers or body shapers help tone your abs?

IS there any relation between body shapers and toned abs?

Most women own some kind of body shapers or tummy tuckers or shapewear to conceal the dangling flab. It gives you a great shape when you want to wear certain kind of outfits and helps you instantly and temporarily lose an inch or two. But does long time usage help in losing the flab or toning your abs? Vikram Dutta, Wellness Coach & Entrepreneur, Founder of Unmonk of Wellness reveals the truth behind body shapers and some tips on getting toned abs:

Let s first understand what toning the abs actually is. When people talk about toning any part of their body, it essentially means that they want to lose the layer of fat around that body part. Fat under the skin, also called adipose tissue, is flabby and soft. That s what dangles and jiggles. Losing the fat from under the skin (subcutaneous fat) gives the body a tight and toned look.

Tummy tuckers and body shapers are things that physically change the shape of the body by compression until they are put on. They have absolutely no effect on the physiology of the body. Losing the fat thereby toning the abs is a physiological/biological thing. It has to be addressed in a different way. The body is made of the food that we eat. What kind of a body we have - fat or fit - depends entirely on what food we give to the body, and how we keep the body - sedentary or active. Tummy tuckers and body shapers are only cosmetic temporary fixes, they don t have any effect on actual toning of the body whatsoever. You can try this 10 yoga pose routine for a flat tummy.

Is wearing body shapers all day or for longer durations or during exercising helpful?

Firstly, body shapers don t contract the abs muscles, they compress the area. Muscle contraction is a different thing. We move our bodies by contracting and relaxing muscles. It is a process that happens internally in the body. Secondly, contracting the abdominal muscle will not tone the abdominal region, losing the layer of fat from that area will make it toned. Body shapers only compress from the outside making it difficult to breathe and giving a false sense of body transformation. Read: 8 reasons you must avoid wearing shapewear everyday.

Since body shapers do not have any effect on the biology of the body they cannot aid the fat-loss process. Without fat-loss, the question of a toned body doesn t even arise. So it is a wrong assumption to have that body shapers will tone the body.

The best and only way to approach toned abs is to aim for an overall healthy body which requires exercise for the entire body (not just abs) and clean eating. Wearing body shapers will have no effect on any exercise program. And as far as ab exercises are concerned, they are performed to strengthen the abdominal muscles. Losing fat is a result of improved BMR (basal metabolic rate) through a well-rounded workout routine, and eating right, not less. Ab exercises alone cannot improve BMR nor will it improve strength and shape of the entire body.

A combination of strength, endurance, flexibility training along with yoga practice will result in a body that is much improved and better functioning. And toned abs is just one of the by-products.

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