Love Handle Exercise

Ah, the dreaded love handles, don't we just love them. A friend of mine once told me that the reason she dumped her boyfriend was that he had put his hands on her love handles and told her he loved how she was just so "soft and cuddly."  So we'll assume that the reason we want to do love handle exercises is to get rid of the darned things!

It's ironical that we use the term of affection "love" when looking to describe something we all hate, namely body fat. Simply put, love handles are just plain old body fat in an all too obvious location!

And for those of you new to keeping on shape, I'll break the news that everyone else knows.  That is, you cannot target areas of your body to lose fat.  There's no use doing any visualization or positive thinking on this one, hoping your love handles will magically disappear over night.  It's going to be a long slog, but it can be done and it will be worth it.

Importance of diet

Losing weight, and fat, is very simple in concept.  Namely, eat fewer calories than you burn. Seems logical, so let's look at it a bit more.  First, it doesn't matter if you do Atkins, WeightWatchers, or whatever, just do a good sensible diet and stick with it.  Stay away from any excessesof theusual diet killers, namely sweets, sodas, donuts, etc.

Now let's look at fat burning.  And please, no diet pills.  Do this naturally, through good exercising.

With exercise, it is possible to lose weight and love handles with aerobic exercise but my experience has been that it's a short term affect.  It's hard to sustain aerobics over a long period of time.  Take a look at people who just do aerobic exercises.  They may be fit, but they are'nt in great "toned" muscular shape.  So that's why it's best to incorproate some form of weightlifting into your routine.

In addition, be sure to do exercises concentrating on your core muscles.  Sit-ups and opposite-to-opposite crunches are great for toning and firming the oblique muscles in your stomach area.  Also, side lifts are great for toning your side muscles. The good news is that they will bring tone to your mid-rift giving it a better shape, even if you still have love handles.

As with all weights related exercises, start slowly and carefully.  But know that doing these exercises won't necessarily hasten loss of the love handles, butmore than likely you'll get there in the end.

So when you thnk of embarking on a love handle exercise program, think fewer calories plus exercise equals fat loss which means eventual loss of love handles.