WHAT ARE LOVE HANDLES?
Tags: Fitness Tips, Fitness

Hello friends! Welcome back to my fitness blog. Here I have come up with a brand new and exciting topic, “Love Handles.” Now, you might be wondering, “What are love handles?”

Well, the term refers to the extra deposit of fat around your belly or stomach. Both women and men can develop love handles.

Small pockets of surplus fats on each side of the waist and above the hip bone are called love handles.

They are also popular with the term “muffin tops.” That is because of its similarity to puffed-up muffins. Crazy. Isn’t it? But that’s true.

Furthermore, both the terms may sound fascinating, but they refer to fat deposits in the abdominal area and the hips.

What are love handles? — Let’s dive deeper

As we already discussed, love handles occur because of fat storage around the abdominal area and hips. If you are also suffering from it, you can reduce it.

For example, you can maintain a moderate weight and practice regular exercise. Moreover, you should avoid wearing tight clothes to decrease your love handles’ appearance further.

Honestly, love handles are nothing to be ashamed of, or they’re not at all dangerous in themselves. Even you don’t have to get rid of them if you don’t want to.

But, they can still signal obesity, which may cause an increased risk of certain health conditions.

So, I have clearly explained, “what are love handles?”

So now let’s talk about what causes love handles. I will also tell you about some love handle exercises and simple lifestyle changes that will help you to reduce the appearance of love handles.

What causes love handles?

The main cause for fat build-up is lack of exercise and eating extra calories than your body needs. Your body accumulates energy that it can’t burn, and it develops in the form of extra fat.

Genetics also has a major role in the build-up of love handles. They can also occur due to hormonal imbalance in women, menopause, aging, or andropause in men.

Females can develop this condition after delivery with weight gain. At times, body types also decide the fat deposits.

Most people try to eliminate the side fat by spot reduction, but that’s not possible. Fat pockets around the hips and stomach are very difficult to lose.

After some simple steps and daily workout routines can keep you fit. Consecutively, it can eliminate the emergence of love handles.

You can try some toning exercise to reduce love handles.

Common Causes of Love Handles

The major source for the appearance of love handles is storing surplus fat on the abdomen and the hips.

Furthermore, the surplus fat retentions can be because of numerous reasons. Knowing the causes or reasons for the love handle occurrence is the initial step to eliminate them.

Medical Conditions

Medical conditions such as post-operative recovery, slip disk, and hypothyroidism can cause weight gain around the hips and abdominal area.

Genetic Structure

Your body’s genetic structure makes it challenging to get rid of love handles. Various lifestyle issues and poor dietary cause extra fat deposits.

Alcohol

Alcoholic drinks are considered high-calorie foods. You can easily gain weight if you overdo your regular calorie limit.

However, you can avoid it by carefully consuming the calories through alcohol.

Lower Activity Level

Exercises and physical activities can aid in burning calories. Moreover, lack of exercise is another main cause of fat deposits.

People following a sitting lifestyle tend to eat more calories, and it’s quite the opposite for people who exercise daily. Also, regular workout aids to improve your sleep quality.

Sleep Deprivation

Lack of enough sleep is related to having a bigger waist size. Adults should take at least 7–9 hours of sleep at night.

Waking up late-night can reduce your energy level, which ultimately increases your food craving and cause weight gain.

In addition, sleep deprivation leads to reduced energy and physical inactivity for movements during your day.

Poor Diet

Your daily intake and love handle go together and fill up your body with excess calories that it requires.

Plenty of people prefers fast foods and sugary drinks, which contain a higher calorific value. Though you may not feel fuller, it deducts a huge portion of your regular calorie limit.

Making bad choices in diet will cause surplus fat all over your body, which also includes love handles.

Another major reason is that people tend to eat spicy food, fat, and carbohydrates to recompense lack of nourishment with taste.

Unbalanced eating patterns, sedentary lifestyles, and late-night dinners add to this issue.

Ageing

When you age, your body fat deposits also change, and most people start to accumulate fat in the hip and belly area.

The main cause is the loss of muscle and the hormonal shift. However, in females, the release of estrogen after menopause can also cause love handles.

High Cortisol Level

When you are under stress, your body automatically produces a metabolic hormone known as Cortisol, which is the primary stress hormone in the human body.

The creation of Cortisol in higher quantity causes fat deposits around your abdomen.

People who constantly face stressful circumstances may develop Cushing’s syndrome. Fat deposits in the lower body are a sign of this syndrome.

Top 5 suggested exercises for side fat

Though no particular exercise can remove love handles and make you reduce fat straight from there, the below-mentioned love handle workout can help to tone your midsection.

Click Here to know about “top 5 exercises to reduce side fat”.