If you are reading this article you probably have love handles. A lot of people do, but it’s really no big deal — because they are the first thing to come and the very last to go. We are of course talking about the excess fat around your waist and how to get rid of them.
No matter how much you exercise they don’t seem to go away and your body is stuck with these two bumps on the sides. Yet often enough, people fail to get the results they want — and after all those hours spent working out, they still have belly fat and love handles that seem to simply refuse to disappear.
In reality, some layers of fat can be a lot harder to burn than others, and we all have genetic predispositions that influence how much fat we store and where. Weight loss is determined by a myriad of complex processes — including hormone activity and specific lifestyle choices. And that’s exactly what most articles on this topic leave out.
This guide covers both: the 6-step practical plan and the hormonal layer underneath it that determines whether any of those steps actually work.
First — The Myth You Need to Hear
Before we get into the steps, let’s address the most common mistake people make when trying to get rid of love handles: they do endless side crunches, oblique twists, and core exercises hoping to burn the fat directly from their sides.
This doesn’t work. Spot reduction — the idea that you can burn fat from a specific area by training that area — has been thoroughly debunked by research. You cannot choose where your body burns fat from. When you create a calorie deficit through diet and exercise, your body burns fat from wherever it decides, based on genetics and hormones.
What you CAN do is reduce your overall body fat percentage — which will eventually include the fat on your sides — and build the oblique and core muscles underneath, which improves the appearance of the area as the fat reduces.
That’s exactly what these six steps do.
Step 1: Change the Way You Eat
According to leading fitness experts, eating right is the best way to lose love handles and actually lose any excess fat on your body. By eating right, they mean throwing out all processed, chemically altered or packaged foods and replacing them with whole foods — fruits, vegetables, anti-inflammatory roots and herbs, quality meats and eggs, and some healthy fat, because no diet is complete without it.
Don’t cut carbs entirely. Carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet and you need the healthy ones for enough energy and a fast enough metabolism. If you don’t eat enough carbs, your body goes into conservation mode and saves as much as possible — burning fat is simply last on the list.
While we’re on the subject of fats, you want the healthy ones. Avocados, seeds, nuts, fatty fish, olive or coconut oil — you need some of these to get rid of those love handles. Substitute oils for butter and your soft cheese for a hearty but healthier hard cheese.
You also need to watch what kind of protein you eat. Grass-fed beef trumps the regular stock at the market, and cage-free eggs do the same to the “normal” ones. Aside from tasting better and being healthier, organic meat and milk have up to 50% more omega-3 fatty acid.
Load up on vegetables — celery, spinach, cucumbers, whatever you want. They’re healthy, eat them at home, at work, wherever you want. Use spices such as turmeric or ginger for their anti-inflammatory effects, and substitute stevia for artificial sweeteners which will make you crave carbs and significantly increase your appetite.
Alcohol is probably doing more damage than you think. Wine, beer, cider and other low alcohol content drinks have over 100 calories per glass. Count your calories well — they stack up quickly, especially if your weekends involve lots of alcohol.
Step 2: Know Exactly What to Eat
When it comes to protein: chicken (in all forms as long as it’s natural), lean beef, ground turkey, fish such as tuna, salmon, tilapia, steak, shrimp, even tofu if you’re a vegetarian. Mix with whey protein powder, pea protein or hemp protein. You need these at every meal.
Complex carbs: sweet potatoes, quinoa, oats, wild or brown rice or whole-grain pasta. Replace whatever bread you eat with Ezekiel bread. Eat complex carbs three to four times a day.
Healthy fats: almonds, pecans, cashews, nut butters, coconut or olive oil, hummus, avocados, olives. Eat these twice a day.
Vegetables: beet greens, chard, watercress, kale and spinach are especially effective for weight loss. Eat them at every meal.
Fruit: avoid high-sugar or dried fruits. Stick to tomatoes, eggplants, watermelons, avocados and berries — blackberries, strawberries, raspberries. Eat these twice a day.
Related: The Best Foods to Eat on a Clean Eating Diet
Portion guide if you don’t have a scale:
- Protein: the size of your fist
- Complex carbs: the size of your palm
- Healthy fats: about the size of a golf ball
- Vegetables: two handfuls
Step 3: A Sample Day of Eating
This meal plan will help jumpstart your weight loss mechanisms and get rid of love handles.
Meal 1: Half a cup of oats cooked with water and cinnamon. One whole egg and three scrambled egg whites with spinach, peppers, onions and a dash of coconut oil. Coffee with stevia and almond milk if needed.
Meal 2: Blend black cherries, kale, almond milk and whey protein powder. A cup of unsweetened green tea.
Meal 3: Spinach, tomatoes, peppers and avocado salad with chicken breast, oil and vinegar, and spices. Half a sweet potato. Another cup of unsweetened green tea.
Meal 4 (post-workout): A whey protein shake and an apple.
Meal 5: Salmon with garlic asparagus and lemon. A large leafy green salad with oil and vinegar. Another cup of green tea.
Meal 6 (optional, before bed): Scrambled egg whites only. Don’t exploit this one too much.
Step 4: Lifestyle Changes
Now let’s look at your lifestyle — because what you do outside the gym and kitchen matters significantly for losing love handles.
Sleep. You really need to sleep enough to lose body fat. When you don’t, your hormones get disrupted and weight loss doesn’t go with that. You don’t want to feel hungry all the time, you don’t want to slow down your metabolism, and you especially don’t want to feel like you’re about to crash.
When you’re sleep deprived, you’re stressed. And when you’re stressed, you crave sugars, carbs and fat because they make the body produce serotonin, which calms you down. Get at least 7–8 hours per night — this is non-negotiable.
Rest. Don’t be all those people that overwork themselves or diet like there’s no tomorrow. That can have a counter effect and leave you stuck with the fat you’re desperately trying to get rid of. When you don’t rest, you get stressed, and that makes the body produce cortisol — a stress hormone that directly promotes fat storage, particularly around the waist. Focus, but channel your focus to logical steps.
Hydration. In the morning right after waking up, have a 16oz glass of water with the juice of half a fresh lemon. It helps kickstart the metabolism and gets your body working before you’ve eaten anything.
Step 5: The Right Kind of Training
You need to train. That’s fairly obvious. But you also need to dispel the myths that circulate gyms — that specific exercises burn fat from specific areas. Spot training is a nice idea, but it doesn’t work.
What actually works:
- HIIT cardio — their fat-burning effect lasts up to 48 hours after you finish. Sprinting on a track or bike works wonders for the fat you want to lose
- Total-body strength training — compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, thrusters, and hang cleans stimulate your metabolism to work on excess fat even when you’re resting
- Long and slow distance cardio — one session per week to complement the higher intensity work
If you want to work on your core and become stronger all-around, do barbell front squats and weighted planks. They’re excellent for building the core strength that makes the waist look tighter as the fat reduces.
Step 6: Your Weekly Training Schedule
When you outline a week, you should have total-body strength training on the first, third and fifth days. You should do high intensity interval training on your second and sixth day, with a long and steady-state distance cardio on the fourth day. Like many before you, you should rest on the 7th day.
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Total-body strength training |
| Day 2 | HIIT cardio |
| Day 3 | Total-body strength training |
| Day 4 | Long steady-state cardio |
| Day 5 | Total-body strength training |
| Day 6 | HIIT cardio |
| Day 7 | Rest |
Stick to this structure consistently. If this seems familiar because you’ve been training for a while, try shocking your body — pump your cardio up one to two times per week or add a whole new 45-minute cardio session.
The Best Exercises for Love Handles
While you can’t spot-reduce fat, you can build the oblique and core muscles that improve the appearance of the area as overall body fat drops. Here are the most effective:
Russian Twists — one of the best oblique exercises you can do. Sit on the floor with knees bent and feet elevated. Lean back to 45 degrees, hold a weight at your chest, and rotate your torso side to side. The rotation directly targets the obliques. 3 sets of 20 reps.
Woodchoppers — hold a dumbbell or cable handle at shoulder height on one side, then drive it diagonally down and across your body to the opposite hip in a chopping motion. Mimics real-world rotation and torches the obliques. 3 sets of 12 reps each side.
Side Planks — lie on your side, propped up on one forearm, body in a straight line. Hold for 30–60 seconds each side. One of the most effective static exercises for the obliques and the muscles that create the waist’s lateral line.
Bicycle Crunches — lie on your back, hands behind head, and alternate bringing each elbow to the opposite knee in a cycling motion. Activates both the rectus abdominis and obliques simultaneously. 3 sets of 20 reps each side.
Mountain Climbers — from a high plank position, drive alternate knees toward the chest at a controlled pace. Full body exercise that keeps the heart rate elevated while working the core directly. 3 sets of 30 seconds.
Dead Bug — lie on your back with arms extended toward the ceiling and knees bent at 90 degrees. Slowly extend one arm overhead and the opposite leg simultaneously while keeping your lower back pressed into the floor. One of the safest and most effective deep core exercises. 3 sets of 10 reps each side.
Why Love Handles Are So Hormonally Stubborn
This is the part most articles skip — and it’s the reason many people do everything right in the gym and kitchen and still struggle to shift the fat on their sides.
Our hormones are often what prevent us from getting the body of our dreams. Hormonal activity is an important driving force behind most bodily functions, and hormonal imbalances can be a major obstacle to successful weight loss. Here’s what’s actually happening:
Love handles and the insulin-cortisol connection
There are two hormones involved when love handles are around — insulin and cortisol. Love handles are recognised by physicians as an indicator of an imbalance in cortisol and insulin levels, which is why carrying weight around your gut is considered to be worse for your health than storing fat around your thighs.
Elevated levels of cortisol — the stress hormone — directly promote fat storage around the gut. Insulin, on the other hand, acts as a chemical signal that allows sugar to enter your cells where it creates energy. When intake of sugar is too high, the excess will be stored as fat around your gut.
If you eat a diet mainly consisting of over-processed carbs for a prolonged period, you risk developing insulin resistance — where blood levels of insulin are constantly elevated while the body tissues become less sensitive to it. That prevents insulin from doing its job, and the body tries to compensate by secreting even more insulin. Left unaddressed, this can lead to type 2 diabetes, which usually has a physical manifestation as excess fat around the waist.
To combat this: eliminate sugar from your diet, include protein in every meal (it helps balance blood sugar and has a high thermic effect), and increase your consumption of fatty fish rich in omega-3 fats — salmon and sardines also stimulate thermogenesis and help restore hormonal balance.
Man boobs (moobs) and the estrogen-testosterone problem
Man boobs can destroy a guy’s confidence like nothing else. If you’re a dedicated lifter struggling with fat stored in the pecs, you might be wondering what’s going wrong — wasn’t rigorous exercise supposed to keep fat away?
It should — unless you’re producing too much estrogen or having a testosterone conversion problem. These issues are very real. When too much of your testosterone converts into estrogen via an enzyme called aromatase, you can suffer from loss of energy, weight gain, and difficulty adding lean muscle. The obvious physical sign in men is added fatty tissue around the chest.
Bad diet choices — particularly too many carbs from refined, processed white flour and white sugar — cause the biggest surge in aromatase. So the first step when fighting testosterone conversion is serious dietary restriction: cut out late-night sugary snacks and keep your daily sugar intake minimal.
To help normalize testosterone levels:
- Resveratrol — a polyphenol with antioxidant properties and a natural aromatase inhibitor that prevents testosterone from converting to estrogen. Available as a supplement.
- Cruciferous vegetables — broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale contain phytochemicals that also inhibit testosterone conversion.
- Zinc — the mineral zinc is known to inhibit the aromatase enzyme, so meeting your daily zinc requirements can help restore normal testosterone levels.
Belly fat and the visceral fat danger
Is belly fat covering your strong abs? Chances are you’re too stressed and could use a testosterone boost. Extra belly fat can indicate high estrogen, low testosterone, high insulin, and high cortisol — often all at once.
The bigger concern with belly fat is that it’s not just the layer below the skin — it also includes visceral fat that lies deep inside the abdomen and surrounds internal organs. This type of fat is associated with raised blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease. An excessive amount of visceral fat also boosts estrogen levels in both men and women, creating a self-reinforcing cycle.
To address belly fat specifically:
- Reduce sugar intake and consider switching to a clean, well-balanced diet that prioritizes complex carbs over fast-digesting refined ones
- Manage stress actively — being chronically stressed keeps cortisol elevated and prevents hormones from normalizing. Find what relaxes you and do it more often
- Lift weights 3–4 times per week. Cardio is great, but it’s not enough. Weightlifting torches excess body fat, elevates your metabolic rate, stimulates testosterone production, and reduces the negative effects of stress
- Get enough sleep — sleep is crucial for normalizing hormone production, including testosterone levels. Rest and sleep are almost as important to maintaining a healthy weight as dieting and exercise
Getting rid of love handles, man boobs, or belly fat demands taking a closer look at your hormonal activity and resetting your hormones so that they help you thrive instead of blocking your efforts at leaning out. Luckily, almost anything can be achieved with healthy food choices and an adequate amount of exercise. You are what you eat — and each time you reach for that candy bar, remember the effect sugary snacks have on your hormones.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to get rid of love handles? Honestly — longer than most people want to hear. Love handles are one of the last areas where the body burns fat, which is exactly what makes them so stubborn. With consistent diet changes and training, most people see noticeable improvement in 8–12 weeks. Full elimination depends entirely on how much fat there is to lose and your genetics. Patience is not optional here.
Can you spot reduce love handles with exercise? No. Spot reduction is a myth that has been thoroughly debunked by research. Doing hundreds of side crunches will build the oblique muscles underneath but won’t preferentially burn the fat on top. Fat is lost through an overall calorie deficit — where it comes from first is determined by genetics and hormones, not by which muscles you exercise.
Is diet or exercise more important for losing love handles? Diet. By a significant margin. You can’t out-train a bad diet — no amount of cardio compensates for consistently eating more calories than you burn. Get the nutrition right first, then add the training on top of it. That’s the order that actually works.
Does alcohol cause love handles? It contributes significantly. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram — nearly as calorie-dense as fat — and those calories stack up fast. Beyond the direct calorie contribution, alcohol disrupts sleep, raises cortisol levels, and reduces the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel. If you’re struggling to lose love handles and drink regularly, reducing alcohol intake is one of the most impactful changes you can make.
Do men and women lose love handles the same way? The approach is the same — calorie deficit, strength training, adequate sleep. The timeline differs because men and women store and mobilize fat differently due to hormonal differences. Women tend to hold onto fat around the hips and waist more stubbornly due to estrogen levels. The process is the same, but patience is even more important.
What causes man boobs even if I train regularly? Usually a testosterone-to-estrogen conversion problem driven by the aromatase enzyme. The main culprits are a diet high in refined carbs and sugar, excess alcohol, and high body fat (which itself increases aromatase activity). Addressing diet, reducing alcohol, adding cruciferous vegetables, and ensuring adequate zinc intake are the starting points before looking at anything else.
Is belly fat more dangerous than love handles? Yes, for one specific reason: belly fat includes visceral fat — the fat surrounding internal organs — which is directly linked to cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, and high cholesterol. Love handles are subcutaneous (under the skin) and are a health concern mainly as a marker of overall excess body fat. Visceral belly fat is the more medically urgent of the two.
Follow these steps — especially the nutrition and hormone parts — and be patient. A well-balanced, clean diet combined with consistent training will absolutely burn the unwanted fat around your waist, chest, and sides, improve your physique, and make you feel more confident than ever.
