If we look for the most annoying part of human fat, it would be belly fat. However, imagine wearing a skin-tight shirt that is tight enough to accentuate your flat tummy but still lets you see the fat on the side of your flat tummy. This will make you look broad and boxy, something that you do not want.
Fat on your love handles is much more stubborn than fat on any other part of the body. Just a thick fatty layer on the top of your oblique that makes you look out of shape and only makes fitting worse. Most people get confused about love handles because they think that since it is very close to the core, all the exercises that help in getting rid of belly fat can help you with your love handles as well.
On the contrary, professionals explain that they are a completely different set of muscles so the exercises that will help you work on these muscles will have to be different.
For an easy overview, we have divided the article into small chunks that address all the possible queries that you might have regarding exercises for love handles. We will explain some of the main reasons for fat accumulation on the love handles. We will also talk about the actual location of love handles and how you can sculpt your waistline with the help of an effective workout plan. To help beginners stay focused, we have mainly kept the workout intense but extremely short.
Location of Love Handles
Before jumping into the workout routine, it is very important to understand the location of love handles so you can easily measure your progress. Love handles are the skin area located just above the hips on each side of your belly.
Most people think that love handles are caused by wearing tight clothes, instead of tight clothes only accentuating their presence. The excess fat can easily be seen near the hips and abdomen areas. One of the main reasons you will have to face fat accumulation near love handles is due to a lazy lifestyle. People who move around very little and stay seated for a long time end up with fat accumulated near the stomach area.
What Are The Habits That Can Cause Love Handles Fat Accumulation?
One of the main reasons behind fat accumulation near the love handles is fat retention capacity. Some people have a high-fat retention capacity due to a low metabolism rate which impacts the shape of your body as well. Generally, when we eat too much, our body has a way of storing that in fat cells so they can be used later.
In case we do not eat or the food is not enough, the body uses this deposited fat by converting it into energy, and using it to perform day-to-day activities. If you keep eating surplus calories, these fat cells become visible and start to make you look like you are getting out of shape. These fat cells become visible, especially near the belly area, waist, and hips.
Although fat is everywhere in the body, it usually gets deposited here because of our lifestyle. Some of the factors that contribute to this include:
- Body hormones like cortisol production.
- Age as the metabolism rate decreases as you get older.
- No physical activity as physical activity helps in burning accumulated fat
- Extra calories, eating too much especially consuming fats and carbs
- Insomnia or sleep deprivation slows down the digestion
- Hyperthyroidism causes the accumulation of fat and doesn’t burn extra calories.
Easy Lifestyle Changes
According to research, love handles are generally the result of sitting for long hours and eating too much. If you stay at home and spend most of the time just sitting, you will see this issue. The best remedy for this is to stay active and stand on your feet. If you have to get a file, stand up and get it rather than sending someone an email or a reminder.
Another important step is to ditch your car and use a bus or subway. If you live in an apartment, skip the use of lifts and just use stairs. These simple steps along with a healthy protein-based diet will help you resolve this issue easily.
Workout Pattern
For the workout, we have selected high-intensity interval training. With the help of this workout pattern, we will burn more calories and focus on the love handles only. High-intensity interval training is usually short but intense.
Each session is followed by a rest period a few seconds long followed by another intense workout session. The exercises for the HIIT training are usually very simple and you do not need any equipment to complete them. Apart from this, HIIT training has proved to be effective for weight loss especially in burning fat. The resting interval needs to be very small and cannot exceed even a few seconds. Most people end up doing an interval that is a few minutes long which makes the HIIT workout null and void.
Workout
Russian Twist (1 Min)
No equipment is needed, keep working for one minute straight. This will help you work on core strength as well as shape your body while getting rid of belly and love handle fat.
Triangle Pose (1 Min)
Excellent for stretching and increasing flexibility. It also helps in stretching the fat and exerting muscles near the love handles. It is best for the overall body as well.
Side Plank (1 Min)
Perfect for exerting the side muscles, keep your weight on your elbow and hold the pose for at least one minute.
Head and Toe Stretch (1 Min)
This will help you work on your core as well as your sides. Your main focus will be on stretching your head, bending it towards the feet, and then holding it.
Bicycle Crunches (1 Min)
Excellent for working out your core and love handles, this will mainly help you to shape your side muscles.
Mountain Climbers (1 Min)
Not only good for love handles, but they are also excellent for the lower body, legs, and core as well.
Bottom Line
To sum it all up, we need to take better care of our bodies by finding a good balance between physical activity and a healthy diet. In case you have any underlying abnormality or hormonal issues, try to resolve that first. To know in detail about the issue that you might be facing, try to investigate the related issues and the underlying cause before jumping into a diet or a workout.
