How
to get rid of love handles is a riddle on most over 35s
minds every time they walk from the shower and pass a full length
mirror. Love handles or "spare tire" are those
pesky rolls of fat on the sides of your stomach and back that just mess
up any close fitting fashion you ever try.
You have two main kinds of body fat depending on where they are
deposited. These two are subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Visceral
fat is fat that is deposited deep in your abdomen cavity. Subcutaneous
fat on the other hand is fat that is deposited just under the skin.
This is the fat that you can pinch. Love handles are subcutaneous fat.
So how do you get rid of love handles?
Unfortunately subcutaneous fat has shown to be the slowest kind of fat
to metabolize. This means that if you were losing body fat, you tend to
lose more visceral than subcutaneous fat- especially in the beginning.
This is why most forms of subcutaneous fat sticks around your body
inspite of losing weight.
These include belly fat, especially lower belly fat; fat on thighs,
hips and buttocks; and of course the dreaded love handles.
What most of us do not know is that to lose love handles you need to Go
Beyond Calories. You need to Go Beyond
Calories and focus on two
things, just two things. Watch h the videos below to see
these two
things…
If you want to lose love handles, most of the time, you will tend to be
advised to do some form of exercises. The intention here is usually to
target the fat in that area by working the oblique muscles that are
usually covered by the love handles.
First I have to say, I am not a fun of oblique workouts; especially if
those workouts tend to develop the oblique muscles. What is the use
trying to get rid of flabby fat on my side just to end up with a firm
protruding muscles instead that looks just the same?
But to be honest, you need to really work you oblique’s for
them to develop to that extent that they are bulging and standing out
on your sides. So we can agree and say oblique exercises are not that
bad.
However, there are better workouts that will get rid of love
handles just as well as most oblique exercises if not better. These
exercises are called planks.
How To Get Rid of Love Handles Using
Exercises
Planks are probably the best exercise for
losing love handles and
firming up your abdominal area. Not to mention that they are great also
for developing a six pack. It has been shown to be a great exercise for
working the whole abdominal are as well as your back and stabilizer
muscles on your sides – all at the same time.
But probably what makes them even more of a darling is the fact that
they are workouts that contract your midsection and hold it in. You
know how you suck in your stomach and hold it in to get a flat stomach;
even if it is just for 30 seconds? Planks do exactly the same, only
this time you will be breathing.
Planks literally train your waist and abdomen to shrink in girth.
To do a plank, you lies flat on your stomach facing the mat. Raise your
upper body and rest on your forearms. Raise your wait of the ground so
that your weight is held up using your forearms and your
toes. Tighten your midsection so that you donot sag at your buttocks.
Try and stay in a straight line for 30 seconds. Overtime train yourself
to keep this position for over a minute
If you want ot really hit your love handles with planks. Try the side
plank. Lie on your side. Lift your upper body and rest on your forearm.
Then lift your waits of the ground so that you are resting on your
forearm and one foot. The other foot will rest on top of the foot on
the ground. The other arm can rest on your side. Keep a straight
incline and donot sag on your waist.
An even more engaging plank involves lifting your legs and arms, as
shown below.
Using diet to lose love handles
You can exercise all you want, but if your diet is wrong you will not
be able to get rid of those love handles. You simply cannot out-train a
bad diet.
Love handles are fat. You need significantly different strategies to
lose fat compared to just losing weight. Most people think losing
weight is synonymous to losing fat. What you might not know is that you
can lose weight without losing much fat.
You also, interestingly
enough, can lose body fat without losing weight. And it is also
possible to lose fat and even ADD weight! And by the way, that is not a
bad thing.
This confusion of losing fat vis-a-vis losing weight has created
problems for most people when it comes to developing strategies for
getting results. Many assume that since body fat is a form of energy,
then one just need to check their energy consumption.
So you have been taught that to lose fat you need to reduce the
calories you take and increase calorie expenditure. As such you create
the calorie deficit that is then compensated for by body fat. As a
result you end up losing fat.
But there is one problem with that theory, it is not true. Your body is
not a car. You do not use energy in your body like a machine uses fuel
in its tanks. Infact if
you want to lose love handles or any other form
of body fat, you will need to Go
Beyond Calories. You need to Go Beyond
Calories and focus on two things, just two things. These
two
are…
This
content is reviewed periodically and is subject to
change as new information on weight loss becomes
available. The information is intended for
educational purposes only. Please
consult your healthcare provider before beginning
any kind of weight loss program
