“Love handles” are fatty areas on either side of the waist above the hips. Exercises such as bicycle crunches can help minimize the appearance of love handles, as can dietary measures and certain choices of clothing. Love handles occur due to fat retention around the hips and abdominal area.
The Oval body:
An undefined waist line, large and low tummy, love handles, wider hips, fuller thighs and a flat fuller bottom.
The name “love handles” comes because an individual's partner or loved one will often embrace them around the hips, which is where these excess fat and skin pockets occur.
Exercise cannot target fat in specific areas of the body. Love handles will shrink as you lose weight overall, mostly through cutting calories. Abdominal exercises may improve muscle tone and appearance, but it's a myth that you can “sculpt” the fat away. Love handles refer to excess fat on the sides of the waist.
Love handles occur due to fat retention around the hips and abdominal area. People can try to take measures to minimize love handles, including regular exercise and maintaining a moderate weight. People may also consider avoiding tight clothing to further reduce the appearance of love handles.
BODY FAT PERCENTAGE: 16-19%
At this range, depending on the guy you may start to see some love handles. There is some muscle definition in some areas, but it's far less present than in the lower ranges. No vascularity will be noticeable.
For men, love handles are more difficult to lose because most of their fat cells are located in this area, meaning when excess energy is circulating the body, its prime storage is going to be around the tum. For women, side fat is mostly due to our hormones.
If you eat a healthy, low-fat diet, burn more calories than you take in, and enjoy a good mix of cardio and ab workout time, you'll watch your love handles start to melt away within a few weeks.
"If you tend to gain weight around your waist, you'll likely lose weight from your midsection first as well," says Brill.
There are two hormones involved when love handles are around: insulin and cortisol. Carrying weight around your gut (aka "love handles") is worse than fat around your hips or thighs and this is in part due to insulin resistance. It is also indicative of an imbalance in cortisol levels.
Losing love handles (stored fat) and increasing the metabolism so you can lose weight more effectively are all tied into a consistent cardiovascular/resistance training program. The stored fat around your midsection (for men) is typically the last to leave your body, even after months or years of an exercise plan.
Massages are very important to stimulate blood circulation and break up fat deposits. This will enable your body to get rid of fat quicker. The most efficient technique to break up fat deposits is the palpate-roll massage.
To say that excess fat in this area of the body is a nuisance would be an understatement. We'll be honest with this caveat: It'll take hard work and dedication on your part to lose love handles in a week, but it is possible to start tightening things up in that area of the body and begin performing a solid regimen.
The key is to get your heart pumping, so you can start burning the fat stored around the belly. Cardio is great at this. Weights can also work well, as long as you are keeping your heart rate elevated.
Once love handles appear, biology makes them tough to ditch. “You lose fat in the reverse order that you deposit it,” says Westcott. “And typically for men, the last place they lose fat would be that midsection area—the first place they put it on.”
Running Can Help Get Rid Of Belly Fat, And Love Handles
Running is recognised as one of the best ways to target and reduce belly fat and fat accumulated at the waist (love handles). Most experts recommend working up to running 30 - 60 minutes a day, 4 - 5 days a week for optimal results.
Can walking reduce thigh fat? Yes, it can. Brisk walking is considered a good cardio exercise.
Restricting calories but making those you do eat come from refined carbs, sugars and saturated fats can cause your body to not get all the nutrients it needs, especially protein, to support lean tissue. As a result, you may be losing weight in the form of lean muscle, not fat, so your love handles stick around.
Your stomach fat is just harder to shift, factually
Because different areas of the body have different amounts of each of these cells - with some parts having a higher amount of alpha cells than beta, and vice versa - the areas with more beta fat cells will inevitably be more difficult to shed excess fat.