12 Easy Ways To Hide Your Tummy
“When did this happen?”
Do your pants suddenly feel tight? Is your tummy turning to jello? Blame it on the holidays or just that annoying middle-age spread that is starting to creep in. Sure a better diet and the gym can help, but most times it’s hard to get totally rid of a muffin top.
Not to worry. Here are ten great tips on how to dress to hide your stomach.
1. Avoid Tight Clothing and Baggy Clothing
Most women realize that a clingy top only accentuates a big tummy, but will a large, loose top hide a big belly? The answer is surprising, no. A big, shapeless top will appear loose and baggy and exaggerate your overall size. The key to getting it right is to find a top that fits in the chest and arms and gently skims over your tummy without being tight. Clothes with a bit of built-in stretch will help you get a better shape.
2. Draping and Ruching are Your Friends
Soft clothes that drape are a gentle way to disguise extra weight in the tummy area. Ruching (when the fabric is gathered and sewn down) also works well. Just make sure the ruching is subtle. Too much-gathered fabric on your tummy makes it look like you are wearing a curtain and add bulk.
3. Don’t Tuck in
Tucking your top into your pants will accentuate your pot belly and is not flattering. Leave your top tucked out or if it is making your torso look too long, try a half tuck.
4. Don’t Wear a Belt
Wearing a belt is like drawing a circle around your widest point. Stay clear.
5. Draw the Eye Upwards
If you don’t want people looking down at your tummy, redirect their gaze to your neckline and face by wearing the right top. V-necks tops or tops that have embellishment or some kind of interesting detail at the neckline are a great way to distract. A beautiful necklace also works really well to put the focus up top.
6. Try a Tunic and Leggings
A dark pair of leggings worn with a long, flowing tunic that covers your bottom will put the spotlight on your legs and give you a slimming silhouette. Asymmetrical tunics work particularly well to trick the eye and divert it the tummy.
7. Opt for layers with Long, Thin Fabrics
Thin layers are another good way to distract. For example, a long tee under a longer cardigan works well. It will create the illusion that you are taller than you are.
8. A Fitted Jacket is a Simple, Easy solution
A single-breasted jacket that nips in at the waist will carve out a better figure. Be sure to wear it open.
9. Wear a Good Bra
When your breasts are hanging low and your tummy is sitting high, you get something in the middle that resembles a big blob. Hike up the girls with a good bra to leave some space between your breasts and your tummy, and see what a huge difference this makes.
10. Monochromatic colors minimize a tummy
Stick to one tone from head to toe and then add a jacket or lightweight cover-up with a pop of color. Slimming!
Stick to one dark color from head to toe and then add a long vest, or jacket in a pop of color – Slimming!
11. Avoid Pleats
Pants or skirts with Pleats, buttons, belt loops, or any waist detail only add to the bulk at the tummy. Your best bet is a flat-front skirt or pants with a wide waistband and no zipper.
Great advice.
I like to use the column dressing technique to hide my tummy. I also have a large bust, so there is another thing to deal with! Luckily, I’ve figured out what items look good, and I feel it has more to do with the fabric. It’s so vital that it skims without clinging and without billowing out.
Julia
http://www.whenthegirlsrule.com
I have to say; I don’t think the featured dress is very flattering to the model. With the solid overall pattern (nothing to draw the eye), elbow-length sleeves, and wrap belt, both of which focus the gaze on the waist level, this dress makes her look like a big rectangle. (Outline her, and you’ll see what I mean.) With her lovely legs, she would have been much better in something like leggings with a tunic-length top (or two long tops layered, as you suggest). But I appreciate other people may like this look.
Thanks so much for your tips! I’m just having a hard time accepting my bulging stomach!!
Hi, you might try going on a low phosphorus diet. This can help you lose belly fat. It’s a bit spartan, but it has worked for my mom. You could try it for a week or two and see if you lose any weight or inches.
To start with, you should get a product called CALM from the health food store. It is magnesium citrate in a powdered form (which makes it magnesium carbonate), and take about 1/2 tsp of this before you eat (this product helps to bind excess phosphorus. Excess phosphorus in the diet dramatically contributes to belly fat). Magnesium is essential in weight loss because it helps the body better absorb nutrients from food, and that helps the metabolism.
And for this diet, you eat Lean meat and steak (which is high in phosphorus but “pays for itself” aka helps with metabolism since it is so high in amino acids and B6. You eat 2-4 oz per day.
Eat the meat (buffalo is best / highest in amino acids and leanest) or use lean beef and eat it with steamed or baked potatoes. (This is important. It would help if you did not eat any grains. The only starch you should have is potatoes, and a bit of fruit in the am)
On the potatoes, you should only use salt (avoid any sauces or creams). The fat/oil you should put on them is organic coconut oil (Coconut oil is very high in lauric acid and stimulates metabolism) (Avoid all butter and margarine and vegetable oils as they deplete B6, which will slow the metabolism). For the baked potatoes, slather them with organic olive oil and salt before baking them for 1 hr at 400 degrees; if you need more fat for taste, put more olive oil or coconut oil on them.
Then have a romaine lettuce salad with (organic romaine lettuce, tomatoes, avocado) with just organic olive oil and Baleine sea salt on it (NO vinegar, just the oil)
Regarding beverages, drink only water, but you can have Odwalla Orange Juice sparingly.
Regarding fruits to eat: bananas (eat for snacks), blueberries, mangoes, oranges, grapefruits, and raspberries.
Regarding veggies: zucchini and squash (Avoid broccoli, kale, cauliflower, or another high oxalic acid veggie. Oxalic acid is toxic and uses up B6 to be converted into a nontoxic form. Fat gain is associated with B6 depletion since B6 helps the body convert food into energy. If you are short of B6, food will not be converted to fuel and stored as fat; since you are not converting food to energy, you will not have power and feel more hungry and want to eat. More as well.)
It is best to get your B6 from foods high in B6, like lean beef/ buffalo, potatoes, bananas, and not supplementation (many people who gain weight have B complex absorption metabolization issues, and supplements can also cause problems) (basically, people who get deficient in B6 do so because of an absorption issue, so if you increase, you might not be able to absorb the vitamins anyway, so the best thing to do is eat in such a way that you do not use up your B6)
And this way is by eating a primarily low phosphorus diet (phosphorus metabolism uses up B6) and avoiding foods high in oxalic acid (that uses up B6). Avoid waiting too long to eat (that uses up B6) and avoid long chain saturated fatty acids like butter and extra fatty meats (metabolizing these giant fat molecules uses up B6). Eating coconut oil, which is also saturated fat, will not do this because it is a much smaller saturated fat molecule and does not use up B6 that is being metabolized.
Another good thing to help keep up B6 stores is to take “Mega Mag,” which Trace Minerals Research makes. It is a very well absorbed ionic liquid magnesium chloride. It is a liquid in a blue bottle and will help the body increase its absorption of B vitamins (which include B6) from foods.
This product comes with a dropper, and it is good to start with about 1/2ml per day, which is marked on the dropper. 1/2 ml or 1/2 dropper full is equal to 50 milligrams. (the use for Magnesium is 400mg per day, but it works best if you work your way up to that amount because if you start with too much too soon, it can cause loose stools. However, if you have constipation issues (which indicate too much calcium in your diet), this can help.
As a liquid mineral, this Mega Mag tastes terrible, so I take it in a shot glass with some Odwalla Orange Juice and “shoot it back.” At any rate, I got my mom to do this diet, and she lost about 12 pounds. She would have kept losing, but she is not so good at staying on any diet. It should be noted that, besides the meat, you don’t have to restrict the portions of the potatoes, veggies, salad, fruit, olive oil, or coconut oil.
This diet increases your metabolism, so you burn off your fat. This diet increases metabolism by building up your B vitamin, B6, and magnesium stores. Magnesium and the B vitamins, esp. B6 Folate and B12 help speed up the metabolism. Coconut oil helps speed up the metabolism through its high levels of lauric acid, and eating at least 2 Tbsp of coconut oil per day is suggested.
It is important to note that the middle age spread occurs close to menopause because when women are menstruating, they get rid of excess phosphorus through their menstrual blood. When this process stops or is starting to slow down, less phosphorus is excreted through menstrual blood, and then this taxes the body’s B6 stores since it takes B6 to break down phosphorus so it can be passed through the kidneys. Also, around this time, estrogen levels drop, and estrogen also helps deplete and break down phosphorus. So to counteract this, you can take that CALM magnesium carbonate because it binds to phosphorus in the gut and prevents the body from absorbing it.
If you keep your phosphorus levels down, you will find that your stomach will get smaller, and you will have fewer menopause symptoms. You will have less moodiness and less hot flashes etc.
I am 52, have a slim waist (26″), and do not get hot flashes. I used to get them til I figured out about this low phosphorus eating ( I started to notice that I would get terrible hot flashes if I had a soda/sodas that are verthat y high in phosphorus). Then I began to pay attention to my eating and see what triggered them, The connection between all the foods that started my symptoms (hot flashes, horrible fibromyalgia pain) were foods high in phosphorus.
At any rate, this may or may not work for you. I always say the proof is in the pudding. Eat lean meat (ground beef, ground buffalo, steak) and organic potatoes with organic coconut oil on them with a romaine lettuce salad with avocado and tomatoes and just organic olive oil for two meals a day.
And for breakfast, eat fruits and then wait a few minutes and have a little meat and potato, and for snacks, have bananas and walnuts and almonds, all while using the CALM and the Mega Mag will not kill you, and it’s not a diet I don’t think any doctor would have a problem with. Because this diet is so nutritious, you can eat as much as you want and not have to measure it because when you eat very nitrifying food, you do not tend to overeat.
At any rate, try it and let me know how it works for you. When my mom was doing it, she went from 156 to 137. She lost two pant sizes (basically, she was losing about 3lbs per week), but my mom got tired of not being able to eat grains and wanted to lose weight without dieting. Hence, she is now back up to 140, and with higher phosphorus foods, the weight goes on more quickly than it comes off, so hopefully,y my mom will return to this way of eating and get down to her goal of 135.
After you get down to your goal, you can fudge a little and keep at a safe weight, and that means eating things off the diet every third day and the other two days, feast on a diet, but until you get to the weight/size you want to be, it is best to stay on a diet. Yes, it is limited, but I like it because you don’t have to measure your food and can eat as many low phosphorus foods as you want.
The phosphorus causes belly fat by depleting B6, so metabolism goes down, hunger increases, and appetite increases. Also, excess phosphorus pulls calcium into non-bone cells, which is dangerous for the heart. In protection, the body makes a fat storage area on the stomach where the extra phosphorus and calcium can be stored. Hence, it stays out of the heart. Still, eventually,y it starts showing up in the heart as well, which is why a large apple belly is an indicator of impending heart disease because it is an indicator of B6 deficiency,y which causes phosphorus to build wh, ich causes calcium buildup. Sort of like having a storage shed that keeps having more and more stuff stored in it, and that would be an indication of impending doom for anything close to the warehouse shed for when the time comes that the storage shed gets so filled up that it overflows. The staff then starts building up in the engine room (the heart), eventually preventing the engine from working.
At any rate, try this low phosphorus diet, and let me know how it works out for you.
PS: high phosphorus foods to avoid are: All coffee, black tea, green tea, all sodas(esp colas and Dr. Pepper), (avoid diet sodas. They are very toxic), and prevent seltzer and sparkling water (high in phosphorus),