Introduction
“Love handles” is a term that is used to describe that area of your waist that allows for others to grab on to you, as if it was a handle rather than a roll of extra skin and fat.
While love handles are traditionally at the side of the body, just above the hips, the term is used to describe more than just this area. By working to improve this area you will improve your entire waistline, from your stomach muscles to your sides to your back muscles.
Many start off with working on improving their love handles because of the way that they look. That’s a noble cause, but for health concerns, you should target this area anyway. Researchers have found that excess weight around the middle is a clear indication that an individual will suffer from heart risks at an accelerated level. In other words, by having a larger middle area, you increase your chances of developing things like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
No matter what your reason is for toning your abdominal muscles, getting rid of love handles is a process of working your body in specific ways. By toning this area of your body, your entire physique will improve and of course your self esteem will rise considerably. That is just what the goal of this book will be for you.
Chapter 1: The Physical Aspects Of Your Adnominal Muscles
Understanding the make up of the muscles in the body can provide individuals with a clear method of improving those muscles through exercise. Throughout this book, we will detail the types of movements and methods that are necessary for accomplishing this. Love handles can successfully be melted from the body.
The Muscle Make Up
As a first step, it’s essential to understand the physique of the actual muscles called the Abdominal Muscles.
External Oblique:
This is the outermost muscle that covers the sides of the abdomen. It should be flat. It is broad and irregularly quadrilateral in its formation. It starts on the lower eight ribs. From here, it moves down and forward. It runs moving downward from your sides to the center of your abdominal region.
Internal Oblique:
This muscle is a triangle shaped muscle. It is smaller as well as a good deal thinner than the external oblique. The external oblique muscle overlays this muscle. This muscle runs diagonally in an upward movement from each of your sides up toward the center of your abdominal region.
Transverses Abdominis:
This is a flat and triangle shaped muscle. The fibers of the muscle run horizontally. It is positioned between the internal oblique and the transversalis fascia which is underlying. This muscle is the deepest of layers of muscle. It moves right across your abdomen and is a key player in the love handle improvement!
Rectus Abdominis Muscles:
These are very long and flat muscles. They are crossed by three tendinous intersections. These intersections are called linae transversae. The muscle is actually inside of a thick sheath of muscle fibers that come from the three muscles located in the lateral abdominal wall. It is on your transverses abdominis. It runs the center of your abdomen from top to bottom.
Pyramidalis Msucle:
This is a small and triangle shaped muscle in the abdomen. It is actually located at the lower abdomen positioned in front of the rectus abdominis muscle. It starts at your pubic bone and is inserted into the linea alba and runs about half way up to the belly button area.
What Do They Do?
The muscles in your abdominal region have several jobs to accomplish. Through helping you to move in various ways, the use of these muscles is essential.
All of these muscles have some connection to your pelvis and to your ribcage. When they are used, they compress everything within the abdominal region, including all of your organs there.
To feel these muscles, stand with your back straight, and stuck in and hold your stomach. These muscles that tighten all work together in this region of your body. They are responsible for improvement of your love handle situation as well.
The Spine
They also have an additional job. The rectus abdominis as well as the internal and external oblique muscles help to move your spinal column. In this regard, the body’s muscle masses can be improved through flexing these muscles, pulling your spine closer to your pelvis over and over again.
The only way to build these muscles is to flex them over and over again with resistance. Resistance can be anything from weight to gravity itself (which is usually the case in flexing your spinal muscles by laying flat on your back through sit-ups.)
Your muscles do much more in this region as well. For example, the oblique will flex your spine when you bend sideways. They also move your spine in a twisting motion. Stand up again and flex all of your muscles in this way. You can feel exactly where the tension is and therefore you know where the work on these muscles needs to happen.
Depending on your goals in a workout, you may want to pay specific attention to specific muscle groups. For example, the bodybuilder is not looking to spend a lot of their time on lateral flexing of the muscles as this increased how wide their waist is.
Instead of bending sideways while working out, then, they concentrate more so on the twists and bent over movements.
When working to improve those love handles, pay close attention to the types of movements you make. As you will see later, it is essential to bend in a specific way in order for you to gain improvement in your spinal muscles.
Your Hips
One common problem that people that are building muscle mass in the abdominal region tend to face is the fact that their hips do more of the work then the spinal flexion (spinal muscles we’ve mentioned.)
Your hip flexors (the group of muscles that work for movement in your hips specifically) tend to do much of the work for you. These muscles run into your thighs and along your spine as well as surround your hips.
When you do a sit up, many of your hip muscles will do the work instead of your abdominal muscles, even though you believe you are working at improving your abdominal muscles.
While it can be a good thing to improve your muscles in the hip region, this will not help you to improve your overall love handle situation. Instead, you need to make sure that you are doing the right movements, over the right period of time and in the right way to avoid your hips from taking over the workout.
One solution that can help you from the start to concentrate on your abdominal muscle groups rather than the hips is this. Do more crunches and reverse crunches with the knees bent. You should have your feet up and your heels resting on the bench. When you put your body in this particular situation, your hip muscles will naturally relax.
While it will feel more difficult to move in this position, that’s because you are solely using your abdominal muscles to create the movement for you.
By understanding the make up of your abdominal muscle groups, you can better tailor any workout to fit with your goals. Overall, there are many ways that you can work to improve your love handles. Yet, the best route to take is to fully educate yourself on the make up and the movements of your body first, so that each exercise that you do is a meaningful one to your body.
In the next sections of the book, we will work on some exercises that you can do to improve your love handles. Remember that this will be the most difficult time in improving your body’s fitness. Once accomplished to some degree, these exercises do not hurt as much and they are not nearly as difficult to do.
Chapter 2: Where Do They Come From Anyway?
Love handles are pockets of fat that are stored around your abdominal regions. These packets of fat are generally genetically consistent. In other words, if your parents were heavier around the middle, chances are that you are too.
There is a genetic factor which determines where fat is stored throughout your body. For some people, this will be the buttocks or the hips. Even the thighs can be the target area for fat deposits. Generally speaking, though, this isn’t so bad. While no one wants to have larger hips or a big backside, the fact is that it is healthier for you to have fat there then around your middle.
The Risks You Face
While you want to learn how to get rid of your love handles, you should know why you want to look good in this region. Men are more likely to want to obtain a “six pack” which is a term used to describe the rippling, well developed muscles of the abdomen. Yet, by looking good it can also help to save your life literally.
As we mentioned earlier, there are increased risk factors for those that have extra stored fat around their mid section.
• People with larger mid sections are prone to heart disease
• People with more abdominal fat are more likely to develop diabetes
These two factors play a large role not only is how you look but how long you live. While having extra weight may not cause these conditions all on its own, it will help to enhance the situation for those that are more prone to these conditions in the first place.
In contrast, men are more likely to have a natural predisposition to gaining weight around their mid section than women are. For this reason, a woman that has larger hips and thighs is not nearly at risk in health concerns as a man with a larger abdomen.
Understanding Insulin Resistance
As part of having an increased health risk, those with a large mid section, or those that have love handles, are likely to develop insulin resistance. Insulin is a natural substance in your body. Its job is to be a chemical signal to your brain that tells your body to burn sugar in the blood for fuel.
When you eat, the sugars of foods that are in the blood are supposed to be burnt as fuel. In a body that is healthy in terms of insulin, the body burns through these sugars as fuel to do the things that you want them to do. But, when the body does not use these sugars for fuel they must go someplace. They end up becoming stored fat throughout the body.
When you have insulin resistance, your body has an increased amount of sugar in the blood. The body’s tissues, including muscles, become less sensitive to normal amounts of insulin in your body. To rectify this situation, the body tries to fix the situation by secreting more insulin from the pancreas. When it does this, there are additional problems that arise instead of get better.
For example, Type 2 Diabetes, the fastest growing diagnosis in overweight people, happens. Because the body is demanding additional insulin, the pancreas simply can not keep up. The end result is that diabetes occurs because the body simply can not fix the situation.
The Risks Faced
You may be thinking that you don’t likely have a problem. You just have some love handles that need to be removed. Yet, that’s a common mistake. Researchers believe that approximately one out of every four Americans is resistant to insulin. 25 percent of people in the US and other western civilizations suffer from this staggering situation.
The fact is that not only is the fatty tissue to blame, but the diet that goes along with it. If you eat foods that are heavily sugared or those that are high in carbohydrates, then you are likely to be one of the many that is insulin resistant or on the verge of becoming so. Foods like cakes, soda pop, processed foods, pizza, chips and other foods like them, make the situation ten times worse.
In addition, those that do not get enough exercise also face insulin resistance. Those that drink too much, are overly stressed, or have a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure or excess body fat around the midsection are likely to suffer from insulin resistance.
Virtually anyone can reverse their situation by working not only on getting rid of love handles, but improving their overall diet and lifestyle.
Chapter 3: Exercise First
The process to losing your love handles is more than just exercise. It also requires a good amount of attention to your diet and your lifestyle. Yet, before you get into those features of the book, it is necessary to begin working your abdominal muscles correctly so that you can begin to tone those muscles.
As mentioned, performing exercises properly will make all of the difference in how successful each movement is at toning your muscles.
Talk With Your Doctor
Before you begin this or any other exercise regimen, make an appointment with your doctor. Talk with them about your health and what your physical exercise goals are. This way, they can rule out any potential health risks that you may experience during the exercise regimen. Always get your doctor’s okay before starting any type of workout regimen.
Of course, your doctor can also provide you with necessary information that can help you to lose those love handles including a good understanding of why they are on you in the first place. Meeting with your doctor should not be avoided.
Here are several exercises that you should start with.
Crunches With Raised Legs
As mentioned earlier, raising your legs off the ground when doing crunches is a crucial step for working off those love handles. In a standard crunch or sit up, the legs would be on the ground, which encourages not only your abdominal muscles to relax but also for your hip muscles to do all of the work. This is not what you want.
Instead, position yourself in such a way that you are lying flat on your back with your legs propped up. Use a small bench. You don’t need to create a perfect 90 degree angle with your knees, by try to get close to it.
Place your heels on the bench elevating your legs. Your feet should not be flat, but up in the air, while only your heels are touching the bench. From your buttocks to your head, you should be lying flat on the ground.
When you lay in this position, you should be able to feel the muscles that run across your hips feeling loose. That is exactly what you need to make happen.
• Position your body in a straight line, with only heels touching the bench.
• Your lower back should remain flat on the floor.
• Raise your ribcage off the floor up towards your pelvis. Get as close as you can to the legs, but do not strain yourself.
• Lower yourself slowly. Repeat this motion until you are too tired to move on.
Note: You can place your hands behind your head for support. You can not pull with your hands or arms on your neck or head. Your abdominal muscles must do the work of picking your body up off the ground. Also, keep your elbows out, not facing your legs.
Bend Over Twists
Another great exercise for your abdominal muscles is one that you do standing up. Again, you want to target the specific muscles in your body that are located in the region of your abdomen.
This exercise will work your oblique muscle groups and will tighten up the waistline as well. Here is how to perform this simple exercise.
• Stand with your hands behind your head. Remember not to force the movements of your body with your hands. They are there for support only.
• Your feet should be spaced even with your shoulders, facing forward. Bend your knees slightly.
• Twist your upper body until the right elbow is pointing straight up, into the air. You will be twisting your abdominal muscles, not your hips. The hips must remain straight with the legs.
• Immediately after twisting with the right arm up, twist in the opposite direction. Now, your left elbow is facing straight up.
• While you move through this exercise, keep your abdominal muscles tight. Flexing these muscles will make sure that they are being used.
• Continue until you are tired.
This exercise may be difficult to perform at first, especially if you have a large sized abdomen. Yet, soon the muscles will be able to do more and more. Don’t skip it as it can help to strengthen more than just your abdominal muscles, but will work on strengthening your back. Strong back muscles can help you to avoid injury and overuse during other functions.
Of course, never strain too far with this exercise or with others. Straining can tear the actual muscle and cause considerable pain and in physical trouble. You should only move as far as your body wants to go.
Elbow/Knee Sit Up
Another useful exercise that will help to tone the muscles in the abdominal region is the elbow to knee sit up that extends the elbow to the opposite knee, unlike a standard sit up that elbows touch the same side knee.
Remember, you want to twist and turn those muscles in the abdominal region. Doing so will help you to strengthen them, rather than your hip muscles or others.
In fact, this particular exercise will work with your rectus abdominis and the external and internal oblique. It can help virtually all muscles in this region of your body to strengthen, helping you to lose those love handles.
Here’s how to safely perform this exercise.
• Lie flat on your back. Your legs should extend straight out in front of you. Your hands should lay behind your head loosely.
• Bring your right knee up, while leaving the other flat on the ground.
• As the knee rises, twist your body so that your left elbow touches it.
• Do not use your hands or arms to move your head, only your abdominal muscles should twist here.
• Repeat with the opposite side of your body, the left knee to the right elbow. Continue to do this, one side after the other, until you tire.
When you are performing this exercise for the first few times, it may be difficult to actually touch your elbow to your knee. That’s okay. Simply move in that direction as much as possible. Never strain as you do not want any injury to take place.
These three exercises are exactly what you need to improve your abdominal muscles. These should be the core of your workout regarding muscle building in this region of your body.
Additional Exercises Add More Benefit
There are additional exercises that are required for improving the muscle tone in this area of your body. Here are a few more recommended by the American Council of Exercise as the best at improving muscle strength in this region.
Please note, they will not reduce the amount of fat over this region, but will tone those muscles so that they will look great once you lose those pounds!
Captain’s Chair
For this exercise, you will need the actual exercise equipment from a gym or by purchasing it. This one is recommended as its one of the very best for working your rectus abdominis and oblique, even though it does require equipment.
Here’s how to do it.
• Stand on the chair. Grab the hand bars to help you provide your body with stability as you exercise.
• Press your body against the machine’s back. Tighten your abdominal muscles as you raise your legs and lift your knees, pulling them towards your ribcage.
• Be careful not to arch your back and breathe in and out smoothly throughout.
• Slowly, lower down and repeat until you tire, or about 12 reps.
Exercise Ball Crunches
Another crunch to add to your workout includes this one, with the help of a large exercise ball. Here, you aren’t working those hip muscles but the rectus abdominis again, effectively.
Here’s how to perform this exercise.
• Lie on your back, with the exercise ball resting lightly under your lower to middle region of your back. Your feet should be on the floor for stability.
• You can place your hands behind your head or allow them to rest on your chest loosely. Do not use them to force your neck or head up.
• Flex your abdominal muscles so that you raise your body off the ball. You are pulling your ribcage down towards your pelvis.
• The ball should not move. Keep it stable with your feet throughout this exercise.
• Hold the position for a few seconds and then roll back down. As you go down, stretch your abdominal muscles.
• Perform for at least twelve reps or until you tire.
Leg Crunch: Vertical
In this position, you will work your rectus abdominis and your external and internal oblique muscles. A vertical leg crunch is ideal for most people, but may be difficult for others to master right away.
Here’s how to perform this one.
• Lie on your back with your legs out in front of you together. Cross your legs so that your knees overlap.
• Raise your legs straight up into the air with your knees crossed.
• While doing this, flex your abdominal muscles. This will allow you to raise your shoulders off the floor, slightly. You are looking to raise your chest towards your feet.
• Keep your legs still. You are trying to bring your belly button towards the spine.
• Lower out of this movement slowly and breathing throughout.
• Repeat until you tire.
Long Arm Crunch
The long arm crunch is another of the exercises that are designed to improve your abdominal muscles. It works the upper portion of your abs fully.
Here’s how to do it:
• Lie on your back with your knees up.
• Place your arms outstretched above your head and clasp your hands together.
• Flex your abdominal muscles. Lift your shoulders off the floor slightly, as far as you can.
• Hold for a few seconds and then lower.
• You can repeat for reps of 15.
The role of exercise in your ability to build strong abdominal muscles is only part of the process of building a healthy body and getting rid of those love handles. It takes a great deal of physical effort to perform some of these movements especially when you are not used to exercising.
Remember that exercise tones and firms the muscles that are underlying those love handles. It will not get rid of them on their own. It is recommended that you look into a full body workout that will allow you to lower your body fat in this area as well as all others. We’ll get into more of that in just a few minutes.
Right now, start by getting those muscles in shape. While you should do other exercises for weight loss, you should do these exercises for your abdominal muscles specifically. This will help you to build strong muscle masses under those love handles that will ultimately be what is seen on your stomach, instead of handles.
Next, consider what it takes to improve your body’s body fat count. This is the key ingredient to losing weight and losing those love handles altogether.
Chapter 4: Exercising For Weight Loss And Love Handle Loss
Only part of the process of getting abdominal muscles has to do with working your ab muscles. In fact, you need to do much more to get rid of those love handles. Here’s why.
For those that have “love handles” or a large amount of stored fat around the middle section to the sides of the body, the goal must be to remove the fat. The muscle tissue lies underneath the layers of fatty tissue.
While working your muscles underneath will help them to develop into the “six pack” that you are looking for, they won’t be seen unless the stored fat surrounding them is removed.
In short, you have to lose the weight around your middle section so that your great looking muscles can be seen. To do this, you need to work on weight loss as a whole for your body.
Spot Reducing: It Won’t Help
Many people believe that they can “spot reduce” their way. This means that they want to target one specific area of the body to lose weight. It won’t work.
Spot reducing doesn’t work for a number of reasons including the fact that your body won’t respond well and if it does, you are likely to gain the weight back again.
In effect, if you want to lose the weight around your middle, only working your middle section will not help you to lose those pounds. As we have discussed, building muscles in your abdominal region is important for shaping them, but those exercises will not help you to burn through the weight stored there.
Instead of concentrating all of your energy on the location of your fat stores, work on improving your overall fitness, trimming fat from around your entire body. This will be the most effective way for you to drop the pounds around your middle section too. Forget about spot reducing.
You need two types of workouts to make this happen. You need to tone your muscles through the exercises that we have indicated in the earlier chapter. You also need to exercise to burn through stored fat.
Exercising For Weight Loss
Weight loss happens in several key ways. You’ll need to incorporate these into your daily exercise routine so that you can better improve your fitness level.
1. Cardiovascular Workouts
2. Muscle Toning/Weight Training Workouts
Combined you have the benefit of burning more calories faster and that leads to fast and effective (not to mention long term) weight loss.
Cardiovascular Workouts
Cardiovascular workouts, often called cardio workouts for short, are workouts that help your body to burn calories faster. Cardio workouts require that your body push harder and that requires additional exercise. As you run, jog, jump rope or perform other cardio exercises, your body begins to demand more energy from you. This energy will then come from your stored fat.
Cardio is an effective way to burn through stored fat and should be a key element in your workout to lose those love handles. Because you are demanding more from your body, it has to go to those stored fat cells to give it to you. The end result is weight loss.
The most effective type of cardio is the type that is comfortable for you to do. You can ride a bike, swim, jump rope, walk on a treadmill, jog or do other activities. Virtually any activity that gets your heart rate pumping is ideal.
As for how you will know if you are doing your workout to the right level, this can be measured simply. You should be working out to the point where it is uncomfortable and difficult for you to maintain a conversation. For example, if you are running on a treadmill, you should find it difficult to talk to the person next to you during the heart of your workout.
Warm up and cool down exercises are important here. You should walk for a few minutes before jumping on the bike. After you finish your workout, invest another ten minutes in cooling down with another walk. Of course, you should also make sure that you are stretching those muscles, flexing your joints and preparing your body for what lies ahead.
Most physical trainers will tell you that the more cardio training or workouts you do, the better it will be for your weight loss goals. For starters, dedicate at least 20 minutes every other day to working a cardio workout. Once this becomes comfortable for you, try to maintain a five to six day a week, 20 minute session each time. Some trainers encourage those that are looking to reduce their weight by just a small amount to workout twice a day.
There is much discussion about when you should be working out, as well. For cardio workouts, the most effective time to workout is in the morning, after you have gotten up for the morning and before you have eaten anything. This can be helpful to you because it provides your body with calorie burning that must come from stored fat.
For example, if you just woke up, there is no food in your stomach for the energy to come from. Rather, it must come from the stored fat. If you are working out, on the other hand, after your lunch, you have plenty of food there and that is what will be burned before stored fat will be.
Aim to workout each morning, after you have gotten out of bed and before eating breakfast.
Weight Training
The other form of exercise that you need in order to burn off those love handles is weight training. We have discussed some great exercises to improve your abdominal muscles and these are great for workouts for those muscles, but not nearly enough for weight loss.
The first question you are likely to ask is, “Why am I building muscles when I want to lose weight?”
The fact is that weight loss is actually much more effective, faster and easier to maintain when you have fully developed, lean muscle mass as opposed to loose, flabby muscles. Lean muscles burn energy faster than muscles that are not toned.
One thing to note is that you are not necessarily looking for a body builder type of muscle system. You won’t look bulky and have large muscles through a weight training workout. Instead, you are toning those muscles to be fat burning tools for you.
You can do this in a number of ways, with various exercises and movements. The goal is to tone all of your muscle masses effectively. This takes some long term dedication by you. You’ll need to work on your muscle training several times per week, pushing yourself to a higher level every time.
One of the most effective ways to get the weight training that you need is through a personal trainer. They can help target each large and small muscle group in your body so that you can see pounds come off. Generally, you should be able to do some weight training yourself. But, for outstanding results find and invest in a personal trainer through your local gym or recreation center.
What To Workout:
Work opposing areas of the body each workout. For example, on Monday’s work your legs. On Tuesday, give your muscles the chance to heal. On Wednesday, work your upper body. Thursday should be a rest and so forth. If you try to do the same muscles two workouts in a row, you are likely to over-train which can lead to muscle tearing and injury.
If you work with a personal trainer, you also gain the benefit of using weight machines and having someone to “spot” you, or protect you from falling. The goal will always be to be safe during these types of workouts. If you will not be training with a personal trainer, invest in a weight training program that provides good muscle tone at a gradual rate, not overdoing it or building huge muscles.
How Often:
For weight loss, you should work on improving your muscle tone three times per week. This requires approximately a 40 to 60 minute session with a personal trainer or as long as it takes to get through a workout on your own. It is necessary not to strain here as this will cause your body to fall back in toning rather than moving forward.
What To Workout:
Once again, no spot reducing will work. It is essential instead to concentrate on a full body program. You should work all muscle groups including your back, your arms, your abdominal muscles, your legs and your chest. By doing this, you will help tone each of your muscles fully. The end result is weight loss produced by all muscles.
It will be important for you to fully workout each muscle group through weight lifting and through resistance training.
Here’s a basic plan to get you started on those love handles.
• Plan to work all of your major muscle groups each week.
• Try for three days a week, a day between workouts.
• Start with lifting the largest amount of weight that you are comfortable with, doing 8 to 12 repetitions of that exercise. To know if you are getting enough weight, it should become difficult for you to do all 12 reps. If it is not, increase the weight.
• Once you can do 12 reps of the movement, increase the weight by five to ten percent which will help you to gain strength.
Again, it is highly recommended to work with a personal trainer to optimize your workout.
Why It Works: Your Metabolism
Lean muscle mass is where most of your calories are burned throughout your body. For most, after the age of 25, you will begin to lose about half a pound or more of lean muscle mass every year. This reduces your resting metabolic rate (which is the rate at which your body uses fuel when you are at rest or just doing the standard functions of your body.)
When you begin to lose muscle mass, your body also needs fewer calories but most don’t actually reduce the amount of calories they take in which results in increased weight gain.
In other words, you need to increase your resting metabolic rate so that you are burning calories all the time. The only way to do this is through building lean muscle mass by lifting weights and doing forms of resistance training.
We mentioned how important cardio workouts are, but weigh training is also important. With weight training, you are increasing your metabolic rate, but this does not happen with cardio workouts. There, you simply burn more calories for the amount of time that you are doing the workout. The after burn of the cardio workout only lasts at the most two hours.
The bottom line is that if you want to burn calories all day long, every day, you need to have a weight training workout included in your workout.
Pulling It Together
Exercise is a core element in getting rid of your love handles because it helps you to tone muscles and to burn through fat. Your workout should include a series of exercises that accomplish all of your fitness goals.
• Goal 1: Tone the abdominal muscles.
• Goal 2: Build lean muscle to increase your resting metabolic rate to burn fat all the time.
• Goal 3: Cardio workouts to improve the number of calories you burn daily.
When you bring these three exercise specific goals together, you will lose those love handles, quickly. Most importantly, it will help to deliver long term health and increase your ability to keep the weight off.
Most of this work can be done right from your home, with little to no investment in equipment. Yet, you can get an optimized result by joining a gym or better yet working with a personal trainer.
Chapter 5: Your Eating Lifestyle
Although the term diet is used heavily when referring to regrouping your eating habits so that you begin to lose weight, it may not be the right term for you to use. Instead, consider your new eating plan to be an eating lifestyle. An eating lifestyle implies that you’ll need to make changes to the foods that you eat for the long term, not during a limited “dieting” period.
Do you have to give up every single food that is bad for you? You should change your mind set from being that you are giving up on these foods that you love and instead rewarding yourself with them. Eating healthy well balanced meals is an essential part to losing weight, especially losing those love handles.
There are several key things that you have to do in order to improve your eating lifestyle. Take the time to implement these changes into your daily lifestyle to see improved results quickly.
Your goal is to reduce body fat throughout your body, particularly your abdominal muscles. To do this, it will require a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables and one that is low in fats and sugars. There are several key areas to focus on here. We’ll go through them individually here.
Protein
Protein is a necessary element in muscle building and toning. Your body requires a good amount of protein if it will have the tools necessary to heal your muscles after a workout and help them to expand and grow. By providing enough of the right type of protein to your body, you can enhance your muscle growth.
During the first few weeks of your workout regimen to lose those love handles, you’ll want to drastically change your diet to include the right amount of grams of protein. Here’s the plan:
• Try to consume equal amounts of protein to good carbohydrates at each meal and to include a snack of protein between meals.
• Your goal is for 20 to 25 grams of protein for each meal. Another 10 to 15 per snack can help as well.
Protein should come from lean meats, eggs, fish and beans. Look for proteins that do not have much or any fat in them. Adding saturated fat to your diet (such as with red meat) can cause you to simply put the fat back on that you are trying to reduce from your body. Therefore, limit red meats and consume more chicken and fish for an overall plan.
Vegetables
Increase your number and types of vegetables. This is where a good amount of nutrients will come from. Vegetables are packed with nutrients that your body needs not only to help rebuild muscles, but also to stimulate weight loss. The more deeply colored vegetables that you eat, the more nutrients you are getting.
Here’s the plan:
• Incorporate a variety of colors into your diet including deep greens, red, orange, and yellows. The color of a vegetable can help you to tell which nutrients it contains.
• The deeper the color, or the more vibrant, the more nutrients the vegetable has.
• Steam vegetables rather than sautéing them in butters and oils. This reduces the amount of fat that you get per serving. Vegetables should contain little to no fats. Of course, the best to prepare are those that are whole vegetables rather than cans products, but frozen vegetables are also ideal.
• Try new vegetables that you haven’t had before. You may actually like them!
Vegetables should be considered as “free food” in that you can consume as much as you would like to, assuming that no additional oils or fats are added to them. When you are hungry, then, reach for your vegetables, either raw or cooked, instead of other foods.
Fatty Acids
Believe it or not, some fats are necessary to any diet as they provide health and wellness to you. Beyond a doubt, you should have a diet that is full of these oils, but only the right ones.
Eating lean fish is one of the best ways to get the essential fatty acids that your body requires. But even doing that does not provide enough of what you need. Instead, consider a supplemental form as well. Fish oils in particular are ideal for you.
In fact, in some research studies, results have shown that consumer omega 3 fish oils can help you to boost the amount of fat that you lose and it helps you to keep weight loss off as well.
Also, consider the types of oils that you eat in your diet. Instead of vegetable oils or other oils that are full of saturated fats, switch to healthier versions.
One of the best that you should consider are those that are “heart healthy” includes olive oil. Look for extra virgin olive oil, which is a good for your heart and your reduction of those love handles.
Here’s your plan:
• Eat as much fish as you can that is fresh and baked, rather than deep fried.
• Add a supplement of Omega-3 to your diet. Talk to your health food provider about how much you should take for your body’s size and stature.
• Replace vegetable oils and other fatty oils with oils with reduced fats in them that include healthy fats. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is ideal.
Sugars
We’ve talked a bit about sugars in this book already, but in a negative sense. Sugars in the blood are required for energy, but in a person that is overweight, they can be horribly limiting. Sugars should be defined, then.
Carbohydrates should be eaten, but you should stick with whole grains (look for products that specifically say 100 percent whole grain or 100 percent whole wheat on them, instead of just “whole grain.”
White carbohydrates like white bread, white rice, and white potatoes are too easily converted into sugars which will lead to increased problems with insulin. They don’t allow you to lose weight nearly as effectively as if you were switching to whole grain products.
What’s more, most people won’t tell the taste difference in these products! Switching from whites to whole grain should not affect your favorite food flavors.
In addition, you should avoid highly sugared foods, or foods that are high in sugar in general.
Removing as much sugar from your diet as possible will enhance your weight loss and provide you with reduction in those love handles. Eat foods that are low glycemic carbohydrates which will help to keep your insulin levels low.
This will help to keep your blood sugar levels steady and help you to control low levels that cause you to grab something unhealthy to eat. Overeating can be reduced by eating these foods, too!
Here’s your plan:
• Reduce the amount of sugars in your diet.
• Eat whole grains rather than “white carbohydrates.”
• When you crave something that is sweet, reach for fruit where you get sugars from naturally. In addition, fruits are filled with great taste and provide additional nutrients to your diet. Don’t eat canned fruits that are packed in sugar syrups.
A dessert is a great time for a sweet treat. But, try to eat this in the afternoon rather than after dinner. What’s more; go with a piece of fruit rather than cookies, candies or ice cream. If you do reach for treats that aren’t healthy for you, limit this to one time per week. Make it a reward for a job well done during the rest of the week.
Antioxidants
Vegetables are a great source of antioxidants, which is another reason why you have to keep them in your diet. Antioxidants are ideal for many health concerns in the body, including weight loss. They are nutrients that work at removing free radicals from your body.
Free radicals are the “problems” in your body. They can clog up your cells, making it harder for waste to move through them. They can clog your arteries, helping to close them up and cause heart disease. Free radicals are the agents in your body that can lead to cancer, too. By flushing away these free radicals with the help of antioxidants, you improve your overall health.
Antioxidants have also been shown to help with weight loss in much of the same way. They help to stimulate your metabolism, encouraging your body to use the stored fat around your mid section and help you to lose weight.
The most prolific amount of antioxidants comes in the form of vegetables. You’ll find them throughout your diet. Different colors of vegetables give you additional antioxidants. But, this alone isn’t enough. You should supplement your diet with additional antioxidants.
A great tasting and easy way to do that is through green tea. You simply need a cup of green tea with each of your meals to stimulate your metabolism. It can be hot or iced, depending on the way that you like it! What’s more, there are only up to five calories in a serving, which is much less than soda pop or other sugared products.
There are other teas besides green tea that can add to your weight loss as well. Try Pu-erh and Oolong teas for additional weight loss benefits.
Here’s your plan:
• Eat foods rich in antioxidants
• Drink green tea as a supplement of antioxidants.
• Add additional teas that motivate your weight loss as well.
Supplements
The final consideration for improving your weight loss through the eating lifestyle that you have is through supplementation. Supplements are important because even when you do eat a healthy diet, you are likely not getting the amount of nutrients that you really need. There are two sides to this coin.
You may not get enough nutrients because of the limited amount of food you are consuming. And, you may not be getting enough nutrients because the foods that you are eating still don’t provide enough.
Supplements are simple to add to your day, making them one of the easiest ways to change your diet without realizing it. They, along with other healthy diet lifestyle choices can improve your overall health by far.
The main reason to consume supplements is not to aid in weight loss outright, but to provide your body with increased nutrients so that it can accomplish the goals that you are setting forth. Therefore, you don’t need to get into any of those over promising supplement products on the market that truly can’t help you.
Look for high quality, multi vitamins and fish oils to consume. You should also encourage your personal trainer to help you to determine the right supplements for the type of weight training that you are doing. This can help you to determine which nutrients your body needs to aid in muscle growth.
Pulling It Together
It is essential for you to put together a health regimen that includes all of these ingredients for your diet. Here are a few further considerations that you must have.
• Portion control: Controlling the amount of food that you consume per meal is essential. Proteins should be no more than the size of your palm. Limit every portion to that size or smaller, and not mounded either. Use eight inch plates to help control portions.
• Eat slowly: This will help your metabolism to kick in and help you to consume your food better. It also helps your “full” feeling to set in faster so that ultimately you can stop eating sooner and still feel full.
• Make snacking a habit: Eating three meals per day is great, but you should reduce their size and add a mid morning and a mid afternoon snack into your daily diet as well. This keeps your metabolism moving. It should be healthy and smaller sized portions as this is a snack, not a meal.
• Prepare instead of heat. Instead of grabbing a very bad for you frozen dinner, instead consider preparing your meals yourself. This will encourage healthy eating of whole vegetables that are simply healthier for you and will enhance your lifestyle.
• Talk to your doctor. He’ll help you to determine, based on your height, weight and goals, what your calories per day should be. There are also caloric calculators that can be used to help you do this throughout the web.
Doing these things will help you to motivate your weight loss. When you combine a healthy food lifestyle, you can overall manage your weight loss better. It makes working out more productive. It helps you to see weight loss that is long lasting and steady. What’s more, you are improving your overall health at the same time, possibly forcing diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease off for years or completely.
With the right recipes, you will never miss the foods that you believe that you love now. You’ll feel good about the health that you are gaining, too.
Chapter 6: Managing Stress
Throughout this book, we have discussed many areas in which you have to dedicate yourself to improving health and wellness in order to lose those love handles. We can not forget to mention that stress and the way that you live your current lifestyle also plays a role in your success.
There are many things in life that feel like they must be done. Things like handling 10 hours a day of work, plus long commutes home and add on to that all of the stresses of managing a home and family, and there is no doubt you have every reason in the world to be overstressed and your love handles are showing it.
Yet, finding ways to reduce that level of stress will actually help you to improve your overall health and encourage your body to show that instead. The good news is that your body is a machine, packed with all it needs to recover from virtually any situation.
Therefore, taking proper steps now to improve the quality of your life will ultimately help you to gain back some of what you have lost due to stress. The problem is, though, that you have to make some changes to see results.
The fact is that stress has an impact on your life, including on your health. Therefore, it has to be part of your overall health improvement plan if you are to see results.
The Science Of Stress
Stress is part of your plan to get rid of your love handles because it affects the effectiveness of losing weight and developing the muscles in that region of your body. The science behind what stress does to your body is compelling evidence that you must pay attention to it.
Stress causes your body to produce more of a specific hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is called the stress hormone. Cortisol has its good points and has to be included in your body’s make up, but what it does when increased in production is actually the exact opposite of what you want to happen.
Cortisol increases the breakdown of your muscle mass especially when increased levels are present over a long period of time. What’s more, it also helps to placement of fat around your mid section, and therefore helps to create those love handles that you want to avoid.
These two things can cause you many problems. Even when you strive to add exercise and a healthy food lifestyle better, cortisol can be working against you. The good news is that there is help for you.
There are two things to concentrate on here. You should work to reduce the amount of stress that you deal with on a regular basis. Removing situations from your life that are overly stressful will help. By giving yourself time to de-stress; such as doing things that you enjoy is also helpful. You should incorporate time for yourself to do enjoyable activities, even though you may think that you just don’t have the time or energy to do that.
What’s more, the other aspect to consider in fighting cortisol is to include an herbal compliment to your diet. The herb Relora is ideal for improving stress hormone levels. Consuming it daily can help you to reduce your stress levels as well as help you to reduce your love handles. You can purchase this in a supplement form that can easily be consumed daily. Another herb to look into is phosphatidylserine. It can help your muscles to overcome the effects of cortisol and helps to improve the brain’s reaction to stress in general. Overall, these can help you to overcome stress in your life.
While removing all stress from your life is not likely to be an easy job to do, reducing it in the other ways, or overcoming it through supplements can help your overall plan.
Conclusion
It sounds so easy to lose those love handles. All you have to do are a few sit-ups and you’ll be well on your way, right? As you have seen throughout this book, that’s not possible, but it is possible for you to effectively get rid of those ugly and very unhealthy love handles.
Incorporating a process of removing fat from your body, enhancing muscle tone and eating a healthy diet can help you to overcome those love handles.
What’s more, with increased help in toning the abdominal muscles, you can sculpt for yourself a “six pack” or at least a tone abdomen that you can enjoy.
Take the time to incorporate each area of this book into your life.
• Perform abdominal exercises that will tone your muscles.
• Lose weight through weight training and cardio workouts.
• Improve your diet for overall health and to lose weight.
• Remove stress from your life and pay attention to the triggers that hurt you.
Doing these things will ultimately help you to improve your overall health but also help you to trim off those love handles so that you can be proud of the way that you look.