The underlying cause of love handles is fat retention around specific areas of the body. Fat cells accumulate when a person consumes more calories than they burn. Over time, this excessive consumption can lead to fat accumulation, especially in areas surrounding an individual's hips and waist.
Why do I have love handles if I'm skinny? Fat deposits on your sides can be a result of your genetics, and other factors like stress, alcohol consumption, inadequate sleep, poor diet, and hormonal changes.
What Causes Love Handles? Love handles are often caused by stress because when you are stressed out, a stress hormone called cortisol is released. The more cortisol you produce, the greater your chances of developing love handles and other fat around the midsection.
The Oval body:
An undefined waist line, large and low tummy, love handles, wider hips, fuller thighs and a flat fuller bottom.
Avoid alcohol and sugary foods: Consuming sugary food and alcohol may lead to weight gain and love handles. Individuals should instead try to eat a moderate and balanced diet. This may involve consuming lean proteins, beans, and leafy vegetables to increase protein and fiber intake.
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.
“For men, love handles are hard to lose because most of their fat cells are located in this area,” explains personal trainer and nutritionist, Jim White, RD. Women's bodies like to deposit fat into the hip and thigh area, too, which creates the illusion of love handles, says Leah Kaufman, MS, RD, CDN.
A new habit to help in getting rid of those love handles is setting a timer for every 30 minutes to at least get up and walk around for a few minutes. Creating a habit like this if you are used to sitting down all day can make a large difference in weight loss.
Probably the most effective exercise to lose love handles is Russian twists. Just sit with your legs stretched in front of your and arms joined ahead of you. Now lift up your legs so that they are not touching the ground.
Unfortunately, exercise alone will not get rid of love handles. Studies have shown that abdominal resistance training does not reduce belly fat or slim the waistline more than diet alone. Diet plus exercise works best to reduce love handles.
Love handles are simply due to excess body fat, which accumulates when you take in more calories than you burn off. A holistic approach to weight loss is therefore required. “Salvation won't come in the form of a diet,” says Edgley.
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.”
As much as black coffee can aid in achieving overall lower body fat, love handles could also be caused by drinking too much commercialized coffee. Store-bought coffee often contains fattening milk and sugar that the body does not get to convert to energy. Hence, an additional layer of love handle.
Are Weetabix good for Losing Weight? If you're trying to lose a little bit of belly fat, Weetabix could be a good way to start the day. They are low in sugar and fat, yet high in energy, and will keep you full for longer.
What you call love handles is the body fat on top of your obliques, the core muscles that run from your ribs to your hips. Many people struggle to lose the body fat that lies atop their obliques and get frustrated when it bulges over their waistband. The easiest solution is to go up a pants size, to be honest.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
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.
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. It is difficult to lose those last few pounds. For women, the last few pounds of fat is typically stored in the hips, buttocks and thigh region.
Some people naturally carry more weight around their midsection than others do, making them more prone to developing love handles. Other possible causes of love handles could be hormonal changes in the body, especially during pregnancy or after menopause.