HOUSTON – The right shapewear might make you look amazing but some doctors warn the clothing might not be doing such great things to your insides.
Dr. Richard Harris said your muscles are going to relax as you shift your weight to the shapewear, weakening your core.
"People have weak cores and people think of the core as just abdominal muscles but it's more than that, it's the transverse muscles, it's the muscles underneath that help stabilize your spine," Harris said.
Therefore, he thinks shapewear could lead to injuring your back.
While Dr. Vijay Jotwani, with sports medicine from Houston Methodist, said they might not be capable of that much damage but he agrees members of the general public are neglecting their core muscles and shapewear is not really making up for a lack of exercise.
"The more we get people focusing on those muscles as part of their routine, the less they have to come in and see us," Jotwani said.
That means focusing on the abs and back muscles, and not sporting a workout corset either, which Harris thinks could be worse than shapewear.
"It's like wearing any type of brace anywhere. The purpose of the brace is to stabilize. Well that's also the purpose of your muscles and your joints and the nerves that realize where you are in space. Anytime you offload that to something else, it's going to take away from what the body does naturally," Harris said.
Dr. Oz was recently discussing shapewear on "Today." His recommendation is to limit wearing them to 12 hours and do not wear more than one at a time.