Zaggora Hotpants: weight loss reviews

Zaggora Hotpants claim to help you reduce visible cellulite and lose two dress sizes in two weeks by wearing them when you exercise, around the house and when you sleep. Four Community Leaders and two members of the iVillage team tried the Hotpants; here are their reviews.

• Read about the Zaggora Upper body range
   
• Read about brand new Zaggora Viva hotpants
   
• To read the reviews of Zaggora Capri Flares, see our dedicated article. 
   

cl-bokeh

Day 1: I received the Zaggora Hot Pants today. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting as I hadn’t actually seen any before, but they’re bigger than I thought they would be. They feel rather like wetsuit material, too!

I try to get them on but the zip is a bit sticky. I persevere and eventually get the zip done up, but it’s not at all easy to do.

I can feel them working immediately and definitely feel that my bum and legs are sweaty!

They’re surprisingly comfortable given their material and the area they cover, too, and I try them when out for a walk that same afternoon. Once again, I can certainly feel them increasing perspiration and hope it’s doing the trick!

Day 4: The zip is still sticky. Eventually it gets stuck and doesn’t budge at all. Zaggora are brilliant and exchange them for me. My new pair arrives within a couple of days and the zip is much better! I realise the zip was faulty from the off and wish I’d contacted them sooner rather than struggle with it, thinking perhaps I’d got the wrong size!

End of week 1: Now I really get going properly with my Hot Pants. Over the next week or so I try using them overnight, whenever I go out for a brisk walk with my son in his buggy, and one day I tried keeping them on all day to see what kind of effect they’d have! I try them every single day for at least two hours, with an average of four hours use a day.

End of week 2: The Hot Pants are definitely comfortable, though a bit awkward to pull back up after visiting the toilet where they tend to be already rather wet from sweat! It’s taken until now to get used to the feeling of the sweat not escaping and hence feeling the need to shower immediately they begin working!

I also notice over the course of a couple of weeks that my weight loss has increased again, and I’m sure at least 0.5lb a week is attributable to the use of the Hot Pants.

I also notice that my skin has become smoother. I’m not sure if they’ve improved the appearance of cellulite a great deal yet, but I’m definitely losing weight from my bottom; I keep having to raise the seat in my car to compensate!!!

I’m sure they are helping, though I definitely haven’t lost two jeans sizes in two weeks, and that’s combining the Hot Pants and a well-known diet plan. I’m not convinced by just how attractive the sweat patches are that you get behind your knees and above the waistline of the Hot Pants, which are, unfortunately, very apparent if you’re wearing them under your everyday clothing. Wearing them specifically for sport, though, it definitely isn’t an issue. There’s also a rather tell-tale rustling noise you get whilst wearing them, which my husband picked up on and with which he didn’t seem impressed!

They have, however, given me the confidence to try (and then buy!) a pair of tight-fitting trousers that I’d never have considered beforehand.

I’m going to keep wearing them because I’m certain they’re helping with my weight loss and my skin does feel in better condition. The only trouble with that is I’d have to buy a pair of smaller Hot Pants and begin to replace my entire wardrobe…!

See also: 28 must-have green gadgets

cl-pinkmelly

About me: I’m a 43 year old mum of two and my dress size varies between 10 & 12; so I don’t think I’m huge, but I do have wobbly bits where I didn’t used to have them and in spite of fitting in exercise (mainly yoga and dance) when I can, I like my food too much to really shift them!  I also have clothes that I haven’t been able to fit into for a while but am loathed to get rid of.  So, the idea of some magic garment that can help to reduce my wobbly bits really appealed to me.

I was very excited when the Zaggora HotPants arrived in the post.  They look a bit like a pair of cycling shorts made from wet suit material with a zip on one side.  They are black on the outside but with a rather luminous shade of yellow on the inside which makes them a bit funkier.  I had to wait for the children’s bedtime before trying them on for the first time.  Fortunately, my husband was on hand to zip me into my optimistically ordered size ‘Small’ pair!

The manufacturer’s leaflet says that they are designed to burn the adipose (fat) cells that cause cellulite around the thighs and bum area and that if worn during exercise my jean size will drop by two sizes in two weeks.  All sounds very promising but I thought I’d reserve judgement.

In the first week I wore them almost constantly – on the school run, to toddler group, to my aerobics class, even just sitting at my computer! - And have to admit that they were so comfortable that I often forgot I had them on.  Even walking around, the heat is definitely generated inside the shorts and yet I didn’t feel hot whilst wearing them.

However, there were a couple of minor problems with the continual wearing.  The first was going to the loo!  In the first couple of days they were quite tight on me so hard to get on & off, but more importantly, it made me realise how much I was sweating as I’d have to change my knickers several times a day!  OK if I was at home but a little harder to deal with if I was out.  So, I decided to reduce my wearing of them to times when I knew this wouldn’t be an issue.  Anyway, it was a sign that the Hot Pants were doing their job!

The second problem is that they are hand wash only so this means having to wash them at night and hang them somewhere ready to wear again the next day.

After several days I wore them to a yoga-based class and did notice that the thickness of the material slightly impeded my ability to do some of the movements.  It was more of a frustration to me than anything particularly noticeable to the teacher, but it did mean I was less flexible around the hips and the top of my legs. 

The other problem that I encountered that day was that the seam around the bottom of the legs rubbed on the inside of my legs and left a red mark on both of them.  This meant that I stopped wearing them for a couple of days whilst I gave my legs time to recover.

Another minor issue for me is that most of my exercise/dance trousers are quite low cut whereas the Hot Pants fit up to and over the stomach.  I can absolutely see why they’re designed like this but it does mean that they are difficult to wear discreetly, especially with the yellow Hot Pants logo at the top.  Of course, they are quite smart looking so probably wouldn’t look odd worn on their own; I’m just not sure I’m quite brave enough to do that yet.

On the positive side, after just a couple of days I definitely noticed that the skin on my thighs was considerably smoother than it had previously been and after about four or five days a pair of jeans that I wear a lot started to feel loser around the waist and bum areas.

After two weeks I had several friends asking me if I’d lost weight, which, when I hadn’t actually changed my eating habits at all during my time wearing Hot Pants, made me feel rather pleased.

I didn’t go down two sizes – in fact I wouldn’t say I even went down one – but as my regular ‘work-out’ is walking to and from school twice a day and my wearing of the them coincided with the start of the holidays,  I’m not surprised.  I would also be a bit worried if I lost that much as I think it would be a bit excessive on someone of my size.  So, I would dispute the manufacturer’s claim on that.

But overall I am very impressed with the concept of Zaggora Hot Pants and will most definitely be continuing to wear them!

See also:

• To learn more about Zaggora Hotpants, find them on Facebook or check out their website
• Sign up for FREE regular Diet & Fitness advice, direct to your inbox
• 10 foods every woman should eat