Love/Hate Handles

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Love Handles, or as I prefer to call them, Hate Handles. Afterall, I don't know anyone who likes having excess fat bulging out of their waist. Who likes their excess 'bits' being grabbed on to and seeing their excess bulging out of thier clothes. Not Me! and neither did the person who emailed me for some advice on how to gir rid of her excess baggage. So I thought it would be a good topic to discuss.

But first let's chew the fat..on fat! Women have more fat cells than men. Whereas the average man has 26 billion fat cells, or adipocytes, in his body, the average female has 35 billion.
Fat comprises 27% of an average woman's total body-weight but for a man comprises only 15%. Nature ordains that women have more fat on their bodies than men. Fat is essential for reproduction and therefore fat stores are maintained on the female body in case of pregnancy. However, while 17% of men suffer from obesity, the obesity figure for women is 20%.

How are love handles formed?

Those statistics are rather frightening aren't they? and it seems most of the 35 billion fat cells that we have seem to congregate around the lower side of the external oblique abdominal muscles - which is where most of us would love to lose the fat. The excess storage of fat in this area is often referred to as "love handles", and is caused mainly through the build up of excess fat. The size may also be exasperated as gravity pulls fat from the sides down to create a more bulging area. The bulge can often
be visible even when light clothes are worn. This can give rise to the illusion that there is much more fat around that specific area than there actually is.

The same process occurs at the front, lower region of the stomach, there should generally be an even spread of stored fat over the front abs however, as fat builds up from gaining weight gravity pulls most of it down to form a bulge or the common "beer belly". To illustrate this point, how many times have you lay on the floor and the fat disperses back to its natural position with the effect of a slimmer stomach?

What exercises help lose love handles
No excessive amounts of ab exercises is going to get rid of your love handles.
So get rid of your 'ab king', 'ab lounge' or any other gimmick you've been suckered into buying. Fat stored around the love handles or stomach area can only be lost through a combination of 3 things: balanced diet, aerobic exercises and weight training (including doing ab exercises).

The Diet. The most popular and straightforward way to produce a negative calorie balance is to diet. Eating 500 fewer calories per day results in a pound of fat loss per week. Still, even though dieting works reasonably well as a weight loss strategy, it has serious drawbacks.
For example, when we reduce our calorie consumption most of the additional energy comes from stored fat, however, some of the additional energy comes from protein stores which results in muscle loss. Very low calorie diets (600-900 calories per day) may produce almost as much muscle loss as fat loss, which generates an additional problem. The reduction in muscle mass causes a corresponding decrease in metabolic rate, making further fat loss even more difficult.

The Cardio. A better approach to weight loss is via aerobic exercise, that is, exercise which uses continuous large muscle groups in activities like running, cycling, and swimming. Take cycling, for example. Depending on the level of intensity, 500 calories could be consumed by a rider on a thirty to fifty minute ride. In addition to burning calories, aerobic exercise stimulates a variety of beneficial cardiovascular adaptations: the heart becomes a stronger pump, the circulatory network becomes more efficient, and the blood becomes a better transporter.

Unlike dieting, which often leaves us feeling deprived of the foods we love, aerobic exercise adds something positive to our lives – physical activity. An unlike dieting, aerobic exercise need not be a short-term cycle. When combined into our regular routine, aerobic exercise actually lets us eat a little more so we can meet the extra energy needed to do cardio.

The Weights. One of the biggest mistakes people do when they're trying to lose weight is dropping their weight training as they think doing weights will keep them looking big and stop them from losing weight. But in fact doing weights is one of the best ways to control weight because it causes a double reducing effect. First, resistance training is vigorous physical activity: a significant number of calories are burned during exercise. Second, the additional muscle tissue produced by resistance training increases resting metabolism: calories are burned at a higher rate all day long – regardless of activity or inactivity.

In the absence of regular resistance training, our muscle fibers simply become smaller and weaker at a slow but consistent rate. It’s a phenomenon called disuse atrophy – essentially the same thing that occurs to an arm that has been immobilized in a cast. And aerobic exercise, even though it’s extremely beneficial for our cardiovascular system, does not prevent disuse atrophy in muscles. Only regular resistance training can maintain (or increase) muscle mass.

This has important weight loss and dieting implications because muscle mass directly affects metabolic rate. A very active tissue, muscle utilizes energy continually for protein synthesis, maintenance, and rebuilding processes. Even when we sleep our skeletal muscles are responsible for over 25 percent of our total energy expenditure. In fact, exercise physiologists believe that every pound of muscle we add or lose as an adult is worth about 350 calories per week.

Summary
The best way to get rid of your Love handles is to combine a balanced diet with a good training and aerobic regime. To decrease the size of some of your 35 billion fat cells, you should do at least 3 days weight training - which could be an overall body workout combined with 4 x 30min cardio on a stationary bike or traeadmill. But to make things more interesting, and keep you moitvated, is to walk outside with a friend so you can whine about your love/hate handles together!