Love Handles

How Does It Affect Our Health And Self Esteem?

As you become more and more interested in the process of losing weight, one phrase that you may read or hear about is 'love handles'. What is a love handle and how does it affect you? Most people already know enough about belly fat and can easily tell when they have it.

If your stomach isn't completely flat and it's soft to the touch, you can be pretty sure that you have more abdominal fat than what's necessary and should start up on a healthy diet to try and rid yourself of it.

But this term – 'love handles' may be new to you so it's time to learn more about what these are and the best way that you can get rid of them.

Let's give you all the information you need to know about a love handle.

What Love Handles Are?

The term love handle essentially refers to that small amount (or large, in some people) accumulation of body fat that is located on the sides of the body and towards the back that hangs around your waist.

If you are wearing a tight pair of pants, this will be the area of the body that often seems to spill out on top of the pants that you can either see when you look at you from the side profile or from your back.

Usually these love handles are quite equal on both sides as the body tends to disperse the fat collected here evenly between both areas.

Love handles sometimes can get to be quite extreme in that they will also start to hang off the body even when you aren't wearing tight pants which is a sure-fire sign that it's time for you to start looking for ways to burn fat.

Belly fat can sometimes lead into love handles as well so if you just have a very rounded, fatty appearance all around your waist, chances are that you have some love handles as well.

Why Love Handles Are Dangerous To Your Health

Love handles along with any abdominal fat that's accumulated on your body tends to be especially hazardous to your health because it's going to set you up for a number of different diseases.

From diabetes to high cholesterol levels, the body fat that slowly builds up over time on this part of the body is much more dangerous than body fat that is focused on the thighs or upper arms for example.

Because of this fact it's going to be more important than ever that you're seeking out ways that you can start losing weight and getting rid of the belly fat that's causing the problem.

What You Can Do About Love Handles?

Now, when it comes to getting rid of your love handles, you'll want to take a two-pronged approach.

First, you must start getting yourself on a healthy diet that is lower in calories that will cause the body to turn to this belly fat as a fuel source. Far too many people have no awareness over how many calories they're eating on a day to day basis which is a big reason why they aren't losing weight and seeing the progress they were hoping for.

Abdominal fat does tend to be much more stubborn than other fat stores around the body so it's definitely something that's going to take some hard work to get rid of fully. You'll want to be focusing your healthy diet around lean sources of protein such as chicken breasts, egg whites, low-fat diary products, and fish, and then eating plenty of fresh vegetables along with that.

If you are going to have some carbohydrates, keep them to strictly whole grain sources such as oats, barley, brown rice, or quinoa and only eat them around the times when you plan on being active.

This is what will help ensure that the body does start to burn fat quickly and that you move forward to reach the goal of losing the love handles.

The second component of the plan will be to get on a good exercise regime. This should consist of a good cardio workout designed to burn fat and then a strength training program as well that will help you maintain your muscle strength and keep lean muscle tissue.

This is going to be what will firm the area where the love handles are located and make you look that much more attractive to the eye.

Those who are not including any form of strength training in the plan for losing weight often can get smaller since they will lose weight but still look quite soft and may even have love handles present.

Always include strength training – you will have far better results when you do.

Stay Love Handle Free Forever

Finally, once you've gotten rid of those love handles, then you must make sure you stay that way. The best way of doing this is watching what you eat and catching a problem before it starts.

If you notice that the scale goes up a few pounds one week, immediately start cutting back on your food intake slightly so that you can get the problem under control. This way you'll never have to put yourself on another intense diet for losing weight.

You still should definitely be eating a healthy diet, but you won't have to bring your calories as low as you did originally to lose those love handles in the first place.

So hopefully this now gives you all the information you need to know about love handles and what you can do about them. If you approach your plan in a smart manner burning off belly fat and losing weight doesn't have to be all that difficult but you really must have that action plan in order. If you don't, you're going to feel lost and never certain as to why you are not seeing the progress you should be.