A fit body helps you feel strong and trim, but sometimes the reverse is true, too: a confident posture can accomplish a great deal to help you feel -- and look -- much slimmer. Here are three steps to help you take control of this small but key detail in your body-shaping efforts.
Step 1: Understand How Poor Posture "Adds" to Your Pounds
Poor posture may contribute to weight gain directly by influencing how your stomach absorbs nutrients and by creating muscle strains that inhibit healthy exercise. More subtly, it can also prevent you from looking as thin as you really are by:
• Adding Creases -- Slouching and slumping tend to multiply tissue folds in areas like the neck and upper abdomen. As a result, even muscular tissue may look bulgy or flabby; for example, the platysma (neck) muscles may add to an "extra chin."
• Emphasizing Fatty Deposits -- Depending on your body shape and fat distribution, poor posture can often make common problem areas such as the "love handles" and upper-arm fat much more obvious simply because it presses the soft tissues into a less natural, more noticeable contour.
• Multiplying Age Signs -- Poor posture will often force the lower abdomen outward, creating a "potbelly"; for women this effect may be doubly noticeable because slouching can give even perky, youthful breasts a droopy and "aged" appearance.
Step 2: Get a Professional Perspective
Make your yearly physical a time to check in with your doctor about your posture; but in the meantime, use a large mirror to examine your posture from the front and each side. Make sure that your shoulders line up evenly above your hips and that your spine has three noticeable curves -- slightly inward at the neck, gently outward along the ribs, and deeply inward just above the buttocks. Your chest should be held high, with your abdomen and buttocks pulled in and your shoulders and back loose and relaxed.
Step 3: Target Key Support Areas
Whether you have a "student's stoop" or a couch-potato slump, changing your everyday habits is essential to improving your posture and looking more fit. Take the time to re-examine your seated posture in your couch and car, and determine if your pillow and mattress help or hurt your posture. "Check in" with yourself daily and make a conscious effort to maintain healthy posture even on a run or hike -- the slight, healthy strain will help force your body to tighten your abs and improve your thoracic support naturally. While no posture change is a substitute for dietary consciousness and faithful weekly exercise, even a few weeks of maintaining a healthy posture should help noticeably.
Standing taller, straighter, and more self-confidently will help you not only erase those illusory extra pounds, but also feel stronger and more self-confident -- an attitude that definitely can help you on the road to a better body.
Step 1: Understand How Poor Posture "Adds" to Your Pounds
Poor posture may contribute to weight gain directly by influencing how your stomach absorbs nutrients and by creating muscle strains that inhibit healthy exercise. More subtly, it can also prevent you from looking as thin as you really are by:
• Adding Creases -- Slouching and slumping tend to multiply tissue folds in areas like the neck and upper abdomen. As a result, even muscular tissue may look bulgy or flabby; for example, the platysma (neck) muscles may add to an "extra chin."
• Emphasizing Fatty Deposits -- Depending on your body shape and fat distribution, poor posture can often make common problem areas such as the "love handles" and upper-arm fat much more obvious simply because it presses the soft tissues into a less natural, more noticeable contour.
• Multiplying Age Signs -- Poor posture will often force the lower abdomen outward, creating a "potbelly"; for women this effect may be doubly noticeable because slouching can give even perky, youthful breasts a droopy and "aged" appearance.
Step 2: Get a Professional Perspective
Make your yearly physical a time to check in with your doctor about your posture; but in the meantime, use a large mirror to examine your posture from the front and each side. Make sure that your shoulders line up evenly above your hips and that your spine has three noticeable curves -- slightly inward at the neck, gently outward along the ribs, and deeply inward just above the buttocks. Your chest should be held high, with your abdomen and buttocks pulled in and your shoulders and back loose and relaxed.
Step 3: Target Key Support Areas
Whether you have a "student's stoop" or a couch-potato slump, changing your everyday habits is essential to improving your posture and looking more fit. Take the time to re-examine your seated posture in your couch and car, and determine if your pillow and mattress help or hurt your posture. "Check in" with yourself daily and make a conscious effort to maintain healthy posture even on a run or hike -- the slight, healthy strain will help force your body to tighten your abs and improve your thoracic support naturally. While no posture change is a substitute for dietary consciousness and faithful weekly exercise, even a few weeks of maintaining a healthy posture should help noticeably.
Standing taller, straighter, and more self-confidently will help you not only erase those illusory extra pounds, but also feel stronger and more self-confident -- an attitude that definitely can help you on the road to a better body.
