Slimming Wrap, the truth finally revealed!
Have you ever heard of a slimming wrap? Personally, I’m more familiar with the delicious Mc Do wraps you see in street ads and magazines. Of course, those wraps have nothing to do with slimming! What I’m talking about here are those big pieces of fabric soaked in natural products, applied to the body and wrapped in cellophane. Recognize them?
Apparently, they’re one of the solutions (that work?) for losing a few centimetres of waistline, quite quickly. And, especially as summer approaches, it seems that this method is still very popular with slimming enthusiasts. So, does it work? How does it work? Many users report good results, while others cry scam. Who should we believe?
The slimming wrap is not an entirely new procedure…
The slimming wrap was invented quite early, in the early years, in the USA. As most of us know, America is way ahead of us when it comes to slimming products. The first wraps were designed to make you feel better, to relax, to deflate tired legs at the end of the day. Beauty salons also offered them during sauna sessions and massages with essential oils. So far, so normal.
Three or four years ago, these wraps resurfaced in Europe, but this time with new claims. The claim is that a slimming wrap really does help you burn fat and shed inches off your waistline.
The slimming wrap, star of wrap parties
I remember a time when Mum, along with a few friends, would get invited to these TupperWare parties and come back in the evening with three or four plastic boxes that cost the earth! In 2013 to be exact, a lot of gatherings were organized, in the same way, but around slimming wraps this time: wrap parties.
Saleswomen (no need to take a pyramid marketing course here!) gathered women by the dozen to present this miraculous, but above all fast-acting, slimming solution. It took just 45 minutes of application to lose up to 3 centimetres of waistline (measured at navel level). And since then, thanks to the web, many blogs of saleswomen, distributors and testers have sprung up. How could this be possible?
The slimming wrap : the concept
This is a piece of synthetic fabric, soaked in an infusion of natural herbs and essential oils, which is applied to the body. The wrap is applied to the area you wish to slim down: stomach, thighs, arms, etc. To maximize the effect of the slimming wrap, we strongly recommend wrapping yourself in cellophane (simple cling film found in our kitchens) and putting your clothes back on. You can then go about your normal activities while waiting for the wrap to be removed.
The manufacturers of these wraps claim that its action will deeply penetrate the 4 layers of skin, reaching the fatty tissues and thus flushing out fats and toxins.
We’ve been round most of the vendors of the few similar products currently on the market. The result: they all put forward the same arguments, alluding to science. We say “allusion”, because what they say doesn’t seem to us to be capable of scientific verification. Let’s see why…
What does science have to say about slimming wrap?
We asked two health specialists and a weight loss expert for their views on the manufacturers’ claims. Can you burn fat just by applying wraps to a specific area, quickly?
The answer is: NO! But, …
The slimming wrap is a solution that doesn’t work!
No, because quite simply, our skin is made up of 3 distinct layers: the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis alone is made up of 5 other layers or strata:
- Horny layer (stratum corneum) ;
- Clear layer (stratum lucidium) ;
- Granular layer (stratum granulosum);
- Spiny layer or malpighi mucous body;
- Basal layer, the deepest layer of the epidermis.
It just so happens that most of our fat is located deep inside our skin, in the hypodermis. So it’s virtually impossible for a slimming wrap to release its ingredients to reach this area and destroy the fat.
We’ll spare you the anatomy lesson and explain that our fat is hidden deep inside our bodies, and that it takes a lot more than a big patch to burn it off!
The slimming wrap is a solution that works!
Yes, but here’s how a slimming wrap works:
What happens is that the compression effect on the skin causes overheating and sweating, which in turn flushes out the water retained in the first layers of the skin and firms it up! It’s a solution that works, but it’s a temporary one, as the water that’s been expelled will come back later.
So how do you make the slimming wrap work?
First of all, don’t think of a slimming wrap as a magic solution with irreversible, definitive effects. Rather, it should be seen as a boost to your ongoing weight-loss efforts.
A slimming wrap will certainly enable you to lose a few centimetres off your waistline, just long enough to put on your favorite dress for an evening out, for example. It’ll also make you feel better in your swimsuit, just long enough for a well-deserved tanning session. In any case, it’s NOT an effective method for burning fat forever!
So, is the slimming wrap a scam or not?
Everyone agrees that what you can do with a store-bought wrap, you can do at home with a simple slimming or draining cream and kitchen cellophane. There are even natural recipes to prepare at home, using natural products known for their slimming virtues (coffee grounds, tea, aloe vera, avocado, lemon, honey, argan oil, etc.).
That’s not to say that the products offered for sale aren’t good: some have well-developed formulas and their manufacturers are known and traceable on the web and in trade registers too. However, beware of salespeople who put forward arguments that run counter to science.
If a manufacturer offers you a natural formula that seems to hold up, with health risk-free guarantees, but without putting forward an unscientific pitch, you can always give it a try.
That said, you’ll always need to review your diet and lifestyle. You’ll still need to use slimming food supplements with proven benefits to help you lose weight.
