How to Hide Muffin Top

Regardless of your size or shape, there's one body issue you are probably dealing with in middle age: the muffin top. This roll of fat – large or small, depending on your overall size – plops over the top of your waistband to create the look of a muffin top. It can just spill over the front  of pants, or it can pop up over the sides and back of pants, too.

Although middle-age women have had expanding waistlines for decades, it's been more noticeable in the past 10 years or so because waistlines have become lower and mature women have been bolder about showing off their bodies in more form-fitting clothes.

Muffin Top Myths

• Muffin top is caused by wearing too-tight pants. Uh, wrong. Muffin top is caused by a soft middle (doesn't that sound so much nicer than flabby belly?) that laps over the tops of a waistband.
• You must be fat to have muffin top. Wrong again. I've seen it on women as small as a size 6. It's caused by extra skin and weight around the middle. You can be quite small and still have it. I'm a pretty normal size (10) and still fight it.
• Only old women get muffin top. Definitely wrong. I've seen teens and young girls with a flabby belly. It's actually more noticeable in youngsters because they tend to wear their clothes tighter than us midlifers.

How to Hide a Muffin Top

The good thing about muffin top is that it is fairly easy to disguise using fashion tricks. Here's how:

• Don't wear tops that are tight in the middle. While tight pants get blamed for muffin top (and they don't help, so make sure your waistband isn't too tight), it's actually tight tops that highlight the problem of muffin top. Opt for blousy or belted tops that aren't too fitted.
• If you do wear a fitted top, wear a camisole shaper. I am addicted to cami shapers now. They are lightweight and don't feel like traditional shapewear. A camisole smooths you out and lets you wear fitted knits (without doing crunches – ha!)
• Wear layers. Disguise muffin top by wearing a tailored jacket or vest over your top. The added structure worn as a top layer will help disguise extra lumps and bumps.
• Wear darker colors on top. Black, navy, chocolate, charcoal: all of these will help make the top half of your body look smaller. 
• For dresses, try wraps or shifts. If you have lots of extra rolls around your middle, even in dresses, the best way to hide that is create the illusion of a svelte tummy by opting for a wrap dress (overall prints are especially flattering.) Or you can choose a shift dress that skims the body to hang in a straight line.
• Belt everything lower. Your best belted look is created by opting for a hip-slung belt and blousy top. The blousiness of the top will disguise any muffin top, while a lower-slung belt draws the eye away from problem areas.