Love Handles: The stubborn chubby bits around the waist that gives Michelin Tyres’ logo appearance or perhaps a tyre itself.
Do not confuse it with the beer belly/pot belly, saddlebags, or muffin tops.
‘Love handles’ became an accepted term a long time ago replacing the impolite ‘layer of flab’ which seems quite immoral.
But do we actually love ‘love handles’? Well, surely gaining the excessively bulging waistline is ‘easy-peasy, lemon-squeazy’ but shredding it off is a real Hercules task!
Even though you have spent hours on the planks and the crunches, it can feel nearly impossible to get those little folds of fatty flab off your body.
But while you are on a low self-esteem and low morale journey of changing your lifestyle and altering your fitness routine, always remember that nothing is more vital than nutrition and excercise.
If you want to get rid of your love handles, make sure you are on it, religiously!
What causes Love Handles?
It’s true that despite the name, no one actually loves their love handles.
Well, blame all the food rich in fat and sugar that you’ve been binge-eating while ‘netflix and chilling’, and letting it get away just like that! Sure, the abdominal obesity, in many cases, is due to genetics or the hormones especially too much cortisol, but when did you last workout after your Bahamas trip or Samantha’s bachelorette party?
And do you really take all your beauty sleeps seriously? Here’s the thing: Lack of physical activities, sleep deprivation, ageing, imbalanced diet, excessive fatigue, unburned calories can have serious impact on your body.
Love handles, one of the many results of the mentioned problems might seem impossible to lose at certain points.
So it’s always better and recommended to prevent than to quest for cure.
Risks of Love Handles
As casual as it may sound but do not ever ignore your love handles.
They can put you at a risk of many serious health problems.
Love handles act as a precursor for high blood pressure and cholestrol, heart disease, stroke, breathing issues, liver disease, and diabetes.
Love handles may not directly cause them but could interefere with the normal body functioning and develop the risk factor.
To avoid that, it is simply recommended to eat healthy and perform atleast some physical activity everyday.
Simple Natural Home Remedies to Treat Love Handles
Avoid Stress: When you’re stressed out, the stress hormone called cortisol is enhanced with considerable level in the body.
The greater cortisol you produce, the greater the chance of breakdown of the muscles mass which further contributes in the aquisition of the chunks of fat around the body.
Thus, it is best to apply stress management methods which includes meditation and positive thinking.
Adequate Sleep: If you have fluctuated sleeping patterms then all your healthy diet and regular workouts are all in vain.
Lack of sleep will produce more of the stress hormone cortisol which in turn will trigger your hunger and makes you crave for even more food.
Also, sleep deprivation makes your body resistant to insulin, which furthermore leads to the fat accumulation generally around the abdomen.
Therefore, it is recommended to take adequate sleep in order to produce most growth hormone to burn fat and build muscles.
Healthy Diet: Even though you are keeping up with the daily excercise routine, an unhealthy diet might ruin it all for you.
Add some components to your daily eating habits and see the wonders work.
Ample water intake (preferably with lemon and honey), green tea, proteinous legumes and beans, right and small amount of dairy products like cheese, yogurt and milk, Vitamin C, green vegetable, fruits must be in your daily intake.
Excercise Daily: Daily simple home excercises will help you chuck out those unpleasant bulges without even hitting the gym.
Cardio helps with the requirement and objective.
Exercises to Reduce Love Handles at Home
Few excercises to get rid of love handles at home are:
- Warm up with Jumping Jacks. Perform 2 sets initially with 30 jumping jacks in each set. Gradually increase it to 50 jumping jacks per set. You can also increase the number of sets later, if you wish to.
- Perform Russian Twists with 20 turns (10 each side). Perfom 2 sets a day. You can increase the intensity and frequency of turns as per your convenience. You can also hold weight, if required.
- Bicycle Crunches are a great way to burn abdominal fat. It engages your abs in maximum movement thereby reducing love handles. Make sure you do atleast 50 crunches per set.
- Woodchoppers also have a great impact in reducing the unwanted flabs. 20 reps on each side will do.
Quick Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s:
- Prefer stairs rather than lifts or elevators.
- Include Omega-3 Fatty acids in your diet.
- Have 5-6 small meals rather than a large quantity of food at a time.
- Drink a ton of water.
- Have willpower.
- Give at least 45 minutes to pamper yourself.
Don’ts:
- Aerated drinks must be shunned, immediately.
- Don’t over excercise.
- Don’t skip excercise.
- Do not miss the first meal of the day.
- Dont’t overeat.
- Don’t starve yourself.
- Say ‘No’ to white foods (rice, bread, pasta).
How to hide those unwanted chunks?
Talking about love handles and its serious toll on health, next very important thing is that it might make you reach the next size of clothing but no worries, folks! What you should wear when you feel bloated is all sorted.
Well, here are some tips and ideas on what and how to dress to not flash out that third tyre. Make sure that your order list is bigger than your wishlist!
Never undermine a ‘Shapewear’: It’s to your rescue!
Body shapers, shapers, slimmers, whatever you call it, is one hell of an article of clothing.
It actually makes other articles look good on you! You should try these if you have not already.
They are your ultimate saviors.
They are so in hep right now that you might not wanna miss out on it.
Shapewears basically, tucks the unappealing sack of fat uptight back into the tummy and are really soft, comfortable. You’re going to love it, for sure!
- Dress subtle: Gone are the days when being flashy and vibrant was a thing. Today, it is all about keeping it low-key and consumed in subtlety.
- Layer it up: Dressing in multiple layer might help you keep that unflattering bulge out of sight. Obviously, body-hugging dresses might not be a great idea for the given body type but how about wearing an overcoat or a shrug or even a plain shirt! It’s a magical technique and gives a significant outlook of your overall appearance. Oversized tees with shorts or trousers are also a great resue rangers for your body.
- All about colours and fabrics: Fabrics play an important role in the ultimate visual of a dress. To begin with, if you are dead serious about hiding the bloat, remember that dark colors are best for the situation. Choose fabric with maximum drape property, mostly flowy fabrics and ofcourse dresses with vertical stripes work wonders. It actually makes you look taller. A fail-proof method to make your day better!
To conclude, you must accept who you are and never let go of that raging will power to get rid of the lovely love handles! Workout, dress smart, eat, have fun! Also, now that you know how to hide it smartly, don’t lose out on your style and confidence. Embrace everything about yourself!
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