Top 10 Ways to Look Slimmer Than You Really Are
Aside from the obvious strategy of dieting to look slimmer, there are some neat tricks you can use to give the impression you are thinner than you really are.
Here are the top ten tricks you can pull to make everyone think you are slimmer and have a better figure that you actually do.
How many times have you heard it said that first impressions are everything?
People make their minds up about you inside the first three seconds of meeting you, so it pays to make those seconds count for as much as you can.
One way people form a big part of their opinion of you is how you look in relation to what their perception of a healthy person should look like.
For most people, that is a person who is not perceived as being overweight!
Looking Slimmer: Top 10 Tricks
You can pull some really cool tricks to fool people's perception of how heavy you are to some extent simply by changing some of the outward visual signals you are giving out. Here they are:
- Posture: Your deportment is incredibly noticeable by others whether they are conscious of noticing it or not. When you stand in a slouch, with shoulders forward and hunching over slightly, unless you are already pretty thin, you are going to appear heavier than you could look. To correct this perception in an instant, stand straight and tall, throw your shoulders back, push out your chest and suck in your gut. It's amazing the transformation that occurs and it really can take imagined pounds off you!
- Health: If you are healthy, you'll radiate health and people will interpret this as being closer to the weight you ought to be, even when you are maybe a few pounds the wrong side of that. You get healthy by eating a healthy, balanced diet and getting enough exercise to keep your body physically in shape. You can be a little overweight and still be healthy! When you are, you carry yourself better and people generally pick up on that.
- Dark Clothes: What you wear can have a marked effect on your perceived weight. Wearing dark clothes and especially black can make you appear slimmer.
- Stripes: If you don't want to wear dark clothing, you could always opt for some fashionable stripes to provide some nice contrast. Just remember to make sure those stripes follow the vertical or diagonal and not horizontal for some perception trickery that fools the eye into thinking you are slimmer than you are beneath those stripes!
- Shoes: Wearing high heeled shoes not only makes you appear taller, but the extra height also alters people's perception of how heavy you are. Taller people appear slimmer even if they are a few pounds heavier than they should be, so emulate the extra height artificially by adding an extra inch or two to your heel and wear longer pants, jeans or a dress to cover them and you'll appear pounds lighter than you really are!
- Shapewear: No surprises at this trick mentioned in this website, but in all seriousness wearing body contouring underwear can reduce your size perceptibly.
- Accessories: By wearing prominent accessories on parts of your body that deliberately draw the eye away from your midsection, thighs and backside, you can sidestep the way people would otherwise notice your additional girth. Things such as a bold necklass, earrings or even a decorative hat will draw the eye toward them and away from the places you'd rather those eyes didn't spend any time dwelling on.
- Makeup: Work you makeup to accentuate your cheekbones and highlight your eyes. When you give cheekbones more definition, it appears your face is sufficiently thinner to give the impression you are not quite so heavy as you are. Highlighting the eyes draws the gaze of your inquisitor away from the places you would rather they not scrutinize.
- Facial Expression: Not so obvious but still important is the expression on your face. If you are smiling and have a keen expression of alertness and look like you're enjoying life, people register the positive emotional signals and attribute a healthier aspect to you regardless of whether you are a few pounds overweight or not.
- Attitude: Believe it or not, your attitude can really make a difference to how you appear to others. If you're outgoing, easy to get along with and generally interesting and interested in others, then you give off the aura of approachability and others will warm to you more readily, while being less critical of how you look. The opposite is also true if you're withdrawn, difficult to get along with and show no interest in others, then people will try to avoid you and be more critical of your looks.
You may have some tips and ideas of your own and if you do, I'd love to hear them. Feel free to drop me an email (see the "Contact" page) if you would like me to add your idea(s) to this article and I'll be happy to credit you with the tip!