Fitness & Exercise

Tools & Resources

This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive

Font Size

How to Look Thinner Instantly

How can you look thinner, have your clothes fit better, and project more confidence? Here's the secret.

By Colette Bouchez
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Psst ... Hey! Wanna know a secret? Here's how to look up to 10 pounds thinner, have your clothes look better, and ooze confidence with every step you take. And you might just get rid of your tension headaches and lower back pain while you're at it. Sounds like a bad late-night infomercial, right? It's not. You may actually achieve these things if you pay attention to an often neglected area of body conditioning -- your posture.

"You would be amazed at what a difference making a few simples changes in how you hold your body can make in not only how you look, how your clothes fit, even how young you look," says personal trainer Sue Fleming, creator of the Buff Fitness line of DVDs and books.

Recommended Related to Fitness & Exercise

Get Fit With Your Kids

If you have children under 18, sleep is probably much higher on your to-do list -- you know, the one you never get time to write down -- than an hour at the gym. You'd like to lose weight and get fit, but it's hard enough just to fit all your work and family duties into the day. If you're like many of us, you think you simply don't have time to work out. The truth, experts say, is that you don't have time not to work out. Once you start following a regular fitness routine, you'll actually...

Read the Get Fit With Your Kids article > >

Posture expert Janice Novak agrees. "We spend a lot of money on our clothes, our hair, our makeup, but without good posture, your midsection can look at least a couple of inches wider than it is -- and because you are also pushing your gut forward you are creating a potbelly that might not otherwise be there," says Novak, director of ImproveYourPosture.com and author of the Posture: Get It Straight series of books and DVDs.

What's more, she says, your posture influences how others see you.

"They did some research about 10 years ago at the University of Louisville where 60 people were asked to rate the appearance of two women in a series of pictures -- in some they were slumping, in others they were standing up straight . Consistently, viewers rated the women who were standing up straight to be younger and more attractive," Novak says.

In fact, she says, when subjects looked only at the bodies of the women, (their heads were masked) the researchers found that the woman who weighed more -- 125 pounds, compared to the 105-pound model -- was perceived as thinner and more attractive simply because she was standing up and taller.

Personal trainer Jessica Bottesch isn't surprised. "When you slump over, you lose inches in your height, so you are taking whatever your body mass is and scrunching it down, making yourself look shorter and wider," says Bottesch, co-owner of Empower Personal Training studios in North Carolina.

But, Fleming says, "when your body is in alignment, your head is sitting squarely on your shoulders, and your shoulders are pulled back with your core muscles pulled in, you not only increase your height and stretch out your body mass, making you look thinner, but you're also projecting an image of confidence, of being more alert, and more youthful -- all of which makes you look more attractive."

Posture and Your Health

If vanity isn't enough motivation to get you to stand taller, experts say posture can also affect your health.

1 | 2 | 3

Next Page >

fitness newsletter

Are you ready to get pumped? Take your fitness to the max with tips from some of the best in the business. Sign up for the WebMD Fitness newsletter and redefine what it means to be fit.