I’ve not kept it a secret that I like to wear my slimming undershirt/shapewear tops to the gym.
In fact, I’ve been wearing them and stacking them (wearing more than one) since I picked up my first one way back in late 2008.
Honestly, I love how they keep me feeling tight and svelte while I’m working out.
Mind you, I’m not talking about compression shirts – like Under Armour.
I am referring to the products designed to shape your silhouette and hide your handles.
People get a little confused because “compression undershirt” means something very different than “compression shirt”.
So, for the sake of clarity in this article, I’m only referring to not wearing Men’s Shapewear products like Equmen, Spanx for Men, GC2, Underworks, etc. to the gym.
What Brought All This On?
Like I said, I’ve been stacking my slimming undershirts under my gym clothes for the last few years, but I started thinking today that I really don’t feel like I’ve tightened up much or even lost much excess flab around my midsection.
In fact, to some extent, I feel like maybe I’ve added a little extra meat around my midsection.
My diet has not changed, I don’t eat a lot of fatty foods, I workout pretty much the same, and I stay fairly active.
The only thing I’ve been doing different for the last few years is wearing slimming undershirts under my gym gear.
(Yes, the other change is that I’m getting older too, and my body may need a different diet or regime, but let’s wait on that for now)
I haven’t loved the way my clothes have been fitting on me the last few years, and although they still fit, I feel like I’m ALWAYS holding in my stomach.
If I sport a slimming undershirt during they day, it gently reminds me to suck in my gut.
But, I am ALWAYS looking forward to coming home and getting into my cargo shorts and t-shirt.
They just feel so much more comfortable!!
All this got me thinking – you don’t see trainers on The Biggest Loser or Extreme Makeover recommending slimming undershirts as part of fitness gear.
The overall Compression Gear market is pretty big, but I’ve never heard anyone say that wearing one was a necessity to loosing weight and trimming up.
So, I started thinking about it more – If a slimming undershirt holds everything in tight, does the LACK of vibration minimize the amount of energy present in areas that you’re trying to trim down.
In other words, does the natural vibration that occurs when you’re working out with extra layers of fat actually help burn off that very same fat?
I’m no chemist, and I’m obviously not in the fitness business, but all the above starting rolling around in my head recently and it’s inspired me to do an experiment on myself.
Insanity
They say the definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Right? So, I figure it’s time to try something else.
So, for the next several months, I’m not going to change anything about what I do, how I eat, or my workout routine.
But, I’m going to replace my high-compression slimming undershirts with standard athletic compression shirts like the ones from UA and see if I notice any difference in my midsection.
I started this today.
Ideally, I’d love to be able to see my lower abs again at the conclusion of this experiment (wouldn’t that be nice). But only time will tell.
Disclaimer: No one ever told me that wearing a slimming undershirt during a workout would help me burn more fat, but there has been some speculation to that point that I’ve read about from time to time.
If you have any thoughts, comments, advice, or anything helpful (or unhelpful), tell me about it in the comments section below.
Fix your diet.
It doesn’t matter what you are wearing, or even that much what you are doing for exercise, calories in from bad diet always well exceed energy output from exercise, unless you are training for a marathon, and particularly as the metabolism slows are you get older and older.
You shouldn’t be looking for a correlation between your shirts and your body shape!
like i said brett, it was simply an exercise/test to see if i did everything else the same, would not wearing a slimming/compression undershirt make any difference.
that said, my tests have been semi-inconclusive, although the front of my stomach seems to be a bit more lean. that of course, could have nothing to do with the experiment.
in general, i eat fairly healthy and eat very little junk food. but, i do know that my body reacts the best when i’m eating every couple of hours — decent food like proteins and veggies. just have to get back into the swing of things.
i know for sure that if i really got committed to a more strict diet/exercise program, i could likely lean up a lot faster.