How To Lose Love Handles

For most of us, there is nothing really loveable about love handles. In fact, most of us would rather that our bodies remain love-handle-free. When the spare tire begins to grow, however, we know it is time to get in gear and begin really working on our bodies. Love handles can be found on both men and women (though women usually refer to love handles as belly fat or a muffin top). Here is some advice on how to lose love handles:

1. Don't try to spot reduce your fat around this area. The truth is that the body increases and decreases all of its fat stores at the same time. This means that it is important to exercise your entire body--all three muscular systems--or you won't see anything remotely resembling the results you are hoping for. It is important to exercise your entire body for health reasons as well. When you work on your entire body you'll burn more calories and build your overall physical health.

2. Some people advocate working extra on certain target areas of your body to speed up the results that you want to see. While a little bit of target training can be beneficial it is important to not overdo it. When you over exercise a certain area, the muscles there become more developed than the muscles in other areas of your body. This could lead to your love handles becoming more pronounced as you build muscle more quickly than you burn fat.

3. In addition to regular exercise, it is important that you eat a healthy diet. Make sure to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables as these contain natural fat fighters like pectin and vitamin C. What's more, fresh fruits and vegetables are easier for the body to process, which means that the body won't need to store as much of your meal as fat! The easiest way to diet is to switch from a 100% craving diet where you eat whatever you feel like to a 70/30 plan. This is where you plan out about seventy percent of your diet, making sure that the food you eat is healthy and good for you; and thirty percent of your diet is reserved for those junk food cravings we all get from time to time. This alone will be a great help to get rid of love handles.

4. Drink plenty of water. The daily recommended level of water consumption is six to eight glasses every day. This is what our bodies need to stay properly hydrated and keep our insides working correctly. One of the easiest ways to cut down on your calories and get enough water each day is to replace all of your sodas, coffees, teas and juices with plain water. You could easily cut hundreds of calories out of your diet by doing this!

These are just four tips to help answer how to lose love handles in a safe and healthy way. Remember that losing them will take time and nothing, short of surgery, will rid you of your fat cells quickly and permanently.