Last updated on February 13th, 2017 at 02:29 pm
Does Waist Training / Corset Training
Produce Lasting Results?
Thousands of you have searched for waist training before and after pictures, and I’ve promised to deliver: welcome to a compilation of corset training results from some of my friends and acquaintances in the corseting community. Below you will see some pictures, videos and stories of how corsets have played an integral role in helping people to reshape their bodies. Some have experienced weight loss along with their waist training, and others have not. A few have even gained weight, but still lost inches in their waist! As you read these, please note that not all of these results are typical – some have trained faster or farther than I would have personally condoned, and extreme results are often the result of extreme practices. Remember to speak with a trusted health professional before you implement corset training, and have your health monitored throughout the process.
*The photos and stories featured here were freely shared by the corseters, and Lucy has personally ensured that they are all legal adults who made the educated choice to pursue corsetry.*
Penny Brown
Model Penny Brown’s results are rather extreme, because she achieved dramatic results in only three months. Prior to deciding to corset train, Penny had a brief period of rapid weight gain due to stress. In her before picture (the night she decided to start corset training), she had a natural waist of 38 inches. With a combination of exercise and waist training 23 hours a day, she lost all her stress weight and brought her natural waist down to 26 inches – a reduction of 12 inches in her natural waist. Penny mentions that the corset in her before / after photos are the same one, named “Wesley” which she altered as needed from a size 36″ down to size 24″ – over the course of three months. Penny stressed the importance of core strength exercises when training 23/7, and said she could perform up to 200 sit-ups in a single set. When Wesley finally broke and Penny went without any maintenance corseting, it took nearly 6 months to lose the results. (Lucy’s note: This is super hardcore, and not for everyone – I generally recommend a corseted reduction of about 1 inch per month, or what feels most comfortable for you.) Follow Penny’s blog on Tumblr here.
Before | After |
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Shanell (Souljagurlsha)
Shanell started training in 2013 as an accessory to her already healthy lifestyle of eating clean and exercising 5-6 days a week. In this video, she shows how she started with a natural waist of 31.5 inches, and after a period of 14 weeks wearing her corsets up to 20 hours a day, she now has a waist of 24.5 inches – a reduction of 7 inches in her natural waist. Shanell started with a size 26″ corset and now wears her size 22″ corsets closed. She has maintained her results for nearly a year by corseting regularly but for shorter time periods, around 10 hours a day, 4-5 days a week. Follow Souljagurlsha’s great channel on Youtube.
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Heidi of Strait-Laced Dame
The face behind corset blog Strait-Laced Dame, Heidi laced up for the first time in October of 2011, at the age of 21, and never looked back. With mediocre self-image and health, and without a genuine subject of passion, beginning waist training constituted a critical turning point in her adult life. Starting with a natural waist circumference of 27” and weight of 120 lbs, Heidi realized a two inch reduction to that uncorseted measurement within 6 months of consistent waist training. She has since maintained that natural waist measurement, even while increasing in strength and weight (to 130 lbs), and she now wears 19” corsets. In addition, Heidi has recently began drafting and producing custom corsets for herself and others. Learn more about Heidi on her website, Strait-Laced Dame.
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Miranda Rights
Miranda Rights is an active waist trainer and tightlacer. She began wearing corsets in late 2012 and waist training in early 2013, starting with a 32″ waist at the time. For the first year, she wore a corset sparingly. After a year of occasional corseting, she had seen only a small reduction in her waist and maintained between 29-31″, despite significant weight loss. Starting in early 2014, Miranda began to gradually increase her dedication to waist training. She was maintaining a natural waist of around 25″ by January 2015.
Now, in March 2016, she maintains a natural waist of 23″ and laces down to 19″.
Born with a straight figure, Miranda credits her complete body change to waist training, combined with lower-body weight lifting to build muscle, cardio and a plant-based diet. She says waist training has taught her patience and control, improved her self esteem and her posture, and helped her overcome many years of body dysmorphia and unhealthy habits. Miranda has lost over 30 lbs since the start of her waist training journey, but she has never intended to use corsets as a weight loss tool. She currently follows a steady exercise regimen of weight lifting, hot yoga, high intensity cardio and stretching to maintain total body fitness. She wears her corsets anywhere from 4-12 hours per day 5-6 days per week, and sleeps in a corset a few nights per month.
You can follow Miranda on Instagram @loudnight and on YouTube.
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Diantha Dove
Diantha grew up with a penchant for fantasy characters and the wasp-waist aesthetic, but it was not until the birth of her son in 2012 that she decided to begin training. Diantha says, “I was in a deep depression because I have never been this big before (with a waist at 42 inches)… So I did some research and I came across body modification and tightlacing. It was eye opening to see a whole community of people that had the same mind process as me. I felt so excited and happy to know that I was not alone. I bought my first corset (which was not a good one) and have been in love ever since.” The corset acted as a catalyst for change, and with a combination of daily corseting and a vegan lifestyle, Diantha lost more than 150 pounds and 13+ inches in her natural waist over the course of few years. She now regularly wears a size 20″ corset, with a natural waist of 27″. She has no plans of stopping her journey for her end goal is to get as small as her body will allow. Follow Diantha on Tumblr here.
Before | After |
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Samantha Lubrano
Samantha started waist training in 2011, starting with a 26″ natural waist and starting with a 24″ corset for gentle reduction. She had been vegetarian since the age of 16, but transitioned to vegan / gluten free at age 20 – and over the last three years, she has slowly trained down to a size 18″ corset, lost 30 lbs, and reduced her natural waist by 5 inches, to just just 21″ today. She credits the practice of training to teaching her responsibility and respect for her own body. “It has in every way changed my life,” she said. “After not loving myself for so long and trying to take my own life I have found something that has made me feel whole again and to truly love myself.”
“My second custom from Sin and Satin, shown right, is my favorite corset I have ever owned. She named it the ” Light with Might.” I wanted a corset that just looked like I was wearing a cage around me. So she helped me pick out this beautiful nude mesh fabric and we decided the boning would be black with ribbon laces in 18 inches with a KILLER hipspring. She’s my summer corset and my pride and joy. Going custom has changed everything. They have formed to me because they are basically another part of me. My body is what I have always wanted. They pull my waist in where I want it to be and my ribs are untouched. I can wear them longer and I can move more freely. When I take my customs off it looks like I have taken my torso off they are molds of me. There is no better feeling then looking down at a custom corset that was made just for you and for nobody else. You know like Cinderellas glass slipper. I love Jasmine and her work. I cannot thank her enough. I am in love with my pieces from her. I feel like a princess in my corsets from Sin and Satin and I cannot wait to work with her again on another master piece.”
Samantha wears her corset in the day (especially at work where she does regular heavy lifting) but says that she doesn’t sleep in her corset. Waist training hasn’t stopped her from eating 3 home-cooked meals everyday – plus fruit and nuts for snacks in between. For fitness, she does sit-ups, crunches and squats, and she commutes by walking everywhere. Follow Samantha on her Instagram here.
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May Mo
May started wearing corsets in 2013, and over the course of a year also started to transition to veganism. Interestingly, May says that for the first 6 months, she had gained weight from 58kg to 62.5kg (130 lbs to 138 lbs) yet her natural waist dropped from 26.5 inches naturally down to 24 inches naturally. She currently trains about 20 hours a day, wearing a size 20″ corset. You can read more about her waist training journey on her blog here.
Before | After |
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Juno
Juno started waist training in January of 2014 at the age of 45, and had a natural waist of 33 inches. She went exclusively through Romantasy for her corsets and training advice, wearing training corsets made by Jill Hoverman and utilizing Ann Grogan’s Roller Coaster method of waist training (which typically means a maximum corseted duration of 8-12 hours per day/ 6 days a week, but sometimes as little as 2 hours a day). By November 2014, Juno was able to cinch down to 25″ internally in a corset, and her natural waist reduced to 29 inches (a reduction of 4″ in her natural waist). A year into her training now, Juno mentions that her goal is to reach and then maintain a corseted waist of 23 inches (this would make her waist measurement nearly half that of her hips!). Read a bit more about Juno’s (and others’) progress on Romantasy’s waist training site here.
Before | After |
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Milla Iloniemi
Milla is a tightlacer from Finland with an incredible 10 years of training under her belt. She started training when she was only 14-15 years old, and she mentioned that she had a waist of 90cm (35.4″) when she started [no “before” pictures provided]. By wearing her corset daily (and sometimes to bed), over the past decade she saw a 12-inch reduction in her natural waist, to about 60cm (23.5″) at her smallest so far. She now wears her corsets at 46-47cm (about 18 or 18.5″ under the corset), making her current corseted waist almost half of her original natural waist!
Milla is also a talented corsetiere; every corset she used to train down was handmade on her own. She mentions that she may stop training at 45 cm (17.7″) and is currently still reducing her waist at a slow and steady rate of 1cm (about half an inch) per year — she takes precautions due to her asthma, but says that her condition hasn’t stopped her from waist training. Milla has kept her meals regular, and particularly enjoys snacking on candy and salmiakki (salty liquorice).
(Asthmatics, please consult your doctor before beginning a waist training journey*)
Monique
Before Monique started corset training, she was already slender with a natural waist of 25-26 inches depending on the day. Over the course of only four months, she managed to cinch down 5 inches in her corset. “I’ve taken it slow no bruising or pain what’s so ever,” Monique says. “Everyone’s bodies are different, I truthfully thought it would take much longer to close my 20inch and see any results.” Her natural waist reduced an average of 3 inches in this time, to 22.5 inches when not wearing her corset. Monique documents her waist training on her instagram here.
Before and After, with corset | Before and After, without corset |
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KathTea Katastrophy:
Model and Corsetiere KathTea started waist training in September 2011, with a natural waist of 29″. These pictures show her progress over the course of a little over a year, reducing her natural waist by 3 inches. KathTea also worked for awhile as a personal trainer, and was able to demonstrate exercises like planks, squats and crunches to her clients, still wearing her tightlacing corsets under her uniform. Since exercise in a conventional corset can lead to corset damage, KathTea is looking to develop a true training corset that is also workout-friendly. KathTea mentions that her meals remained the same during this time. Read more on her blog, Tightly Laced Love.
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Michele Kobke
Michele trained intensely for a period of about 4 years when she decided to challenge Cathie Jung’s Guinness World Record for the smallest waist on a living person. During these 4 years, her waist shrank from about 25″ down to 55cm (or 21.6″), and she regularly closed size 16″ corsets – and Michele mentioned that she did not lose even 1 kg of weight during this time. However in early 2014, Michele decided to cease training, andin this video you can see that after a year of no maintenance, her natural waist has just about resumed its original size of 63cm (about 24.8″).
Before | After |
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Fakir Musafar
Fakir Musafar is referred to by many as the father of the Modern Primitive movement, the practice of ritualistic body modification for personal growth or spiritual experience. Inspired by the Ibitoe in New Guinea, he became interested in belting, and later corseting. By 1959, Fakir was able to close a 19 inch corset. His natural waist started at 32 inches, and by the end of his training, his natural waist measured 25 inches. (Lucy’s note: in the bottom right photo, there may also be some practice of advanced stomach vacuum.) You can read more about Fakir on his website here.
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Ethel Granger
This is the most extreme case of before and after, possibly in history, and should not be taken as the norm, nor should it even be considered possible for most people, especially today.
Before her marriage to William Arnold Granger, Ethel was said to be a “plain, unsophisticated twenty-three year old girl who wore… shapeless 1920s dresses” and sported a natural waist of about 24 inches. William despised the 1920s fashion and insisted that Ethel wear corsets to accentuate her hourglass figure – first starting with a size 24″ corset that matched her natural waist, so she could become accustomed to the feel of the rigidity of the corset, and then gradually sizing down. By 1959 (after more than 30 years) Ethel was wearing corsets nearly 24/7 and had reduced her waist over 10 inches, for an internal corseted waist of only 13″ — putting her in the Guinness book of records for the smallest waist on any woman.
Unfortunately it is not known what her natural waist looked like before she started wearing corsets, as I hadn’t found any pictures before her marriage to William – but you can see what her natural waist looks like in the rare photo below – clearly modified by the corset. It’s important to observe that even after decades of training, Ethel is still able to stand up unassisted by a corset, if only for brief periods.
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Do you have corset training results that you would like to share? Send me an email with before / after photos and your story, and you could see your results published here!
Hey, Lucy, I may have missed it, but while this shows that the waistline can be permanently reduced, if you stop wearing a corset after you achieve the desired results (or at least don’t wear it for as long), will the wasitline really not shift back after a while? Sorry, I think this hard to understand for me. If you’ve already answered this question, can you link me? Thank you. :’D
Hi Ajay, yes if you stop wearing your corset, your body will gradually go back to the way it was – just the same way that if you stop stretching you’ll lose your flexibility, and if you stop weight lifting you’ll gradually lose your strength. The body is remarkably pliable and adaptable, but it requires some maintenance! I talk about the (semi)permanency of waist training in this video.
Just started looking as I start a new job on Friday where I will be on my feet 12 hours straight. I need back support good back support plus I’d love to waist train. I think its brilliant…any idea on one best for my needs?
Hi Amanda! If you need a lot of mobility (like if you will be bending down, lifting objects, etc) then a corset cut a little higher on the hips might be helpful for you, but since I know you had a baby this year I would advise not wearing a very short cincher as it probably won’t cover your torso fully. You’re welcome to send in your measurements and I’ll be happy to let you know what might fit you. :)
I am looking for something to wear under a sheath dress to my son’s wedding. I’ve looked at shape wear and have tried some in the past and found them pretty annoying because they would roll and really not give me the look I wanted. My measurements are bust 41.5, waist 35.5, and hips 38. I also have to be able to wear a strapless bra. Is there a corset that will help pull that waist in so it looks like I have one? I will be having the dress altered and want to find something before I go in for my fitting. I’m allergic to latex…so those won’t work for me. Thanks!
Hi Pam, I have an instructional video on pairing a strapless, longline bra with an underbust corset to get bust support while also allowing for a low back, strapless dress and also a cinched waist – this is popular shapewear for brides. The corsets I sell never contain latex (it irritates me too) and the spiral steel bones prevent them from rolling up, wrinkling or collapsing. I’ll need some additional measurements from you if you’d like some help, I have a measuring tutorial on this page as well as a contact form. Cheers!
Are there any before and after pictures of people’s bellies? I’ve already got an hourglass silhouette but my tummy sticks out a lot (I’ve been told I looked a few months pregnant because of how out-of-proportion my tummy is to the rest of my body!) and I’m considering using corsets to flatten it, but there’s significantly less info about this use of corsets.
Hi Daisy, I have seen evidence of corsets pulling a protruding belly in and up over time, but unfortunately they didn’t allow me to share it publicly on my website (presumably they didn’t want the photos being stolen for personal use by other visitors). I’m not legally allowed to share photos if I haven’t been given a release by the owner. Hope you understand.
Of course, I completely understand.
Do you have any advice about using corsets to flatten your stomach, like which type of corset works best etc.? I’ve been looking online for resourves about it but if there is any information on it, it’s flooded out by info on waist-cinching!
Corsets in general focus on waist reduction, not tummy reduction, although that sometimes happens as a by-product. Girdles focus on tummy reduction, not waist reduction. Here’s a link to a Google search-results page on that topic. (Many of these are very strong girdles for temporary, postpartum wear, to get back to the original flatness.) https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=girdles+to+flatten+the+stomach+/+tummy&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
WOW! I cannot believe what I am watching!!! I was born with no waist at all plus have a lot of bust and ever believed I can re-shape my body, I am not skinny, I have big bust and I cannot tolerate been squeeze when I tried some shaping products (Frederick’s, Spanx, miraclesuit, etc)… Always looked for the right product to try but ever found something that gave me at least hope. Is there an specific age rate to attempt using a corset training? Where and how start? I don’t want to reduce a lot of inches just want to have waist!!!!
Hi Alice, your enthusiasm is great! I have a Youtube playlist all about waist training for beginners. If you would like me to look over your measurements and see what corset style might fit you, I have a measuring tutorial here.
I recommend that you be over 18 years old to start, because waist training can be seen as body modification.
I will take a time to watch your tutorials. My measurements are waist line 35″, bra size 36 C
Lucy could you please review a corset from violet vixen?
Hi Lucy I’m Nikki and I was wondering if I can order a corset a size 30 if my natural waist is 37?
Hi Nikki, some people are compressible enough to take that much restriction but not everyone – and it also depends on your other body measurements, because some corsets might fit you better and be more compatible than others. I have a measuring guide here, you’re welcome to send me your measurements and I can tell you what style and size of corset would work for you.
Hi Lucy,
Do you know what style or brand Samantha Lubrano black corset is? I really like that shape!
Hi Emma, it looks like the Orchard Corset CS-426 longline. The white one I believe is the Josephine corset from Isabella Corsetry. Both corsets are very similar in shape.
i want to buy corset from lucy
Hi Nene, my online corset shop can be found here. :)
I’m curious.. what caused the rib cage expansion in Fakir? was this a result of the corseting he did? I am curious as this is something I would like to NOT have happen.. I am actually wanting to try corseting to diminish my slightly barreled chest..
Thanks! :)
Hi Damara, I believe Fakir started with belting which left the ribcage free – and the corsets he did use were very rounded in the ribcage. However, if you’re looking to train your ribcage, you can use a conical rib corset like you see in this gallery, which helps to pull the floating ribs inward and create a more tapered silhouette.