Love handles are body parts that grow outward from hips muscles. When worn tight clothing, love handles can be more noticeable, but they are not only occurred by tight clothes alone. They show excess fat build-up around the abdominal and hips part.
How Do Love Handles Occur?
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The underlying cause of love occurs because of fat retention. Fat cells build up when you consume more calories. Over time, these fat cells can become more prominent as they build up in some parts, such as around the hips and waist.
What are factors that contribute to love to handle formation include:
- Age (belly fat build-up as you get older)
- Hormones (more cortisol)
- lack of physical activity
- a diet high in fats, high-calorie, sugary foods
- sleep deprivation
- undiagnosed or untreated diseases, which cause to slow down metabolism, underactive thyroid to make it hard to burn calories.
Many people try to concentrate on a specific part of other abdominal moves and endless side crunches, which focus on Obliques that go down to sides of your body. However, it is not a miracle way to lower love handles. It requires workouts, dietary changes, and lifestyle changes.
Cut out Added Sugar
Healthy eating is necessary for lowering fat in any part of the body. Limiting sugar is one of the good ways to clean up the diet. Added sugar present in the beverages and foods like candies, cookies, soda, and sports drinks. The term does not use the natural sugar present in healthy foods like whole fruit.
Being linked to a health problem, such as heart problems, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, eating more sugar can cause a high amount of body fat, like belly parts.
Sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, and honey contain simple sugar like fructose.
Different studies have shown that fructose from sweetened beverages leads to more belly fat.
Additionally, sugary foods consist of more calories and low nutrients. Cutting back over the amount of high sugar in the diet can lower body fat, including love handles.
Focus on Healthy Fats
Filling up over healthy fats like olive oil, avocados, fatty fish, seeds, and helps to slim down your waistline.
Healthy fats taste very delicious, as they make you full and make you eat low calories throughout the day.
One research of more than 7000 people shows that when members ate a more fat-containing Mediterranean diet-supplemented and olive oil, they lose high weight and reduce belly fat than those over a low-fat diet.
Changing low nutrient-dense foods with healthy fats may help the lost body fat. It could be as easy as adding tasty avocado slices to the meal.
One research indicates that people who consume avocados serve to weigh less and have low belly fat than those individuals who did not (Source).
Despite healthy fats have high in calories, combining moderate quantities to a diet can decrease pounds.
Fill up on Fiber
Including fiber-rich soluble fiber in daily diet may help to prevent stubborn love handles. The soluble fiber is present in foods like nuts, beans, vegetables, fruits, and oats. It helps to preserve you full for more time by reducing digestion and decreasing hunger feeling.
The prolonged feelings of fiber have been shown to lower calories you eat in the whole day and lead to weight loss.
One study indicates that when people raise the amount of soluble fiber they consume by just 10 gm every day for 5-years, they reduce an average of 3.7% of their visceral fat, a harmful belly fat type.
Whole foods containing rich soluble fiber are commonly provided nutrients. Also, they provide gut-friendly bacteria.
Move Throughout the Day
Finding common ways to raise the number of calories you burn from the day is a good way to lose extra body fat.
Different people lead to unhealthy lifestyle and long hours sitting job. Research reveals that sitting for a prolonged time is not healthy for whole health and waistline.
One research of 276 people discovered that every 15-minute increase of inactive behavior was linked with a 0.5-inch increase in waist size.
Sedentary behavior was defined as sitting for a long time.
Create a habit of simple like setting a timer to stand up walk around every 30 minutes, which help to prevent weight gain.
Buy a pedometer to track your steps count and see how much you are active.
Stress Less
Stress is a negative effect on both physical and mental health, can lead to belly fat. It is because stress induces the hormone cortisol production. Also, called the stress hormone, cortisol is created by adrenal glands in response to stressful situations. Although it is a normal function, overexposure to cortisol and prolonged stress can lead to unwanted side effects, such as headaches, anxiety, weight gain, and digestive problems.
Different studies have shown increased levels of cortisol with weight gain, especially around the midsection.
Target activities like meditation and yoga have been shown to lower cortisol levels to lower stress and stop belly fat.
Boost Your Protein Consumption
Including high-quality protein in meals can help to lower weight. It also maintains a healthy weight.
Furthermore, research has shown that diets containing rich protein are very effective for lowering belly fat than the low protein diet.
Additionally, adding a High protein to the diet may manage weight once you reach your goals.
Adding High-quality protein like nuts, eggs, seeds, legumes, seafood, meat, and poultry in meals helps to reduce extra fat from love handles.
Increase Your Cardio
A cardiovascular or aerobic workout has referred to any activity that increases your heart rate for an extra time.
Aerobic exercise help to burn calories and lower extra fat in the body, which can remove fat from love handles.
Different people feel intimidated by the nature of the high-intensity aerobic workout, like running or spinning. However, there is more low-impact aerobic exercise for beginners that are easy to perform.
Swimming, exercise on the elliptical machine, or simply going for a brisk walk are good ways to get excellent aerobic exercise.
Lift Weights
Engage yourself in any type of physical activity, which can help to lose love handles. But including weight training in your routine may be beneficial.
The terms weight training, resistance training, and strength training are commonly interchangeable. It means muscles contracting against some resistance to develop strength.
While aerobic training typically burns extra calories during an exercise, resistance training helps to increase lean muscle and burn more calories at rest.
Combining resistance training combined with aerobic workouts is very effective for burning belly fat.
One study of 97 obese and overweight people discovered that a combination of resistance and the aerobic workout was more effective at lowering body weight and belly fat than an aerobic workout or strength training alone.
Additionally, resistance training provides a slight boost to metabolism and burn extra calories in a whole day.
Get Enough Sleep
Like stress, insufficient sleep also raises cortisol in the body, which causes weight gain.
Research has shown that people with less sleep tend to gain weight and have more body fat than those who get complete sleep.
According to research, more than 1000 people for 5-years discovered that those who slept lesser than 5 hours every night weighted more and gained more fat than those who slept for 7-8 hour every night.
Sleep loss has been linked with the risk of obesity and diabetes.
However, getting enough sleep help to prevent weight gain.
Add in Whole-Body Moves
Focusing on exercising the part of the body that affects most tempting, but working out the whole body may be an extra effective way to slim down love handles. Spot training is not a worthwhile way to reduce stubborn fat and is ineffective in many studies. A good way to lose resistant body fat is to add whole body moves into exercise and aerobic workouts that work on large muscles at once.
Research has shown that workouts that stimulate the whole body, like battle ropes or burpees, burn extra calories than traditional workouts like push-ups.
Stay Hydrated
Keeping your body hydrated is good for your health. Though water is a good fluid to consume, many people tend to get sweetened drinks like teas, sports drinks, and juice, when they feel thirsty. The sugar and calories in sweetened drinks add up and can lead to gain fat around the waistline.
Studies have indicated that larger consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks is connected to weight gain, specifically in the abdominal part.
Additionally, liquid calories do not have a similar effect on hunger as solid food. It will make it easier to use extra sugar and calories.
Instead of sugary drinks, hydrate with sparkling water and plain water or unsweetened tea.
Add in Complex Carbs
Changing refined carbs like pasta, white bread, and white rice with complex carbs, such as beans, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and oats, can help to lower belly fat.
Unlike refined carbs, which can make you hungry, complex carbs help to keep you satisfied the whole day and prevent overeating. It happens because complex carbs are digested more slowly because of high fiber content.
Research has shown that adding fiber-rich carbs to a diet can lower weight, which can help to slim down the love handles.
Try a HIIT Workout
HIIT-high intensity interval training might be one of the most effective exercises for fat loss.
HIIT exercise involves a short burst of intense aerobic workout, each followed by a recovery time. These exercises are effective and quick different studies have shown that they can help to lower body fat.
According to recent reviews of 18 studies that have more than 800 people discovered that HIIT was very effective at lowering body fat. It also increases cardiopulmonary fitness as an old, low-intensity, and regular workout.
Additionally, HIIT has been indicated as a strong tool for belly fat.
Practice Mindful Eating
Target on food and pay extra attention to how you feel during eating, which helps to reduce fat of midsection.
Mindfulness during eating helps to get control of eating habits and leads to eating low calories.
It is a healthier way to keep calm mentally and physically. It has shown an effective way of weight loss.
Engage Your Abs with Pilates Moves
It can be hard to get an effective exercise that you enjoy.
Luckily, Pilates is helpful for beginners and tone abs. The practice helps to enhance flexibility, core strength, and posture.
Including Pilates exercise in routine may even help to lower weight and shrink love handles.
Avoid Alcohol
Avoiding alcohol helps to prevent calories and reduce weight. Consuming more alcohol has been connected to obesity and a rise in body fat, particularly in the midsection.
In one research of over 2,000 people, mild and extra alcohol consumption was connected to a high risk of complete obesity.
Alcohol consumption increases the hunger feeling by stimulating brain cells that manage appetite, which may lead to more calories consumed.
Additionally, different alcoholic beverages contain high calories and more sugar, which can lead to weight gain.
While consuming a small quantity of alcohol has been connected to health benefits for the heart.
Eat Whole Foods
Eating whole foods is the best way to stop love handles growth. Highly processed foods, such as fried foods, fast foods, are not good for health.
Research shows that people who consume more processed foods are at high risk of obesity, diabetes, heart problems.
Adding more natural and whole foods into diets is a good way to shrink waistline fat. You can add lean protein, seeds, nuts, fruits, whole grains, and vegetables.
A 10-Minute Workout Love Handle
Do the following round three times, running as immediately as possible for you. Follow this routine 3-times in a week.
40 Woodchoppers
Use your one hand weight and stand on feet at hip-width apart and weigh on one leg. Start by holding the weight in both hands up by the left shoulder. Next, turn your body to perform a chopping movement down towards the right hip. Make your knees and toes pivot with a twist. Raise the weight back up to the left shoulder and repeat for 20 reps. Next work on the right side.
50 Russian Twists
Sit over your butt using joints flexed and feet level above the ground. Your body should be rolling back at a 45 angle to the floor. Take a dumbbell doing both hands. Raise feet from the ground, meeting them at the ankles and managing your butt. From this point, turn your body toward the right side and try to reach the dumbbell near the ground next to your body. Next, twist back on to the left reaching the weight near the left side of the body. Return back and forth, all while managing legs and body lifted over the ground.
30 Side Plank Hip Lifts
Do side plank hip lifts each side to melt love handles.
Get into side plank position using elbow over the ground and legs and hips rest over the ground. Engaging abs and keeping body level, increase the lower half body over the ground into a level plank position. Lower again and do the same 15 times on each side.
30 Bicycle Crunches
Rest down over your back with knees flexed and hands behind the head. Do not clasp hands together. Engage abs, raising upper back and shoulders above the ground. Similarly, move the right elbow near the left knee. So, they meet in the mid of the body. Next, change position by getting left elbow toward right knee. Continue as soon as possible while still keeping your body lifted above the ground.
The Bottom Line
Now you know that there are natural ways to prevent love handles. Trying a new workout routine, consuming less processed foods, and having more fiber in the whole day can help to slim your waistline. Make sure to keep a healthy lifestyle and follow healthy weight management.