You soon discovered that over the course of the preceding months, you have unknowingly amassed extra fat just at the lower end of your abdomen. Regardless of your age and personal health hygiene, developing fat around your waist is a constant threat that you should be on the lookout for. It throws you off your balance, and you go in search of answers to the question; how to hide your muffin top in a bikini?
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You can hide muffin tops by opting for swimsuits with fold-over bands that rest comfortably on the skin. However, this is just one of the various methods for hiding muffin tops in swimsuit. Read on to discover more.
What Is Muffin Top?
The term muffin top was made popular by the famous Australian television show Kath & Kim before it was adopted worldwide. It refers to the presence of fat at the lower abdomen of anyone that spreads horizontally over the waistline. This becomes more prominent when you wear tightly fitting pants, skirts or undies. The term was coined from how a muffin spreads over and around its paper container once baked.
Development of muffin tops can be a signal to underlining potential health dangers. This makes it essential to always consult your doctors when you notice accumulation of fat around your waistline.
Is Muffin Top Normal?
While muffin tops can occur naturally, they can also be as a result of unhealthy practices. One natural way they occur is due to the aging process which is more prominent in women. It’s important to note that ladies are more susceptible to the accumulation of fat around their waist. This is as a result of the perimenopause and menopause processes they have to undergo. Make no mistake, muffin tops can also occur in men.
How To Hide Muffin Top In A Bikini
If you have a muffin top, your best bet at wearing a bikini without emphasizing your belly fat is to find a design or style that conceals your tummy bulges. Other designs that utilize optical illusions to rid the waist of fat and present a smooth curve can help maintain your shape.
That said, below are some of such bikini swimsuits to help you dial back the tone of your muffin top:
- High-waist bikini bottoms
- Pattern bikini
- Peplum bikini tops
- Solid colored slimming bikini
- Light top and dark bottom bikini
- Blouson bikini tops
1. High-Waist Bikini Bottoms
With the high-waist bikini bottom design, you can be sure of perfectly hiding your muffin top. It remains one of the best bikini designs to use in creating an optical illusion of a well curved and well-toned waistline. You will also enjoy the extra support it provides for your lower abdomen by keeping it in place without cutting into your skin.
2. Pattern Bikini
This type of bikini takes the attention away from your waistline and belly fat. Onlookers will be more immensely interested in the patterns and prints without paying much attention to your muffin top. To further enhance this design for concealing muffin tops, wear one with some detailing such as ruffles or a bow around the waist to further accentuate it. It will visually conceal your bulges with ease and make you appear more stunning.
3. Peplum Bikini Tops
Peplum bikinis are excellent at getting the task of hiding muffin tops easy. With its peplum design, you can clearly outline your waistline easily while still relying on its extra materials to further ensure you appear muffin-top free. It conceals the abdomen sufficiently while still helping you maintain a certain appeal.
4. Solid Colored Slimming Bikini
Next up on how to conceal your muffin top in a bikini is by wearing dark color bikinis. These colors can help you amplify the appearance of having a slim tummy without any bulges at the sides. Most certainly this would work best with a one-piece swimsuit, but that doesn’t mean two-piece bikinis can’t perform as well. Dark colors such as black and dark shades of burgundy, pink, blue, and red are some dark colors you can try out.
5. Light Top and Dark Bottom Bikini
Consider this as a spin-off of the solid colored slimming bikini as a means to hide your muffin top. This style uses a lightly colored top to draw attention to your upper body area; away from your bulging sides around the abdomen. It not only works wonders, but can also help you appear stylish while disguising your fat easily.
If you don’t wish to go for a two-piece color combo bikini like the ZAFUL mixture, then you can still rely on the one-piece color-blocked swimsuits to create that stunning curve in the right areas.
6. Blouson Bikini Tops
By design, Blouson bikini tops make it easy for you to hide all of your entire stomach area as well as your back. This is because it provides cover for the entire front and back area, thereby concealing more than just muffin top alone.
Causes of Muffin Top In Bikini
No one loves having fat accumulation in any part of their body most especially the waistline for ladies. This is because it disrupts the natural curves and shape of the body. This can affect your confidence as well as how you view your body. Asides this, fat packed around your torso can impact mobility, the intestine as well as lead to other health complications. To avoid this, it’s best to know the causes of muffin top to allow you to adjust health-wise. Asides aging which is natural, below are some major causes of muffin top in young ladies:
1. Chronic Stress
Stress is one of the major factors that leads to the accumulation of fat in young adults and ladies as well. When subjected to undue stress, the body builds up cortisol, which has been known to be a stress hormone.
While cortisol helps in the breakdown of glycogen for energy, its undesirable effect is that it ultimately increases the accumulation of waist fat. If your stress level is low and short-lived, chances of developing a muffin top is minimal. If the reverse is true, then you increase the buildup of fat at your waistline considerably.
The dangers of chronic stress extend beyond muffin top alone. Buildup of fat around any organ can spell doom for you. So watch out for stressful situations and take adequate time to relax. Keep in mind that excess cortisol can increase your craving for calorie-rich foods further increasing your chances of getting a muffin top.
2. Inadequate Sleep
Doctors always advise on the need of getting quality sleep and if you never knew before, lack of sleep can cause fat to build up in your body. Not sleeping adequately is another way your body can trigger the production of cortisol which in turn leads to more belly fat. In fact, studies over the years have shown a direct link between insomnia and fat development.
3. Unhealthy Diet
In the world of canned and pre-processed meals, it’s easy to see why fat accumulation is on the rise. Asides these, taking meals lacking in fibers can only mean fat accumulation becomes easy in your body. Drinks such as fruit juice and sugar-sweetened drinks are major examples of unhealthy meals that can cause you muffin top. They contribute to excess sugar which is further broken down into energy and fat.
4. Lack of Exercise
Not being active or not getting enough exercise daily can aid the process of muffin top development. Again if you engage in the wrong form of exercise, you can inadvertently put your body in stress mode leading to the buildup of cortisol. With the right exercise technique, you will boost your growth hormone as well as testosterone to counter the effect of cortisol. Also, if your daily activity requires you to sit for long periods of time, it’s best to take walking breaks in between.
How to Rid Your Waistline of Muffin Top
If you have a muffin top, worry less as it is possible to get rid of the fats accumulating around your waist. As possible as this is, it will require hard work, persistence and patience on your part as there is no quick fix solution. Except you go for liposuction, it is next to impossible to spot-reduce fat from any section of your body.
The solution to getting rid of muffin top revolves around practicing a healthy lifestyle that includes a general weight loss approach. Also, it’s possible to lose fat by simply targeting the root cause of the accumulation in the first instance. Below are ways to help rid your waistline of excess fat:
1. Eat More Fiber Meals with Less Refined Sugar
One sure way of losing your muffin top is to find and eat meals rich in fiber. This is because fiber aids the digestion process which can help reduce the accumulation of sugar for cortisol to breakdown. Meals such as oat, brown rice and others are good sources rich in fiber. Also, stay away from processed sugar such as white or brown sugar which add to the fat creation and accumulation process. Stay away from white breads, pastas, pastries and other pre-processed foods.
2. Increase Lean Protein and Eliminate Alcohol Intake
To balance out your fiber intake, you need to increase your lean protein consumption as well. And since the body doesn’t store protein, like carbs, it’s necessary for you to consume it on a regular basis. Protein helps the body building process of muscles. If you have muffin top, taking more protein will help you lose fat quickly as they will be broken down for energy while boosting the development of lean muscle tissues. You will also do well to reduce or completely eliminate your alcohol consumption.
3. Deal With Stress and Take Sufficient Sleep
As earlier stated, stress is one of the biggest factors contributing to the formation of muffin tops. If your stress level has gone from low to severe, then it’s important to take a look at your activities that have contributed to that rise. And since stress can lead to an eating binge, this can lead to you eating more carbs and refined sugar which you don’t want. In a similar vein, taking a proper amount of sleep will help you in your journey to rid your waist off muffin top. Doctors’ advice at least 8 hours of adequate sleep daily but getting naps in between the day is equally good.
Conclusion
Flaunting your beauty and sexiness in a bikini can be an enjoyable beach or pool side activity. But this can become unattractive to onlookers if you have a muffin top. Thankfully, there are ways you can hide your bulging waistline while still rocking your favorite bikini swimsuit. Simply adopt special designs or color-mixing to create an illusion or draw attention away from your lower abdomen.
