Love handles are a frequent source of frustration because once they show up, they stick around like uninvited guests. Since they’re hard to get rid of, figuring out the right love-handle workouts can be tough. How do you find the ideal love-handles workout for you? Learn what works and what doesn’t so you know how to get rid of love handles as effectively as possible. 

Spot Reduction: Myth or Reality?

Love handles are just fat retention, but they’re stubbornly difficult to lose because your body loses fat in the reverse order that you gain it. Abdominal fat retention can be due simply to genetic patterns of fat storage, hormones, age, diet, or a lack of adequate sleep and exercise. You can improve your diet, sleep, and exercise frequency, but age, hormones, and genetic tendencies are what they are.

Because this area is a trouble spot, people look for ways to spot-reduce that fat. Unfortunately, spot reduction is a myth. There’s really no such thing unless you’re looking at surgical interventions, which are both risky and costly. If you want to know how to get rid of love handles, practice love-handle workouts that build core strength and muscle mass and ultimately help you lose weight overall. That way, your love-handles exercises are focused on improving your fitness and health in general.

Nutrition’s Role in Love Handle Loss

Love handles are the result of a fat storage pattern, so improving your nutrition can help. Better nutrition improves weight loss, making your love handles workout even more effective. Remember that healthy nutrition is about more than cutting weight—it’s about giving your body the nutrition it needs without the excess:

• Eat whole foods. Skip processed foods. Replace bread and pasta with whole, complex carbs like sweet potatoes, brown rice, or steel-cut oats. Leafy green veggies and lean proteins–—like chicken, fish, tofu, and lean turkey or bison—keep you full and help muscles recover.
  

• Choose healthy fats. Your body requires good fat to function properly and shed unhealthy fat. Olive oil, coconut oil, fatty fish, avocados, nuts, and seeds all provide healthy fats (along with other benefits, like omega-3 fatty acids) to help decrease abdominal fat and maintain your energy.
  

• Skip the fake stuff. If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat or drink it–including artificial sweeteners. For sweet cravings, try fruit or natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup. Adding cinnamon works, too.
  

• Go organic. Studies show organic milk and meat contain about 50% more beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, lower levels of saturated fats, and higher concentrations of essential vitamins and minerals than conventionally produced products.
  

• Drink more water (and less booze). Drinking enough water keeps you hydrated, fights bloating, and reduces feelings of hunger (which are often thirst). Additionally, cutting alcohol cuts a ton of calories and keeps your body healthier, too.

Toning Exercises for Love Handles

Need help finding love-handle workouts? Start by incorporating exercises for love handles that work your abdominals, back, hips, and legs to reduce body fat. Incorporate full-body cardio, too. Try these exercises to get rid of love handles and tone the area as much as possible.

Side Planks

Side planks are ideal workouts for love handles because they work the muscles underneath, called obliques, plus your hips and back. Lie on your side, propped on one elbow, with hips and legs resting on the ground. Engage your abs, then raise your hips and legs off the ground, keeping your body straight from your elbow to your feet. Lower hips and repeat 15 times.

Seated Trunk Twists

Also called “Russian twists,” these exercises to get rid of love handles work your full core. Sit with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Lean your torso back at a 45° angle. Engage your core, then twist your arms and torso as far as you can to the left, then the right. Do several sets of 10, holding a weight if desired. 

Bicycle Crunches

This rotating crunch accesses your obliques and improves spine flexibility. Lie on your back with knees bent and hands behind your head. Engage your abs, then lift your shoulders, upper back, and feet off the ground. Move the left elbow toward the right knee. Switch to bring your right elbow to your left knee. Repeat 30 times.

Jump rope

For a full-body workout, jump roping is one of the most effective ways to get some good cardio, increase your core strength, and burn fat. Jumping rope for 20 minutes a day can have a huge impact. Five to 10 minutes is great when you’re first starting. 

The best exercise for love handles is the one you’ll actually do. If you need help with motivation or creating love-handle workouts, Jack City Fitness can help. Our coaches can help you design the ideal love-handles workout for you. Ready to get started? 

Get in touch today or call (208) 999-1111 for more information. We’re excited to help you chase those love handles away!