Attention males: Belly and love handle frustrations

rafaelwall

Hi there,

First of all, this site is amazing. I'm 8 pounds away from my original goal, 170lbs.

I'm 6'1, and I like the way I look now, except for the freaking love handles and belly who won't go away. I was counting on them disappearing by the time I reach my goal, but at this stage, I'm not sure if that will happen.

I'd like to hear from other guys who are, or were, in a similar position like mine: are you tall, look fairly average/skinny, and yet, you have love handles? Or if you sit down, does a belly stick out? Or if that was your situation, how did you correct it?

At this point, I'm beginning to think that it's just genetics... if I hit the 170lb mark and it's still there and still feel a bit desperate, I might strive for 165lbs, but in my opinion that would be pushing it (don't want to become anorexic.. by the way, I am eating right, always hitting my MFP 1260 calorie daily mark). I guess if by 170lbs-165lbs they're still there, I'll have to learn to love my body the way it is. But if you have suggestions, I'd very much like to hear them. And thanks.

erickirb

I had the same issue, mind you I am much shorter, 5'6". I lost my love handles when I pushed hard. Did 2 rounds of P90X and added in some additional cardio. Only lost 4 lbs but all of it fat. I set my diet on maintenance and let my exercise create the deficit, in other words the only deficit I had was from my workouts.

Just an FYI but as a male you should not eat less than 1500 cals/day. You probably didn't firm up as much as you wanted to at your current weight for a variety of reasons. I would guess the biggest of those reasons being that you lost a lot of muscle not just fat, eating so low of a caloric diet will cause your body to lose muscle mass as well as fat. MFP will not let anyone go below 1200/day but the 1200 is for a woman, men need more fuel as we have a higher % muscle tissue.

Try lifting heavier weights and few reps (6-8 reps barely being able to finish the last 2), adjust your goal to lose 0.5 lbs/week, and increase you protein intake if you are eating less than 20% of total cals from protein. Make sure you eat your exercise calories as well.

Good luck

ismatts

I would say to try different workouts, throw in some sit ups and push ups. I would think working the area that you want to look better would help. but I am no expert

aippolito1

I agree with Eric, you should be eating a lot more of that and pushing harder in your work outs. I'm a woman but still, I still feel my situation is comparable. My waist and belly were first to go but after awhile, it stayed the same. For a couple months, I was losing inches and weight but my belly and lovehandles weren't budging but once I started kicking up my work outs again, I noticed my lovehandles shrinking again. And now they're almost completely gone!

sjaudio

There is no way to specifically exercise away the love handles (I so wish there was!). That will probably be the last thing to go. As Eric suggested, adjust your calorie intake (making sure you get your protein) and up the workout routine. You'll get there but it will take some work. You're body wants to keep a certain level of fat around just for emergencies (to keep you from starving), you're going to have to work extra hard to drop those last few pounds, but it's doable. I know that a lot of guys here are in your place. I still have a long way to go, but the love handles are by far the most depressing thing to see in the mirror every morning.

Good luck.

nlibera

I'm in the same boat as you: 6'1" and goal weight of 170lbs - almost there too at 175lbs! But I've definitely noticed my stomach and love handles are although smaller, still very much there. I think it really is going to require focus on strength training and cardio to get muscle fully built before it can start cutting away at the fat in that area.

rybo

Right now I am 5'10 & 167#, and I am as lean as I have ever been. I run a lot (3-4 days a week) and do 2 days a week of just body weight exercises(push ups & pull ups) I also do some yoga as well.

Besides the working out, my "diet" is made up of as much whole foods as I can. Lots of fruits & veggies, not too much pasta, and a good protein source. I stopped closely counting calories, but I am probably in the 2000-2500 range daily, depending on workouts. Between exercise & decent muscularity, I burn a lot of calories.

rafaelwall

Thank you all, especially Eric. Jesus, I'm glad I made this posting. MFP should emphasize more the minimum calorie intake for guys. I'll up it, then.

I work out 3-4 times a week, and yes, I've noticed my strength has been affected by this regime. I remember reading somewhere that you can't build muscle and lose weight at the same time, so I was just resigned to the fact that I was gonna lose some muscle while I lose overall weight. My plan was to go into maintenance mode when I hit the 170lbs mark, eating lots of protein and gain back the muscle lost.

But now that you guys told me the 1500 cals/day minimum for guys.... I'm clearly in starvation mode (dammit! ;-) ). Oh well... live and learn, and time to make adjustments.

Yup, I just read a couple of articles stating what you folks mentioned. I'm glad I found about this before becoming a pile of bones with a belly ;-P

aippolito1

Thank you all, especially Eric. Jesus, I'm glad I made this posting. MFP should emphasize more the minimum calorie intake for guys. I'll up it, then.

I work out 3-4 times a week, and yes, I've noticed my strength has been affected by this regime. I remember reading somewhere that you can't build muscle and lose weight at the same time, so I was just resigned to the fact that I was gonna lose some muscle while I lose overall weight. My plan was to go into maintenance mode when I hit the 170lbs mark, eating lots of protein and gain back the muscle lost.

But now that you guys told me the 1500 cals/day minimum for guys.... I'm clearly in starvation mode (dammit! ;-) ). Oh well... live and learn, and time to make adjustments.

Yup, I just read a couple of articles stating what you folks mentioned. I'm glad I found about this before becoming a pile of bones with a belly ;-P

HA! My guy friend who's real big into Parkour and working out (and who is very, VERY cut) told me I couldn't burn fat and build muscle at the same time but guess what...I HAVE! For about 8 months now. Don't believe that lie. The TRUTH is that you might not build muscle and see a smaller number on the scale as far as "losing weight". In other words, if you're building muscle and not doing enough cardio to burn fat, you will feel like you're not losing weight because the scale may say you're the same weight or higher. Hope that makes sense!

ShaneT99

I guess if by 170lbs-165lbs they're still there, I'll have to learn to love my body the way it is. But if you have suggestions, I'd very much like to hear them.

You can learn to love it the way it is...or you can change your goals. How about instead of having a certain weight as your goal you have a certain body fat percentage goal? Figure out what your body fat percentage is now and then set a goal for what you want it to be. Body fat percentage, after all, is a much more important number than weight when it comes to health. Set your goal at 12% or so and then implement a plan to achieve that goal. That plan should be focused mainly on diet and clean eating, but also needs to include heavy resistance training and high intensity cardio.

rafaelwall

Thanks Shane. I guess that's what I've tried to do all these weeks. 9 out of 10 days I eat right, and 3-4 times a week I hit the gym, lift weights and do some running. But with such a low calorie intake, my body wasn't responding so well (losing weight, probably mostly muscles). Hopefully I'll see some change by Halloween ;-P (arbitrary goal date).

Thank you all!