Get Rid of Love Handles

What are Love Handles?

Have you suddenly noticed the appearance of unattractive love handles on your backside? There are a few specific ways that you can get rid of love handles. The sudden appearance of love handles can be shocking, depressing and discouraging to a person already battling their weight. Love handles can be one of the most stubborn regions of the body when it comes to losing weight and toning muscles.

Love Handle Basics

It is common for individuals battling with weight loss to experience growth of their “love handles.” Love handles, a slang term for a region of the body, are considered to be the fat that forms over the muscle known as the abdominal external oblique. This muscle is located along the waistline, but towards the backside of the body.

In common terms, love handles are the flaps or rolls of fat that can be seen on the sides of the waistline or around the back. Love handles are often accentuated when tight pants or bottoms are worn. The pressure caused by the bottoms forces that excess fat to come up and over the waistline. This is when love handles go from unattractive to extremely unattractive.

Love handles are very similar to belly fat. Belly fat and love handles are both considered to be elements of abdominal obesity. There are a variety of factors that cause people to form both love handles and belly fat. The differences in hormones between men and women cause women to gain central fat in different regions than men. Men are more prone to having bigger bellies, while women collect fat in their hips and thighs.

Reducing and Eliminating Love Handles from the Body

So many people ask the question, “How do I get rid of these stubborn love handles that are taking over my backside?” While this question is legitimate, it is not a question that can be answered simply. There are many general ways to reduce the size of one’s love handles, but there are also spot exercises that can be done that only target the love handle region of the body.

You can attempt to lose your dreaded love handles by practicing general weight loss techniques like dieting and aerobic exercise. These weight loss tactics, if executed correctly, will cause you to lose weight and tone muscles in all regions of your body. Implementing extreme diets into your daily life will only cause you to lose muscle mass and water weight, which is the opposite of burning fat.

It has been clinically proven that the fat burning process initiates and fuels the building of muscle mass. When the body builds muscle it also begins to burn the fat that lies on top of the particular muscle. With this being said, love handles can only be permanently eliminated by changing your diet to a healthier lifestyle and by implementing spot exercising into your daily exercise routine.

Spot Exercises to Eliminate Love Handles

There are many different exercises that can be added to your daily exercise routine that will target the muscle region that lies under the “love handle” area. All of the following exercise target and work this particular group of muscles. You must realize that these exercises are only meant to act as a supplement to your daily exercise routine.

If you want to get rid of your love handles in the quickest way possible it is required that you do at least 30 minutes of intense cardiovascular exercising five times per week, along with your spot exercises. Cardiovascular exercising can be anything, from a vigorous walk to swimming. The key is that you get your heart rate and keep it elevated for at least 30 minutes at a time. This amount of cardio may be hard for select individuals in the beginning. Allow yourself to start out easy and increase the length and the intensity of the cardio portion of your work out each day.

Here are some spot exercises that you can add to your cardio routine to quickly lose your love handles.

Stomach Scissors

Hence the name, this exercise requires you to do the tradition leg scissor exercise while lying on your stomach. This exercise targets and strengthens you back, specifically your lower back. Strengthening your lower back will help in the process of losing your love handles.

To effectively execute this exercise you must:

1. Lay on the floor with your stomach touching the floor.
2. Lift your head up off the floor. Your chin should be about four to six inches from the floor.
3. Place your arms along the side of your body or straight out to either side.
4. Raise your legs up, off of the ground so that neither your lower legs or knees are touching the floor.
5. Once your legs and knees are suspended in the air, move both feet out to the sides and then back towards the middle. The motion your legs make should resemble to motion of a pair of scissors.
6. Continue this motion consistently for 20 seconds at a time. Let your legs rest on the ground after the 20 seconds. Rest for a moment and then do another 20 seconds. Three intervals of 20 seconds should be done on a daily basis.

Traditional Crunch with a Twist

Crunches can be a great way to tighten up and build abdominal muscles, while losing love handles. The problem with the traditional crunch is that it tends to focus only on the front abdominal region, as opposed to the love handle region. Adding a twist at the end of a traditional crunch will work the external oblique muscles, which are the muscles located under the love handle region. To perform a traditional crunch with a twist correctly, follow these steps:

1. Lay on the floor with your backside touching the floor. Bend your knees so that your knee cap is pointing towards the ceiling and your feet are flat on the floor.
2. Lift your head off the ground and lock your hands together behind your head.
3. At the same time, push your right elbow towards your left knee while bringing your left knee up to meet your elbow. You right leg should be extended straight out while doing this.
4. Repeat with opposite leg and elbow.
5. Pull up each leg 25 times. This is one set. You should do at least two sets of these crunches per day to effectively lose love handles.

If you are wondering how to lose love handles you will have to alter all of the lifestyle elements discussed in the article within your current lifestyle. Changing bad habits you have practiced all of your life can be an extremely difficult task, but it’s not impossible. Implement these strategies into your everyday life and you will quickly see results in your attempt to lose your love handles.