Regardless of semantics, whether you call them love handles, spare tyres, muffin tops or perhaps the more common term belly fat, when we take to Google, we have one goal in mind: getting rid of them. Unfortunately, as with a lot of information on the internet, the answer to this question is often ambiguous and, in some cases, incorrect.
That’s why you’ve come to us. You know what you’re getting, and that’s factually correct content backed by the latest research. But before you scroll on, it’s important to note that the key to overall fat reduction is down to a calorie deficit which is created by adjusting your nutrition. It’s not possible to spot reduce fat.
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So, if you’ve been googling ‘best workouts to lose love handles’, we’re afraid they are not as useful as they proclaim to be. Sorry. But hey, at least we’re telling you the truth, right?
So, to help you find the correct information, let us break it down for you. Here’s everything you need to know about love handles, what causes them and of course, how to get rid of them – the right way.
Love handles refer to the areas above the hips. You may have noticed them – that soft roll of body fat which sits on top of tight jeans and clothing. Love handles are typically the areas where excess fat accumulates – around the sides and back of the waistline – and can extend from the hips to the lower ribs, thus creating a noticeable bulge or bulges.
Love handles are a common concern for many people, and their appearance can be influenced by factors such as:
- Diet
- Activity levels
- Exercise habits
- Stress levels
- Genetics
- Overall body composition.
These fat deposits can be stubborn and challenging to get rid of. The lower abdominal area can often be the hardest part of the body to see significant weight loss, but a combination of a healthy diet and an active lifestyle, it is possible to reduce its prominence and achieve a more toned midsection.
One primary cause of love handles is a calorie surplus, where the body consumes more calories than it burns, leading to the storage of unused energy as fat. This contributes to an overall higher body fat percentage. Things that contribute to an energy surplus are:
- Sedentary lifestyles
- Lack of physical activity
- Poor dietary choices
- Higher appetite levels
Genetics also play a role, as some individuals may have a predisposition to store fat in this region.
To reduce or prevent love handles, adopting a balanced diet with a regular exercise routine along with stress management techniques are essential steps towards achieving a healthier waistline.
Diet
The first step to reducing fat around the midsection area is to lower overall body fat levels. This can be achieved by adjusting your diet so that you eat in a calorie deficit. This means to eat less calories than you burn overall throughout the day. There are many factors that can effect our ability to achieve a calorie deficit, to set you up for success, try these 5 tips:
- Starting a food diary: This will help you become mindful of your food choices and improve upon them. It may also become glaringly obvious whether certain days are higher or lower in calorie intake due to your schedule.
- Using portion control or counting calories: You don’t necessarily have to count calories to achieve fat loss, but calories still count. A reduction in calorie intake can also be achieved by portion control. Try using fitness trackers to count your calories on a daily basis.
- Ensuring an adequate protein intake: Ideally, for active individuals, that’s aiming for 1.6-2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass. This will also increase satiety, muscle retention (and gain) and the thermic effect of food.
- Focusing on whole foods: Increasing whole foods in your diet will help with satiety and energy levels. Also an increase in fibre will aid digestion, improve health and increase the thermic effect of food.
- Stress reduction and improved sleep: A reduction in stress and improved sleep can greatly help your ability to achieve an improved diet and calorie deficit.
Daily activity
Increasing your daily activity can contribute to overall daily energy expenditure. Your exercise can form part of this total energy expenditure along with something called non-exercise-activity-thermogenesis (NEAT) – your day to day movements.
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The components of total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), as published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, are:
- BMR: Basal metabolic rate, this includes how much energy is used keeping your body alive just resting.
- NEAT: Non-exercise activity thermogenesis, this covers your general daily movements including walking.
- TEF: Thermic effect of food, which is the amount of energy used to digest food.
- EAT: Exercise activity thermogenesis, this includes your workouts.
- REE: Resting energy expenditure, the energy used at rest.
- NREE: Non-resting energy expenditure, the energy used not resting.
You can increase your overall energy output by consuming foods that have a higher thermic effect, do more daily walks, spend more time on your feet and, of course, work out more frequently.
Gain Muscle
The process of changing the shape of your physique is something called ‘body recomposition’. This is facilitated by a combination of fat loss and gaining muscle mass. The phrase ‘muscle weighs more than fat’ is often banded about and while the sentiment is correct – in that muscle takes up less space than fat – the phrase is technically incorrect. In fact, muscle is more dense than fat when compared pound for pound.
It is possible to improve the appearance of your love handles by improving body composition by gaining muscle. As the muscle becomes more dense and larger in other areas, it can help with your overall physique to appear more defined. You may have also heard that muscle burns more calories than fat. However, the magnitude of the increase in BMR from building muscle can be negligible in comparison to other components of your TDEE.
Although, it cannot be denied that building muscle is a good idea for fat loss and an improved body composition, the effects of the additional calorie burn caused by the muscle mass gained are usually exaggerated.
Increased muscle mass can, however:
- Improve performance in your workouts and therefore increase calorie burn
- Improve body composition
- Slightly increase calories burned at rest
- Improve insulin sensitivity and how we metabolise sugars
Sleep
It’s important to focus on your sleep when trying to achieve fat loss. In a paper published in PLOS Study, participants reported on their sleep habits and the paper explored the impact it had on hormone release. It was found that participants with short sleep had reduced leptin and elevated ghrelin, the appetite regulating hormones. These differences in leptin and ghrelin are likely to cause an increase in appetite with short sleep duration. It was also concluded that these changes in hormones may contribute to obesity.
To further confirm the link between sleep and obesity, a recent study published by Obesity Review stated: ‘Evidence supports the potential role of inadequate sleep as contributing to the current high prevalence of obesity, more specifically abdominal adiposity, in both children and adults’.
Therefore, it’s important to accept that if a lack of sleep is a factor that will negatively interfere with your fat loss goals, perhaps it should be made a priority (if it’s possible to do so) by catching up with naps or ensuring good sleep hygiene.
Stress reduction
An overall reduction in stress will likely lead to lifestyle factors that encourage energy balance. There is also some evidence that higher cortisol levels are linked to higher levels of abdominal fat – the appearance of love handles.
In a study published by Nutrition Research, 272 female college students participated in a stress-eating survey for over a month. When stressed, 81% of the subjects experienced a change in appetite, and of these, 62% experienced an increased appetite when stressed. That’s nearly two thirds that experienced an increased appetite when stressed. It was also found that healthy eating dramatically decreased when under stress.
As well as this, according to an article published in the Journal of Obesity, psychological distress and elevated cortisol secretion promoted abdominal fat, a feature of the metabolic syndrome. The same article explored whether mindfulness practices could improve stress levels and therefore reduce abdominal fat and obesity. It found that while weight loss and caloric intake was not effected, those who reported the greatest improvement in mindfulness and chronic stress had the largest reductions in abdominal fat. This could support the theory that improvements in stress levels could lead to changes in abdominal fat.
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You can start to reduce your stress levels by including mindfulness techniques in your day to day life like meditation, breath work and journalling. It is clear that having a holistic approach – including stress management – in your fat loss pursuit to reduce love handles is key.
Body image
While a reduction in body mass to reduce ‘love handles’ is a focus of this article, it is also possible to improve body image (how we perceive our bodies) in order to feel more body confident. This could be as simple as wearing clothes that fit well and don’t cut into your hips so that we are less focussed on the love handles themselves. It could also mean aiming to become more ‘body neutral’ by focussing on the things that your body can do, instead of how it looks aesthetically.
As mentioned, reducing love handles is primarily down to a reduction in fat mass through the method of an energy deficit, and spot reduction of fat is not possible. However, you can still increase your exercise output in order to burn more calories. Here are some of the highest calorie burners out there for you to add in your next workout:
Airbike
How: Set up on the bike – your back should be straight and the saddle adjusted so you have a slight bend in the knee at the bottom of your cycle. Keep your torso and head up, control your breathing. Try not to flail around.
Why: Despised by many, and with good reason, the air bike slashes through calories in your workout. Used in interval training, it will push your cardio to a high intensity so that you get an insane calorie burn.
Burpees
How: Stand tall, take a breath and squat down, placing both hands on the floor between your feet. Jump your feet back into the top of a press-up position before lowering your chest to the ground. Straighten your arms and hop your feet forwards, before jumping into the air, touching your hands above your head. Focus on your breathing throughout, this will take you a long way.
Why: Another exercise that is feared by many, burpees tear through calories. However, if your burpees are on the less efficient side and leave you flopping around like a starfish, try to regress the exercise by either taking out the jumps and stepping in after the press-up until you master the exercise.
Row
How: Push hard away from the flywheel with your legs. Keep your arms straight until your legs are extended, then pull the handle into your chest. Reverse the movement. This distance should take less than two minutes.
Why: If you’re looking for a quick-fire exercise that boosts your fitness and melts calories, rowing could be the answer.
Box jump
How: Stand in front of a box with your feet hip-width apart. Jump on top, landing with both feet as softly as possible, bending your knees slightly to absorb the impact. Once at the top, stand up fully by extending your knees and hips. Step backward off the box, one foot at a time. Repeat.
Why: With the box jump you’ll get explosive power and torch calories at the same time. While the box jump is meant to be plyometric by nature and kept to minimal reps, the exercise still packs a punch.
Wall ball
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