When you look at yourself in the mirror each morning and see those two bulges on either side of your hips, it makes you cringe and has you thinking about skipping breakfast and doing thousands of sit-ups, right?
Well, it's good that you're thinking of options of how to get rid of them, but starvation and sit-ups are not the answer.
In this article, I'm going to show you the best 4 steps you can take to learn how to get rid of love handles.
The best part is, if you follow this advice and stick to it, you can shift them for good.
We'll dive into the 4 steps further down the page, but first I just want to show you why it's important to shift your love handles.
Visceral Fat Makes It Essential To Learn How To Get Rid Of Love Handles
There are two types of fat, visceral and subcutaneous.
Subcutaneous fat sits just under your skin and is what makes your belly look round, which most of us don't want.
It is worth noting that, although not good for your health, subcutaneous fat is not as bad as visceral fat.
Visceral fat is much more of a danger, as it sits around your organs and can restrict their operation and limit the nutrients that get to them.
It's generally harder to get rid of visceral fat than it is subcutaneous.
In fact, a 14-year study showed that people who were generally slim, but had fat reserves around their middle and on their love handles are 50% more likely to die than those who are simply obese all over.
BUT… and thankfully there's always a but…
If you learn how to get rid of love handles by following my advice below, you'll be on track to lose a lot of this harmful fat in no time.
So let's check out the 4 steps that can help (plus a couple bonus steps for good measure).
How To Get Rid Of Love Handles In 4 Steps
The 4 steps I have for you below will get you on track to lose belly fat, and therefore your love handles, in a fairly short space of time.
The better part of this is that these 4 steps are sustainable over the long term, so will keep your love handles away as long as you stick to the plan.
I don't offer you advice that will only last a day or so. I want you to build lifetime habits that will KEEP you healthy.
Let's jump into our first step.
Step #1 – Eat A Healthy, Balanced Diet
When it comes to getting rid of your love handles, good nutrition is going to be a key part of your plan.
Many guys that want to lose their love handles will think about going on ‘a diet', which usually consists of cutting carbs or only eating salads.
These approaches are highly popular, but very rarely work for the long-term. They're quick fixes that eventually lead to falling off the diet, and oftentimes gaining more weight back.
We have a saying here at the Fit Father Project, which is, “You can't out-exercise a bad diet”.
This simply means that no matter how much exercise you do, if you're not eating healthily, you're basically wasting your time!
If your eating habits are poor, you're not going to be able to outrun the belly.
Essentially, there are two elements to healthy eating. The first is to eat a balanced diet; the second is to consume fewer calories than your body needs.
To manage these two things easily, start by looking at your meals.
The perfect meal plate is a ½ plate of vegetables, ¼ plate of protein, and ¼ plate carbohydrates.
This is enough basic nutrition advice to improve your eating habits and is very easy to put into practice.
To get ideas and recipes for healthy meals and snacks, you should check out our free 1-Day Meal Plan.
Step #2 – Make Sure You Get Enough Sleep
We know as a busy Father it's not always easy to get a lot of sleep in each night, but it is essential to your well-being AND your efforts to get rid of love handles.
In order for your body to balance hormone levels and rebuild muscles, it's recommended that you get a minimum of 7 hours sleep every night.
When you sleep, there are a few different hormones that get affected, that can directly impact your ability to lose belly fat and your love handles.
Cortisol is your stress hormone. Higher levels of cortisol have been shown to create fat storage around your midsection, which is what leads to the development of love handles.
Ghrelin is your hunger hormone. The more you have of it the hungrier you will feel, so lowering your levels is good!
Leptin is the hormone that makes you feel full. Having more of this will help to prevent you overeating during the day.
Getting into a good habit of winding down before sleep will help you get good quality sleep too.
We have a great article that deals with just that: ‘Learn How to Fix Your Sleep Schedule in 6 Easy Steps'
Action step: Set your bedtime today, at least 7 hours before you need to be up.
Step #3 – Regular Physical Activity & Formal Exercise
Once you're eating right, you're ready to start moving more.
Physical activity is as simple as walking for 30 minutes, swimming, playing golf or even digging in the garden.
The point here is that you need to commit 30 minutes every day to moving around.
You will start to feel the benefit in your body but, more importantly, you'll be developing a habit. This will allow you to commit time to formal exercise when you are ready.
By developing a habit you'll have passed the major hurdle to exercising regularly… finding the time.
Start today by booking a half hour slot in your day to simply move around.
Once you have the habit of taking regular physical activity, the next step is to upgrade your physical activity to formal exercise.
Formal exercise means a particular workout plan or more intense session of physical activity or sport.
You can challenge yourself to a more intense cycle ride, start visiting the gym or even take a look at our free 24-minute fat burning workout.
Continue your 30-minute slot, but undertake exercise which incorporates both cardio and resistance training.
This type of training is known as Metabolic Resistance Training, or MRT.
We certainly didn't invent this type of training, but we are big advocates for it and it's what our 24-minute fat burning workout is based on.
Getting into a formal exercise plan will burn more calories, so mixed with your healthy eating plan will increase the amount of fat you're getting rid of.
Step #4 – Create A Success Mindset & Sustainable Motivation
When you get started on a journey to discover how to get rid of love handles, you should always think about why you want to achieve the goal you are setting out.
WHY is it important to you that you lose your love handles and get in better shape?
Understanding this will be a massive benefit as you move through the process.
Build a strong mindset where you can tell yourself every morning, with conviction, that you can lose your love handles.
If necessary, reinforce this with pictures of what you want to look like, and speak to others at the Fit Father Project who've already been where you are.
Then set a solid goal with an absolute deadline, and make sure you know WHY you want to achieve this goal.
Once this is set, map out the daily actions you know you'll need to take in order to lose your love handles for good.
Knowing WHAT you want, WHY you want it, and HOW you'll get it is the only way you can truly succeed in any goal you set.
Bonus Step #1 – Drink At Least 2-3 Liters Of Water Each Day
An adult male is approximately 60% water.
Water is the very essence of life and is essential for healthy cells and to ensure all your body processes are working properly.
This is why it is essential to stay hydrated.
The guideline is 2-3 liters of water per day, but if you work in a particularly hot environment or exercise excessively you might need to drink more.
Make it a habit to drink 16-32 ozs. of water first thing each morning, within 30-minutes of waking.
This is a great way to get your day started and will contribute nicely to your overall consumption.
You can then fill a 2-liter water bottle and keep it handy throughout the day. Your aim is to have it drunk by the end of the day.
Bonus Step #2 – Make Sure You Manage Stress
Intense periods of stress are often associated with weight loss. However, stress is, in fact, a contributing factor to weight gain.
Whenever you're stressed your body will release a hormone known as cortisol. This hormone prepares your body for fight or flight but in the process, it shuts down ‘non-essential' systems.
This prevents your hormones from being balanced and it can even trigger fat storage.
This is a primitive response but applies to all stressful situations whether life-threatening or not.
De-stress daily by journaling, doing yoga, meditating or completing any other activity that calms you and takes you away from the source of stress.
The Bottom Line When Learning How To Get Rid Of Love Handles
As you can see, 4 simple steps are all it takes, but you need to commit to each of these steps fully.
This is why it is essential to build each step into a goal; as you master each one move onto the next.
Learning how to get rid of love handles is more than just following these steps for a few months.
The idea is to develop a healthier lifestyle which will keep your visceral fat levels to a minimum, vanquish your love handles and make you healthier for life.
If you have any questions or need support then everyone here at the Fit Father Project is ready to assist. Connect with us today!
Your new friend & health coach,
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*Please know that weight loss results & health changes/improvements vary from individual to individual; you may not achieve similar results. Always consult with your doctor before making health decisions. This is not medical advice – simply very well-researched info into how to get rid of love handles.
