How to spot reduce-legitimately

redsusieq

I have struggled as long as I can remember with "love handles". I have fat pouches on the top, back of my hip bones, the top of my glutes, I guess. I'm pretty comfortable with most of my body, but the love handles make me very self conscious. Wearing leggings/tights or any light weight pants is tricky so that it doesn't show. I'm 59 years old. I weigh about 145lbs. most of the time and am 5ft 8in. I'm active and lift weights. I eat a healthy diet and am working on adding more protein to my diet. Any ideas on how to get rid of these fat deposits? I know you can't really spot reduce, but there must be a way without surgery or some such thing.

Jacq_qui

Feel you on that! For what it's worth I've been listening to a podcast about how cortisol levels impact fat.
This first bit is on stress then it goes into (quite a bit of) biochemistry, but it's really interesting and definitely made me reassess the importance of managing stress. Every bit of knowledge helps imo!

drchatterjee.com/the-real-cause-of-belly-fat-how-to-fix-your-metabolism-why-your-liver-is-more-important-than-you-think-with-professor-robert-lustig/

redsusieq

Thank you. I have a lot of stress in my life and have for many years. I know that cortisol has been an issue in the past. I went to a naturopathic doctor for a number of years that would check my levels. I have a Garmin watch now that tells me that when I sleep my stress level stays high. As of yesterday I have begun to actively work on reducing my night time stress in particular. We'll see what happens. It surely can't hurt. In my mind, I think it must have to do with hormones or something more that calories in and out.

redsusieq

I just checked out the site you gave. WOW, lots of good information to look into. I like to listen to podcasts while I work out. This will be good information!