Can You Get Rid of Love Handles? (13 Best Exercises + Workout)

Finding a real answer on how to get rid of love handles can be easier said than done. But you’ve come to the right place for fast results using the best exercises for losing love handles here.

Love handles can be stubborn and frustrating to get rid of. You can even lose weight but still be stuck with love handles that don’t want to go away despite your best efforts. But imagine being free from those extra bulges on your hips and belly. The answer to getting rid of the side belly fat is here!

Unfortunately, just losing more weight isn’t the answer. The wrong exercise routine can waste your time. It can also make your love handles look bigger and blockier. These love handles can make anyone feel insecure when they make your body look like a fridge.

But your love handles will haunt you no more. Here you’ll find proven methods to burn off the love handles. Also, a complete workout with the best exercises to do so. So, keep going to discover how to target this area for fat loss so you can get a slimmer shape.

The Root Cause of Love Handles

It’s true that your genetics have a big influence on getting stubborn love handles. Genetics determine excess fat distribution in the body.¹ We all gain excess fat in certain areas first. These include the hips, belly, thighs, arms, and, in this case, the love handles.

The first place your body gains weight is usually the last place it loses it, too. This is what makes losing love handles so hard. You might have overall low belly fat, but your genes cause your body to store any excess fat in your love handles. And to keep it.

Apple-shaped bodies store fat in the abdomen and love handles.² Pear-shaped bodies store fat in the lower trunk. Apple-shaped bodies have more health risks. This is abdominal visceral fat that surrounds vital organs.³

Cortisol is known as the stress hormone in your body. When high levels of cortisol are pumping through your body it can increase fat storage around your belly.³ If you’re feeling stressed out then it can cause you to eat more, and worsening the problem.

Insulin is a hormone in your body that allows sugar to enter cells. After eating something sugary or carb-rich, insulin will then allow the sugar to enter your bloodstream so you can lower the blood sugar in your body. Insulin tells your body to store these sugars as fat while stopping fat-burning.⁴

The root cause of love handles is excess weight and body fat. This is why you could be skinny and fit but still have love handles. “Skinny fat” is when you’re thin but still technically obese because your overall body fat is still too high.⁵ This can cause stubborn fat to remain even after weight loss.

Is there any hope for getting rid of love handles despite genetics…

Can You Really Get Rid of Love Handles?

If you’re worried that your love handles can go away, then the good news is they’re more than possible to get rid of. But to be totally honest, love handles can be hard to lose.

Most just try to lose weight to lose their love handles. Yet, their body composition and hormones can cause the love handles to stick around. This is why weight loss alone isn’t enough; you’ll need to improve your body fat composition too.⁶

How long it realistically takes to lose your love handles depends on how much you have to lose in the first place. Depending on how physically fit you are, it will also play a major role in how quickly you get rid of them.

If you only have 2-3 inches of side belly fat to lose, you could do it in under one to two months. But if you have more than that, say 4-6+ inches of belly fat, it could take 3 to 6 months.

The core muscles that get rid of love handles are mainly the oblique muscles. However, your latissimus dorsi, quadratus lumborum, and transverse abdominis are also core muscles that play a role.

To lose the love handles you’re going to have to get rid of the excess body fat along with the weight.

How to Banish Stubborn Side Fat

So, how do you trim the waistline sides without liposuction or CoolSculpt?

Putting your body into a calorie deficit is crucial if you’re trying to lose weight. If you have excess fat and weight, you must burn off more calories than you’re eating.⁷

As mentioned, it will help with weight loss, but it won’t get rid of the love handles. You’ll also have to burn fat while building some lean muscle in the handle area.

Building more lean muscle mass can help you lose fat. As you lose weight and gain muscle, your body fat will improve, which is necessary to remove stubborn fat.

But the weight scale can be deceiving. You’ll be burning fat but also adding some lean muscle at the same time. This can cause the scale to say you may not be getting results. But in reality, the muscle weight has offset the fat burned off.

This is why measuring your inches and how your clothes fit is important, too.

It’ll track your results better than just weighing yourself. You could also just be retaining water for one day, making you think you’ve gained fat when it’s only water weight.

Best Love Handles Workout

The best exercises for burning love handles target your side core area. They demand the most muscle recruitment from the obliques while elevating your heart rate with higher-intensity exercise.

High-intensity exercise increases body temperature, blood flow, and hormone delivery.⁸

All three play crucial roles in targeting stubborn fat loss. Combine this with exercises that target the love handles. It will create a powerful fat-burning combo.

These exercises utilize the principles of Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT). MRT is the most effective exercise method to build the most muscle while burning the most fat at the same time.

An example would be to combine a high-intensity exercise like Cross-Body Mountain Climbers with a Side Plank. Mountain Climbers is a high-intensity exercise. When paired with a Side Plank, it’ll target the area to promote fat loss and muscle building.

You can then add in some cardio exercise, such as walking, running, biking, etc., to further promote fat loss. Following up these targeted exercises with cardio will mobilize fatty acids for additional spot reduction.

Here are the top 10 best exercises to get rid of love handles…

Woodchops

1. Start off in the standing position while holding either a dumbbell or medicine ball at your chest.
2. Then slowly rotate towards one side of your body while squatting at the same time.
3. Reach down with the dumbbell or medicine ball to the outside of your ankle.
4. Then stand back up, twist your torso, and rotate as you come back up, bringing the way across your body and extending over your head to the other side in a chopping motion. Then switch sides.

Russian Twists

1. To do Russian Twists first start off in the seated position with your knees together and leaning back with your chest out and shoulders back.
2. Hold weight and bring it outside to the side on the outside of your body.
3. Make sure you try to keep your knee steady throughout the movement. To make things harder, you can lift your feet off the floor.

Side-Ups

These are a lot more difficult than traditional side planks. But if this is too difficult for you then just start off with regular side planks.

1. Start by lying on your side in the side plank position, with your elbow underneath your shoulder and one foot on top of the other.
2. Raise your hips up off the ground and make a straight line with your body.
3. Flex your glutes together and keep your abs tight throughout the movement.
4. Slowly lower and raise your hips up towards the ground while keeping your body straight.

Cross-Body Mountain Climbers

Think of this as an inverted bicycle crunch exercise. While bicycle crunches are also good for your abs, they will hit your sides better.

1. Start in the push-up position with your hands on your shoulders and your feet together, keeping your body straight.
2. Quickly explode one knee up, bringing it across your body towards her opposite arm.
3. As you bring that same knee back to the starting position, simultaneously bring your other knee to meet the opposite elbow, crossing your body.

Side Plank Reach Throughs

1. Start by lying in the side plank position, with your elbow underneath your shoulder and one foot on top of the other.
2. Lift your hips up off the ground so you are in a straight line with your body.
3. Then, with your top arm, slowly reach underneath your body like you’re going to scratch her back.
4. Slowly bring yourself back out into the starting position.

Spiderman Pushups

1. Start off in the push-up position with your hands or if your shoulders and your feet together.
2. Begin to lower your chest towards the ground as you bring the knee on your right leg up to your right elbow.
3. Push yourself back up by extending your right elbow to the starting position and returning your right leg to the starting position. Then, repeat on the other side.

Rotating Planks

1. Start off in the plank position with your elbows on your shoulders, your body in a straight line, and your feet together.
2. Slowly begin to rotate your body into a side plank while allowing your feet to rotate with your body too.
3. Pause at the end before slowly bring yourself back to the center and then repeating to a side plank on the other side.

Mermaids

1. Lay on your side and put your feet together but with your bottom foot behind your top foot. Have your knees bent a little.
2. Put your top elbow up with your hand behind the head.
3. Then begin to crunch up words by bringing your elbow and your feet towards the sky.
4. Squeeze your abs and love handles at the top before slowly lowering yourself back down towards the ground.

Crab Bridge Reach Overs

1. Start in the crab bridge position, with your hands and feet flat on the floor, knees bent, and hips lifted off the ground.
2. Begin to raise your hips off the ground, and then, with one arm, reach up and across your body.
3. Allow your body to twist with your hand.
4. Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.

Band Twists

1. For this exercise for love handles you’re going to need a band anchored about chest height away from you.
2. Keep your arms out extended in front of your chest while holding the band.
3. Then start to twist your body away from the anchoring point while keeping your abs tight.
4. Then bring yourself back to the starting position and then repeating on the other side.

Ball Twists

1. Lie on your back on an exercise ball with your upper back on it and your knees bent, and feet flat on the floor.
2. You can hold the weight, such as a medicine ball or a dumbbell, over the top of you.
3. Then slowly begin to twist your torso by bringing the dumbbell to the side of your body.
4. Keep your website, and when you reach the end, bring it back up to the starting position before repeating on the other side.

Pallof Press

1. Place a band around an anchoring point about chest high away from you.
2. Hold the band out with your arms extended away from you straight from your upper body.
3. Make sure there’s enough tension on the band for you to feel it when you extend your arms.
4. Keep your appetite and body straight throughout this movement.
5. Just bring the band back and forth away from your chest. Really try to fight the urge to push her body towards the anchoring point.

Kick Outs

1. Start off in the push-up position with your hands in your shoulders and your feet together.
2. Then begin to rotate to the side by bringing your outside leg underneath your body.
3. At the end of the movement try to touch her hand opposite total.
4. Then bring yourself back up to the special position and repeat on the other side.

Fat-Burning Love Handles Workout

Now that you have the best love handle exercises, it’s time to put them into a workout routine.

This is just a sample love handles workout you can do at home. The best part is that no equipment is needed. It’s all bodyweight, so you can do this workout anywhere.

A1. Jumping Jacks 4×20

A2. Woodchops 4×10/side

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B1. Cross Body Mountain Climbers 4×16

B2. Side-Ups 4×10/side

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C1. Spiderman Push-ups 4×8

C2. Russian Twists 4×16

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D1. Running in Place 4×30 seconds

D2. Rotating Planks 4×8/side

D3. Mermaid Crunches 4×12/side

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E1. 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise

Nutrition Strategies to Melt Side Belly Fat

Now, let’s discuss dieting and nutritional strategies to help you get rid of this side belly fat. The truth is you can’t out-train a bad diet. Even the best workouts and exercises will only do a little if your diet is bad.

Put your body under calorie restriction. To get rid of stubborn fat, you must burn off more calories than you’re taking in. So, reducing calories in your diet is critical to getting fast results.

In general, women do best consuming 1200-1500 calories per day. For men, around 1500 to 1800 calories per day.

Of course, this will depend on the person, so you will have to play with your calorie intake to see what gets you results.

I recommend using a tracking app for a food journal to track your calories. Many people underestimate how many calories they actually consume per day. Tracking your calorie intake will show your true daily consumption.

But be careful with how many calories you eat. It’s best to cut back gradually. Cutting your calories too much can cause stress. This can end up causing you to binge eat and all cause you to go right back up after you stop.

Eat a higher-protein, lower-carb diet. A high-protein diet will help you build muscle.⁹ It will also boost your metabolism and keep you full longer. Cutting carbs will lower your insulin. This will help your body burn fat for fuel.¹⁰

Try to avoid foods that are inflammatory and cause fat cells to accumulate, such as:

• Sugar
• Processed foods
• Refined grains
• Excess alcohol
• Bad vegetable oils
• Fried foods
• Pastries and sweets

Intermittent fasting is a great way to cut your daily calories by 550 calories per day.¹¹ Fasting is super simple, and I recommend it to my clients. You just have to not eat during certain times of the day.

This can help you reduce snacking and grazing throughout the day. Try to have a low-carb dinner full of protein and veggies. Low carbs at dinner will help your body enter ketosis by morning. This will boost fat burning.

Add C8-MCT powder or oil to your coffee in the morning. C8-MCTs (caprylic acid) are quickly converted into ketones via your liver. This helps to kickstart ketosis. It triggers the body to burn fat for fuel. It then makes more ketones from your fat stores.¹²

Summary

• Targeted exercises and high-intensity workouts are key for reducing love handles. It works by increasing muscle mass and burning stubborn side fat.
• Calorie deficit and improved body composition are vital to eliminating love handles. Simply losing weight isn’t enough. You’ll also need to burn excess body fat and build some muscle.
• Genetics play a role in fat distribution, making love handles particularly stubborn. But targeted exercises, calorie deficits, and higher-intensity exercise can get rid of them.
• Targeted exercises like Woodchops, Russian Twists, and Side Planks are effective. They strengthen the obliques, the side abdominal muscles. They also raise the heart rate to maximize fat loss.
• Nutritional strategies for burning stubborn fat including higher protein intake, lower carbs, and intermittent fasting. These are crucial to reducing overall body fat and effectively targeting side fat.