Getting Rid of Love Handles

Get Rid Of Your ABS

In some cultures, love handles are signs of health, wealth, and being in love. However, in most cultures that isn’t the case especially in western culture. Being content there doesn’t mean sporting a gnarly muffin top. So then why is having love handles such a wide spread issue?

What Are Love Handles?

Love handles are simply an accumulation of fat cells around the waist and hips. Basically this happens when the caloric intake is more that calories burned. This can happen due to eating high fat foods and not getting enough exercise. Why these fat cells accumulate around the waist and hips can be attributed to a number of factors such as: age, genetic disposition, and hormones.

By themselves, love handles are not a danger to our health, though they can be a sign of unhealthy risk factors going on such as: hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol. This is not to say that having them will cause these risk factors, but it is rather common.

How to Get Rid of Love Handles

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Let’s pull this bandage off fast to ease the pain. It’s going to take work and determination. There is just no other way around this. As stated earlier, when we take in more calories than we expend, the end result is fat cell accumulation. So now it’s time to take charge and beat those handles into submission. Note: always check with your doctor before taking on dietary and exercise changes.

Change the Diet

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This seems like a no brainer, but it’s something often overlooked. The reason is that people don’t always associate love handles with weight gain and therefore not a diet issue. However, this is a weight gain issue.

The first thing to do is set some goals. Nothing far reaching like losing 32 pounds in three weeks. That’s a plan built for failure. Go easy here. Set the goal for losing two pounds a week. This isn’t drastic and can be very easy simply by changing what is eaten. For example, get away from high fat and high carbohydrate foods. Switch to lean proteins, vegetables, and whole grains. Reduce the portions and choose fruits instead of candies and baked goodies. Also, switch to water instead of sodas and fruit drinks that are loaded with sugar.

Pro Tip: If caffeinated drinks are to be consumed, try using lowered fat half-n-half and a sugar substitute like stevia. Also, to avoid the caffeine disrupting glucose levels, try eating almonds to maintain the balance.

Pro Tip: Don’t beat yourself up looking for ways to change your diet. Ever heard of the Keto Diet?

Exercise

getting rid of love handles knee bends

Cardio: Cardio workouts will give the biggest bang for the buck along with a reduced calorie diet. They rev up the metabolism and get our bodies burning calories. When we’re talking about cardio, thinks swimming, biking, quick-walking, treadmill, and using an elliptical. When doing these types of cardio workouts, there is no need to push it. Find and hold a good pace where you can talk but not sing. Follow whatever orders your doctor gives, but normally twenty minutes a day is a good start.

Weight Training: Lifting weights will begin growing muscle and this growth will cause the body to lose weight by expending calories. As long as the carb and fat consumption is kept low, the body will shed pounds.

The goal here is not to become the Terminator. Massive weights are not recommended. In fact, smaller weights and doing more repetitions will be far more effective. Here the target is to improve the arms, legs, and core. Yes, muscle weighs more than fat, however, the lean look is being sought and not putting on a bunch of muscles. Arm curls, leg press, squats, and bench press are some standard exercises that give great results. But remember, keep the weight low and the reps high.

If weight training is out of the question, then choose exercises that can be done around the house. Here are a few examples: leg lifts, pushups, crunches, mountain climbers, and deep knee bends. Doing these will target the arms, legs, back, and core. Everything needed to burn fat.

Make it a Lifestyle

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Incorporating a cleaner diet and exercise routines will absolutely help with losing weight. The trifecta of losing weight is diet, exercise, and determination. Being determined is vital to success. Making changes in life to achieve a goal is not something done part time, but rather, a full time lifestyle. By choosing a healthier lifestyle, we become more attuned to the good things our bodies need in order to achieve positive results.

Keep in mind that there is no real way to lose weight from a specific part of the body. Again, this is a genetic issue. The only way to achieve pleasing results is to adopt this new way of life and lose weight holistically. Losing love handles is something that is really achievable. Think about it like this, decisions were made that put the love handles on, so it is only logical that different (healthier) decisions will take them off. This isn’t difficult and it isn’t easy. Losing the love handles is something that will simply be done in adopting this healthier lifestyle.