You might expect crunches, twists and side bends to be among the most effective exercise for reducing belly fat and love handles. These moves would seem to directly target those areas to burn excess fat away. However, what is the best love handle workouts?
Fat loss, however, is a complex process that happen when you stimulate the right hormones and consume fewer calories than you burn. While exercises that target your torso build stability and tone the muscles in this region, they won’t help you get rid of the spare tire covering up the muscles and spilling over your waistband.
High- intensity cardio and resistance training are your best calorie- burners to lose belly fat and love handles.
Love handle workouts
They are endearingly refer to them as love handles. Or maybe you prefer to call it your muffin top. Either way, excess fat sitting on the sides of the torso is tough to lose. Of all the love handle workouts out there, ones that target your oblique muscles will zero in on this area. A general rule to keep in mind:
Any move where you are reaching to the side works your oblique. But incorporating ones that also hit your upper and lower abs will more effectively sculpt and your entire middle section.
The nature of middle fat
Fat that increases the circumstance of your waistband and forms the pinchable handles at the sides of your torso is both subcutaneous, sitting just under the skin, and visceral, embedded deep in your belly and surrounding the internal organs.
While you may not like the looks of those love handles and soft muffin top, this fat is less dangerous to your health than the firm, deep visceral fat, which acts like an endocrine organ and expels inflammatory compounds into your system. Visceral fat is of concern because it raises your risk of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Effective love handle workouts
Oblique press and reach
Kneel on your left knee with your right foot out in front of you, foot flat on the floor [leg form a 90 degree angle]. Keep the abdominal muscles tight, back straight, tailbone tucked. Hold a weight in your right hand, arm extended out to the right and bent at a 90 degree angle with your fist in the air.
Then, reach up, extending your arm straight into the air while bending your body down to the left side and touching your left fingertips to the ground. Next, use your oblique muscle pull your torso back to starting position. Do 3 sets of 12-15 on each side.
Side plank crunch
Start on your right elbow, your right foot slightly in front your left. Keep your core tightened throughout. Pull the right knee in towards chest and crunch your left elbow toward it. Then bring back out to side plank position. Do 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps.
Plank up-downs
Get into plant position, with arms out straight directly beneath your shoulders, squeezing your butt and pulling your spine. Then, starting with one arm, lower down onto your forearm, then follow with the next arm. Move back up, one arm at a time, to the fully extended plank. Make sure to avoid rocking your hips, stokes warns, and keep the core tight the entire time.
Stokes notes, are good loves handle workouts since your upper body is moving and helping to support your entire plank position. Do 8 on each side, or shoot for 30-45 seconds.
Around the world obliques
Stand with your legs wider than shoulder – width apart, toes turned out just a little bit, tailbone tucked. With a very light weight in your hands [5 pounds at most – or you can even hold a pillow – just to keep anchored so you don’t feel the move in your lower back] extend arms up straight above your head as far as you can.
Then, bend from the hips and reach your body as far as you can to the right, hips and shoulders square forward. At the last second when you can’t reach any more, rotate toward the floor. Twist your body back to face front, exhale and pull back up to center.
Make sure to keep your knees soft, don’t lock them. Do 8 -10 slow and controlled reps in each direction, alternating sides.
Pass the ball
Another love handle workouts is pass the ball. These is basically bicycle crunches turned up a notch. Lie flat on the ground, abs pulled in tight to your spine and back flat on the floor. Pick your chest up, pulling the right knee into your chest and holding a ball in your left hand.
Pass the ball underneath your right knee into your right hand and crunch up. Like dribbling a basketball, minus that bounce on the floor.
Rotate your legs after each pass, and make sure you are crunching up every time. Keep your shoulder blades lifted off the ground throughout. Do for 30 – 45 seconds.
Knee drop
Lie on the ground, abs pulled in tight to your spine, back flat on the floor. Lift legs off the floor and into a tabletop position. Squeeze the ball between legs, engaging the inner thigh muscles and lower abs the entire time.
Drop your knees over to the right – slowly – keeping abs pulled in tight and lower back flat. Exhale and pull to center, then inhale as you drop them the other way.
You will also get an awesome lower back stretch after the love handle workouts above. Holding the ball tight will ensure you keep your legs together throughout the movement. Do 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps each side.
Crouching tiger push – up
Start in a push – up position [hands wider than shoulder- with]. Do a pushup. Then, bend knees off floor, and press back into your hips so your knees are directly beneath your ribs. Your arms should be straight pressing through the shoulders – you will feel it in your quads and shoulders.
Then lift the hips up into a downward dog position. From there, round out your back and slowly roll your spine forward in a wave motion, starting with lower spine and ending with upper spine rolling the rest of the body flat until you are in your starting plank position. Do 3 sets of 10 – 12 slow and controlled reps.
Best Exercises for Love Handles
Love handle workouts can be difficult to get rid of. There are so many different muscles that need to be targeted in order to tone those areas. The only solution in this condition is to using exercises that
Hit each and every muscle, from every angle. There are some of the best exercises for love handle workouts. Together they target all of the muscles that wrap around your waistline, so you will get the results quickly. The love handle workouts will help you burn fat, build lean, sexy muscle, and melt your muffin top.
You will need to do 3 sets of 15-25 reps, repeat each exercise, 15-25 times, in order to complete 1 set. Repeat the entire series, 3 times, to complete your workout. I recommend starting with 15 and working your way up to 25 as you get stronger. For the best results, try this workout twice a week, with 3 days of recovery time, in between.
How to Get Rid of Love Handles Fast
In most cases, everybody has a problem area when it comes to losing weight. In some people, weight develops in hips and thighs, but also others struggle to lose fat from their arms.
No matter where the problem is, the only solution is to lose overall body fat. Spot treatment, toning up, or losing weight in one place, is the most impossible thing. You will need to change some aspects of diet, exercise, and your lifestyle to help lose weight and tone up your stomach.
Skip fad diets: extreme dieting may yield instant results, but unless you can maintain the fad diet forever, you will likely gain the weight back the moment you resume your normal lifestyle.
- Many fad diets, like those that involve eating overly processed foods, can be unhealthy in the long run.
- Most health experts will say to skip the diet and make small lifestyle changes. These are easier to make and keep up long-term.
Decrease your caloric intake: there is no way to lose fat from one area of the body. If you want to get rid of your love handles, you just have to lose overall body weight by reducing the amount go calories you consume on a daily activities.
- Check out the amount of calories you eat in a day by reading food labels and keeping a food journal. There are also plenty of free online calorie counters/calculators available that help you keep track of your calories and stick to the calorie content of various foods.
- If your target is to drop the weight quickly, then reduce your intake by 500-750 calories each day. Eating between this ranges can help you to lose 1-2 pounds per week when coupled with regular exercise.
- Although anything under 1200 calories is not sustainable in the long run and it is not allowed. Very low calorie diets may end up in nutrient deficiencies long-term.
Eat a balanced diet: your diet should usually be composed primarily of fruits, vegetable, whole grains, and proteins. A balanced diet including all of these food groups will help make sure you are consuming enough amounts of each nutrient daily.
- Also consume a wide variety of foods. For example, do not just choose to eat an apple a day. Focus between apples, berries or oranges.
- A balanced diet also means that you are consuming appropriate portion sizes of each foods. Going through the right portion size can also help you to lose these love handles.
Look up mostly on lean protein, fruits and vegetables: this combination of foods helps you to lose weight, but commonly the body fat stored around your waistline.
- Research have shown that a lower carb, higher protein diet helps you lose the fat store in and around your abdominal organs. This eating routine can really target the fat found in love handle workouts.
- To get enough protein in your body, aim to have a 3-4 Oz serving at each meal and a 1-2 Oz serving at each snack. This will help you meet your daily needs.
- Fill the rest of your meals with a fruit or a vegetable. Some health professionals recommend eating 5-9 serving daily while others suggest making half of your plate a fruit or vegetable.
Love handle workouts for Men
Love handles’’ is a well-known name for the accumulation of fat around the oblique area or in the sides of your abdomen of your stomach and your lower back. These fatty deposits commonly develop over years, from a diet too high in calories and a lifestyle that does not include enough exercise.
Unfortunately there is not one specific exercise to get rid of love handle. Love handle workouts will require a combination of reducing body fat with diet, stress reduction and exercise. Making changes to these areas can help you get rid of love handles.
Reduce your calorie intake
For men to lose body weight and excess fat, especially in this case of love handles, what you need to reduce is your overall calorie intake.
- It is hard lose fat mass from one specific area of your body, but losing weight in the whole body, can decrease overall body fat level. Within some time you will notice your love handles will get smaller.
- Men should cut out about 500 calories a day. This usually result in a 1-2 pound loos each week.
- You can start counting calories for an entire day. Use this number as a starting point. Then, subtract 500 from this number to get an average calorie target that will lead to weight loss.
Limit processed food intake
Both processed foods and those that are fried are usually high in calories. Especially when you eat these types of foods continuously it will be hard to lose weight and also get rid of love handles.
- Processed foods and fried foods are known to be high calorie. In fact, these foods may also be high in added sugar, harmful types of fat and a lot of additives or preservatives.
- Some of the foods you should limit such as: sweetened beverages, fried foods, fast foods, chips and crackers, ice cream, candy, processed meats, frozen TV dinners, canned meals, cookies, cakes and breakfast pastries.
- Try hard to avoid eating many foods with high amounts of added sugar. Research shows that foods that are high in sugar are typically stored around the stomach area and can worsen the situation.
Replace carbohydrate-rich foods with non-starchy vegetables
Research show that men who consume a higher amount of carbohydrates have an increased amount of fat around their stomach most likely your love handles. Decrease carbohydrate-rich foods to minimize this and reduce love handles.
- Carbohydrates are found in many types of foods. Anything from grains, dairy products, legumes, starchy vegetables and fruit contain carbohydrates.
- Men need at least 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables per day. Check out appropriate portions of each – 1 cup of vegetables, 2 cups of salad or ½ cup of fruit.
- Maintain lower sugar fruits like berries. Adding to that, stick to non-starchy vegetables and limit your intake of items like carrots, peas, potatoes and corn. These starchy vegetables are higher in carbohydrates.
- Reduce your intake of grains as these are the most carbohydrate dense foods. But also if you choose to eat them, go for 100% whole grains since these are high in fiber and protein.
Replace fatty meat with lean meat
Protein consumption is essential for men when they are working out and following a reduced calorie diet. In addition, learner protein can also help reduce love handles.
- Fatty cuts of meat like sausage, bacon, and full fat dairy and 80/20 beef are high in saturated fat. High levels of saturated fat have been accompanied with increased stomach fat in males. Also reduce your consumption of these foods and switch to leaner cuts of protein.
- Choose chicken, fish, turkey and leaner cuts of red meats. Also, try to eat items like salmon, tuna, nuts and nut butters as these are high in protein in increasing to healthy fats which have been shown to reduce belly fat and love handles.
Increase water consumption
Though water does not necessarily decrease your love handles, it can help men to lose body weight and reduce love handles in the long term.
- Typical recommendations of water intake range from 8-13 glasses daily for men. You may need more based on your activity level.
- Drinking adequate amounts of fluid can help decrease your appetite throughout the day. Plus if you drink a glass of water before a meal, it can be a great help to decrease how much you eat and stick to your calorie limit.
Love handle workouts for Women
In most cases, hormonal changes are also some of the reasons that can trigger fat to form at the sides of a woman’s waistline. Although it is quick to reduce these love handles requires some lifestyle adjustments. It can improve your health, since excess fat around your middle increases your risk of heath conditions such as breast cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Instead of focusing on spot reduction, which is not possible, focus on losing fat from your entire body. Because this will also help you to reduce that undesired muffin top.
Step 1
Set a goal of losing a maximum of two pounds per week, is a healthy and safe weight-loss rate. Avoid losing weight too fast, because it can slow your metabolism and make you hold on to fat instead of losing it.
Step 2
Perform 300 minutes of moderate cardio per week, and also do strength training on two days. For cardio, consider walking briskly, jogging, and bicycling, climbing stairs, rowing or exercising on an elliptical machine. You should be able to talk, but not sing, during the exercise. During strength training, target your major muscle groups, and for each exercise, try your best to perform 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions. Use enough resistance so the last two repetitions of each set are usually hard to finish.
Step 3
Check on your diet to reduce your caloric intake. Eat lean protein, whole grains, low-fat or nonfat dairy, veggies and fruits. Serve yourself smaller portion and consume low-calorie foods. In addition, eat fruits instead of cookies and chips. Decrease calories from sugar, because these will make your love handles fat.
Step 4
Stick to two high-intensity interval training sessions in to your love handles workouts. Research show that hit boosts your metabolism, improves physical fitness and reduces belly fat. During HIIT, alternate between two minutes of high-intensity cardio, the moment when you can’t talk anymore. Do this for about 20 minutes, for instance, jog for 2 minutes, and then speed up to a one- minute sprint.
Step 5
Perform circuit training twice a week, one days where you are bored with your normal routine or when you are cramped for time. Circuit training stimulates muscle tissue, boosts your metabolism and improves your cardio fitness. Set up six to 15 weight-lifting stations that target your major muscle groups, and perform 15 repetitions of each exercise, talking 15 to 30 seconds of rest in between, go through the entire circuit two to three times.
Step 6
Perform targeted exercise to strengthen your obliques at the sides of your waistline. Consider doing wood chops with a cable or medicine ball, bicycle crunches and torso twists on a stability ball. These exercise will not reduce your love handles, but when your belly fat reduces, they will make sure you have a tight waistline.
Step 7
Besides the best love handle workouts avoid stress in your life, because excess stress stimulates the production of cortisol in your body. Research show that cortisol increases your appetite for unhealthy, fattening foods, and the fat you gain settle around your middle. Delegate tasks, get enough sleep, meditate and consider practicing yoga and doing deep breathing techniques.
Note: consult a doctor before beginning a new diet or workout routine, particularly if you have a health condition or injury.