Love handles! I don't know anybody who actually loves them, but I know many who love to hate them! They are ugly, unsightly, and they seem to be the last areas on the body that respond to diet and exercise. But as stubborn as they are, you can do something about them.
Eradicating love handles from your body requires the same approach as does losing fat from any other part of your body. Love handles are just pockets of fat that form on the sides of the torso. There's nothing mysterious about them, and there's nothing mysterious about losing them. As with any weight loss regime, losing love handle fat is accomplished by creating a negative calorie balance in your body: burning off more calories than you consume! If you do that consistently, you will lose body fat from your entire body, including your love handles.
However, what you can't alter or change is how your body stores fat. Some people are blessed in that they carry their fat distribution in a relatively even and proportionate manner; these types of people are the one's who seem to be able to gain weight without really showing it! But regardless, we are all born with a genetic code that determines how and where we store body fat. There are many over fat and heavy people who, no matter how much weight they gain, never get love handles. They may get thunder thighs and beer bellies and double chins, but their sides are slim and firm. On the other hand, there are countless people who have flat stomachs and firm legs but who have jiggly, flabby love handle fat dangling from their sides. Blame Mother Nature for that. Fat is fat, it just happens to congregate in various places from person to person. But it can be reduced, if not entirely eliminated.
The best methods seem to be high intensity aerobic exercise that burns a lot of calories. The more aerobic exercise that you can perform the better. Combine that with a reduced calorie diet and the fat should start to melt away. Forget about doing side bends and twists and all that nonsense; losing love handle fat has everything to do with losing the fat in the area, not about tightening the muscles underneath. No matter how toned and firm the muscles on your sides are, if there is a layer of flab covering up those muscles, it's not going to matter from an aesthetic point of view. Just concentrate on losing fat first. Save the "special" exercises and twists for when the fat is gone.
Just remember: lots' of cardiovascular exercise combined with a reduced calorie diet is the prescription for losing love handle fat.
