Love handles, muffin top, belly fat ... whatever you might call a little bit of extra weight around the waist, it can be an annoying barrier toward achieving better fitness and a leaner physique. You can pursue ways to banish those extra pounds, tone your muscles and get a more enviable midsection.
Oblique Exercises
Your oblique muscles are located at either side of your waist; you use them when you twist from side to side and complete many other core movements. Strengthening your obliques won't help you lose fat around your midsection, but it will help those muscles to look more toned and sleek when you do lose that extra fat. You can work your obliques in a standing position or on a mat. When standing, put all of your weight on one foot and tap the other foot out to the side. Lift that foot up and crunch in your knee as you twist your torso toward the knee, keeping abs tight. Repeat with the other side. On your mat, work the oblique muscles with Russian twists. Hold a dumbbell or medicine ball in your hands, crunch upward and twist from side to side, keeping your back straight and abs tight.
Crunches
Stew Smith, former Navy SEAL and fitness trainer for Military.com, recommends crunches for diminishing love handles because they effectively firm and tone waist and tummy muscles. In addition to doing sets of basic crunches, try reverse crunches and bicycle crunches, which provide an extra element of challenge for the obliques due to their twisting motion.
Aerobics
It's not possible to spot reduce fat on the waist, stomach or anywhere else on the body. That means if you want to lose the love handles, you'll have to work up a sweat with a total body exercise session that burns more calories than core and muscle-building movements do. Burning large numbers of calories requires cardiovascular exercise, such as jogging, biking, brisk walking, team sports, boot camp workouts, step aerobics and other moderate- to vigorous-intensity activities. To lose extra fat, the American Council on Exercise recommends doing at least 225 minutes of aerobic exercise per week.
Considerations
Exercise and diet work together to help you develop and maintain a healthy body. Therefore, if you stick to a regular exercise routine but don't eat well, you may still struggle to get rid of your love handles. For the best results, reduce your daily calorie intake, eat more vegetables and fruits and include daily servings of nonfat dairy, lean protein and whole grains in your diet. Check with your doctor before you begin any new weight loss, diet or exercise program.
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