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MyFitnessPal Community

Love Handles

Redgal56

Does anyone have any ideas for exercises to lose:smooched: love handles?

Replies

BrianSharpe

Sorry, no such beast. By all means straighten your core but the dreaded love handles won't disappear until your % of body fat goes down (even then it's unpredictable where it disappears from first)

AnvilHead

Fork put-downs and table pushaways. You can't spot reduce.

JudieJudes

Fork put-downs and table pushaways. You can't spot reduce.

Hehehehehe - true - & very funny :laugh:

falkeon

look up figure eight crunches. works good ... for all the abs.. will help to reduce

LoraF83

look up figure eight crunches. works good ... for all the abs.. will help to reduce

No, it won't. Like the other posters said, you can't spot reduce.

The only thing to do is keep losing weight/reducing your body fat percentage until they are gone. That takes time, patience, and a moderate calorie deficit.

Crunches, planks, sit ups, and any other ab exercise you can think of are great for strengthening your core. But they won't spot reduce the fat on top of them.

CrankMeUp

Calorie deficit

Farmerj2000

Fork put-downs and table pushaways. You can't spot reduce.

^^^^^^
This

whierd

Love grabs.

tinylittlelove

Love handles are beautiful.

Redgal56

So, for those that are saying there is no such thing as spot reducing are also saying that situps, squats, lunges, arm curls, etc don't tone and reduce?

RGv2

So, for those that are saying there is no such thing as spot reducing are also saying that situps, squats, lunges, arm curls, etc don't tone and reduce?

They do, but just because you do a lunge, sit-up, squat, or curl doesn't mean that the fat is going to disappear from that specific part of the body. Those exercises will strengthen the muscle and maintain the muscle mass in that area but the "tone" won't come without eating a moderate deficit and lowering BF%, removing the fat and uncovering the muscle

You can do 10,000 sit-ups per day, but that's not going to make your body remove the fat from that area first.

AnvilHead

So, for those that are saying there is no such thing as spot reducing are also saying that situps, squats, lunges, arm curls, etc don't tone and reduce?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

First of all, there's no such thing as "toning" a muscle. You can make it bigger, make it smaller, make it more defined by removing the subcutaneous fat covering it (via caloric deficit), or make it less defined by adding to the subcutaneous fat (via caloric surplus); however, there is no such thing as "toning" it:

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/muscle-tone/

As far as reduction - the only effect "spot reducing" exercises may have is to slightly increase your caloric deficit, which will assist in overall bodyfat reduction. It will have no significant "targeted" effect whatsoever upon the specific area you're exercising. Fat has no contractile tissue and can't be "exercised"; it's inert. You can do sit ups, leg raises, arm curls, lunges, squats or whatever else you want to do until you can't move - unless you're creating a caloric deficit, the fat isn't going anywhere:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/are-blood-flow-and-lipolysis-in-subcutaneous-adipose-tissue-influenced-by-contractions-in-adjacent-muscle-in-humans-research-review.html

Mario_Az

So, for those that are saying there is no such thing as spot reducing are also saying that situps, squats, lunges, arm curls, etc don't tone and reduce?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

First of all, there's no such thing as "toning" a muscle. You can make it bigger, make it smaller, make it more defined by removing the subcutaneous fat covering it (via caloric deficit), or make it less defined by adding to the subcutaneous fat (via caloric surplus); however, there is no such thing as "toning" it:

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/muscle-tone/

As far as reduction - the only effect "spot reducing" exercises may have is to slightly increase your caloric deficit, which will assist in overall bodyfat reduction. It will have no significant "targeted" effect whatsoever upon the specific area you're exercising. Fat has no contractile tissue and can't be "exercised"; it's inert. You can do sit ups, leg raises, arm curls, lunges, squats or whatever else you want to do until you can't move - unless you're creating a caloric deficit, the fat isn't going anywhere:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/are-blood-flow-and-lipolysis-in-subcutaneous-adipose-tissue-influenced-by-contractions-in-adjacent-muscle-in-humans-research-review.html

well said sir