Lose Love-Handles
 

ok, so I recently decided that I'm going to get myself back into shape and lose about 20 pounds or so. So far, I'm two weeks into this and am starting to see slight results. I have been watching what I eat, going for daily ~2km runs, doing sit ups and push ups and some light weights (i dont actually own anything heavier), and am working on quitting smoking. So far, I have dropped almost 5 pounds and can see it on my stomach and chest. My main problem is my spare tire. I cant seem to get the love handles a good enough work out and was looking for some opinions on what people know/have tried to deal with this. All I have really been doing is the running, regular sit ups and the side to side sit ups, where you touch your left elbow to right knee and vice versa. I was hoping you guys and gals would have some good suggestions for me here. Thanks for all replies :)

Just keep on workin out. For men the love handles is the last fat stores you will lose, for women it's butt and hips.

Keep doing those sit-ups! Sit-ups work wonders. If you can work your way up to fifty a day then you'll start seeing some major results. If you can, try doing some pull ups except when you pull up, also pull your knees up to you chest. Full body workout. Maybe you aren't quite ready for that one, but I'd say so far you're doing all the right things. Keep up the good work!

ok, thanks a lot for the quick responses guys. i guess i was just looking for too much too soon. i will keep at it and see how everything works out. thanks again

I'm no expert on this, but I'm speaking from personal experience. Love Handles are, sadly, the last thing that will go when you loose weight. I've started dieting and excersizing (Jeez, how do you spell that?) a year a go and lost around 70 pounds since. I still need to loose around 10 pounds to get the right weight/height ratio, but most of my fat is gone except for the stomach areas. This is the last place that fat will burn and also the first place it will appear when you gain weight (that's true for men, I'm not sure about women). It's really a bugger, because it's possible that after some time you'll look at yourself and say: "screw it, I'm working my ass off and it doesn't seem my fat's goin' anywhere". The fact is that it's going in layers, so to speak. Summing up, remember this - burning love handles is the most difficult part.

I dropped 22 pounds at the start of the year (got a little too festive with the holidays). Took me about three months to reach my goal, but I did it by lowering carbs (though not to Atkins like extremes), cutting out fried foods, only having one or two beers a week (and then, Coors Light). The biggest help, though, was waking up before my wife and doing her aerobic tapes (so I wouldn't be laughed at for me lack of dexterity :)) and taking the stairs to my office at work instead of the elevators.

It's 13 floors up, so it's a good workout - and I only let myself take the elevator at lunch on Fridays. Even after I lost the weight (and the spare tire), I kept going with the stairs to help keep it off and it's worked miracles. So far this year, I've cimbed up and down over 2200 stories. Yikes!

Good luck! It's frustrating that it takes so long, but it's soooo worth it when the clothes that used to be too tight are now too loose.

try crunches. try leaning to either side while doing them.

You've actually gotten pretty good results in just 2 weeks. You might try to increase your aerobic activity a bit to lose it faster. But you are losing and will continue to do so at this rate. Good job.

My girlfriend found a good exercise to get rid of the handles. Hold 5pound weights in each of your hands and then lift up one side while leaning to the otherside lowering the wieght. Seems simple but it does a lot of good

Fat loss is overall, you can't target a specific area.

Doing exercises that focus on those muscles under your love handles aren't going to make you lose fat there any faster. It sounds to me like you are on the right track, so just keep it up :)

thanks again guys, its still going quite well :)

Heh, I'm trying to lose weight there too, and in 2 months have gone from weighing 293 to 255 (Atkins diet), and have seen noticeable changes in my "spare tire" (which was originally a bit more than a tire). I've still got some flab and loose skin to work off, so I'm gonna keep at it 'till I'm down to 220 or so, then work on toning it all up and building some muscle. I'll have to try that 5lb weight trick, but I have been doing sit-ups and have noticed that it does help to tighten the loose skin and make my stomach look better.