How to Get Rid of Love Handles

“Love handles” is a cute name for a serious problem: fatty deposits on the back and sides of the waist. They’re not just unsightly, they’re unhealthy, too. Fortunately, you can get rid of love handles once and for all by making some small changes to your lifestyle.

Lose Fat All Over

Love handles are a sign of excess abdominal fat. This is a stubborn and dangerous type of fat that can lead to metabolic disorders and even serious heart disease. Reducing the fat around your waistline can decrease your chance of becoming diabetic or suffering a heart attack.

If you’ve considered targeting your abdominal fat and nothing else, don’t bother; there’s no such thing as spot reduction. If there were, none of us would have problem areas and we would all be perfectly proportioned! But in reality, if you want to get rid of love handles, you have to get rid of fat everywhere else, too.

Cardio exercise will help you burn fat faster. Strength training will increase your lean muscle mass, which in turn will make you burn calories faster. Eating at a slight calorie deficit will keep you from storing extra calories as fat. The best way to get rid of love handles is to do all three.

Build Stronger Obliques

The obliques are the muscles that run down both sides of your abdomen. They frame the group of muscles commonly called the 6-pack. Obliques give us the strength to twist and turn when we need to. Unfortunately, they are sometimes hidden by love handles.

Building stronger obliques will help you burn more calories, and will give you tight abdominal muscles to show off after the love handles are gone.

You can get rid of love handles faster by doing exercises that were found by the American Council on Exercise to be the very best ones for working your obliques: Bicycle crunches, captain’s chair leg raises, and vertical leg crunches.

Bicycle crunches involve lying down on your back and doing crunch-twists while pedaling your legs as if you were riding a bicycle. Captain’s chair leg raises require the use of a captain’s chair, which is a common fixture in most gyms. Vertical leg crunches are performed like regular crunches, but with your legs raised perpendicular to the ground.

Do a search for these exercises to find helpful step-by-step guides with photos.

Eat Fat-Burning Foods

Some foods, especially those high in sugar and sodium, add inches to the waistline. To get rid of love handles, you’ll need to eat more foods that fight belly fat. Doctors recommend heart-healthy fats, like those found in olive oil, nuts, and salmon; 3 servings of calcium from green, leafy vegetables or dairy products; and plenty of fiber from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

These foods are digested slowly, so they leave you feeling satisfied longer. Add some green tea to your diet for an extra fat-burning boost. Three cups a day will speed up your metabolism and ward off diseases.

Check Your Clothes

One last quick and dirty trick to get rid of love handles: Make sure your clothes fit properly. Tight clothing can create the illusion of love handles, even on thin folks. If you’ve worked hard to lose your love handles, don’t ruin the effect by squeezing into jeans that leave you overflowing!

How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy

Ladies, are you looking for a plan to help you lose weight after pregnancy? New moms have an especially hard time losing weight because they have to pull double duty by getting in shape and looking after the new arrival. With time at a premium and fatigue at an all-time high, is post-pregnancy weight loss even a realistic goal?

Yes, it is! There are several tricks you can use to lose weight after pregnancy without collapsing from exhaustion.

 Make Time for You

Every mom knows that this is easier said than done, but you have to take care of yourself if you want to take care of your loved ones. That includes taking time to get in shape. It can be difficult to find an hour a day, or even a half hour, for exercise. Try to get your spouse or a friend or relative to watch the baby while you work out. Some fitness centers have Kids’ Clubs that offer infant care. If that’s not an option, time your home workouts to coincide with the baby’s naps.

It doesn’t matter if you have an hour-long session or four 15-minute workouts each day. The total time spent working out is what’s important.

Eat Nutritious Foods

In order to lose weight after pregnancy, you’re going to need to make sure you eat an adequate number of calories each day. If you are breastfeeding, you’ll need even more.

If you don’t eat enough calories, your metabolism will slow down. It can become 20 – 30% slower than normal. Also, if you fill up on junk foods, you and your baby won’t get the best possible nourishment, and your energy level will take a nose-dive.

Eat smaller portions of food several times a day. Never go longer than 2-3 hours without eating something nutritious. Get plenty of calcium from dark green vegetables and low-fat dairy products. Calcium will kick your fat-burning metabolism into high gear. Round out your food selections with fresh fruits, lean protein, and whole grain products.

Exercise With the Baby

Weight loss doesn’t have to be a solo act. You can lose weight after pregnancy – and have lots of fun - by bringing your baby along! Join an online weight loss community to connect with other new moms in your area who might want to join you for stroller walks and swimming with the little ones. You might be able to find baby-and-me exercise classes at your local recreation center.

If you prefer to spend some one-on-one time with your baby, go for long walks while you push them in their stroller. Try to vary the locations of your walks by strolling at the zoo, the mall, a local park, or just around your neighborhood. When your baby starts walking on their own, take them to a playground and run and play like they do.

Look for Support

Support networks are so important for new moms. Many women who try to lose weight after pregnancy find that it’s just too hard to do it alone. Whether they provide babysitting service or a morale boost, friends and family can play a vital role in your success.

It’s also important to connect with other new moms who are facing the same struggles as you. Find a good community of new moms who are trying to lose weight. Read about their obstacles and how they have learned to overcome them. Then share your own tips for success. You’ll be surprised by how good it feels to know you’re not alone.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

This is another one of those tips that’s not easy for new moms to follow, but it’s important to try. Insufficient sleep can cause all sorts of physical and emotional problems. Worse, studies have shown that most people don’t get enough sleep. That’s especially true for new parents with babies who don’t yet sleep through the night.

Pregnancy is hard on the body, and the added stress that a newborn brings can leave you feeling exhausted fast. At least 3 times per week, get your spouse or a friend or relative to respond to the baby’s cries while you get 8 – 10 hours of sleep. Use ear plugs if you need to. The high-quality sleep will help you in many ways.

Breastfeeding moms might have to wait a little longer before adequate sleep becomes a regular part of life. Just catch naps when you can, and remember that, someday soon, your baby (and you) will be sleeping through the night.

Fat Burning Foods

Are there really fat burning foods that can speed up your metabolism? Yes! By eating the right foods, you can trick your body into burning through its extra fat.

Here are some of the tastiest and most convenient fat burning foods you can find:

Citrus and Ginger

When you were young and you felt a cold coming on, your mother probably told you to take lots of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a popular immunity booster, but it has a secret talent as well: It helps you burn fat faster!

Vitamin C boosts your fat-burning power in two ways. First, it speeds up the process of fat metabolism. It also seems to have an effect on fat storage. The citric acid breaks down fat molecules, making them less likely to accumulate and more likely to be flushed from the body.

Due to their Vitamin C content, citrus fruits rank highly among fat burning foods. Try adding a variety of citrus fruits to your diet, such as oranges, tangerines, lemons and limes. It’s better to eat the whole fruit than to drink the juice, because the fruit contains fiber – another fat-fighter. Don’t fancy fruit? Tomatoes are also fat burning foods. Use fresh tomatoes in your homemade sauces for metabolic boost.

Ginger is another tangy fat-burner. It is also a vasodilator, which means that it opens up the blood vessels and improves blood circulation. This can result in a significant boost to the metabolism. In fact, studies suggest that people who eat ginger may lose as much as 20% more fat than their peers.

Ginger and citrus flavors complement each other well, especially in Asian dishes. Experiment with this exotic blend, and you can lose weight without ever feeling deprived.

Oatmeal and Whole Grains

Nothing starts your day off right like a warm bowl of oatmeal. That’s because oatmeal is high in fiber, which stabilizes blood glucose levels and prevents crashes and fatigue. Oatmeal is thick and satisfying, and you can add non-fat milk for an even bigger fat-burning advantage. (Calcium and fiber are proven fat burning foods.)

The carbs in oatmeal provide a quick rise in energy to help you wake up faster. But the carbs are complex and get digested slowly, which keeps your energy up and your appetite low for hours after breakfast. As an added bonus, oatmeal lowers cholesterol, too!

Nuts and Beans

Nuts and beans are nutritious fat burning foods that also keep your appetite in check for long stretches. Like oatmeal, nuts and beans contain fiber that kick-starts your metabolism. Unlike oatmeal, they also contain a significant amount of protein. Protein is vital for building lean muscle mass, which burns calories faster than fat tissue.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Olive oil has long been recommended by doctors for its heart health benefits. Olive oil contains unsaturated fat that increases the number of high-density lipids in the bloodstream. These lipids, also known as “good cholesterol”, or HDL, sweep bad cholesterol from the arteries. By substituting olive oil for butter and margarine, you can actually lower your bad cholesterol and increase your metabolism.

Fat burnings foods can help you reach your weight loss goal faster. Add some fun cardio exercise and plenty of hydration, and you’ll have a recipe for success!

How to Get Skinny Legs

Ladies, are your legs starting to look a little thick? Pudgy upper legs and ankles can make a woman’s legs look shorter, making the woman swear off skirts, shorts, and skinny jeans forever. But it doesn’t have to be that way! You can get skinny legs in just a few months by following a few simple rules.

Note: Men can also benefit from these techniques, but ladies tend to store more fat on their legs – which is totally unfair, but true. Just listen to women discuss the dreaded “cankles”, calves that don’t slim down when they reach the ankle. Men don’t typically get fat ankles unless they are significantly overweight, but cankles can happen to women who are within or just above their healthy weight range.

Here’s some advice for anyone of either gender who wants to get skinny legs:

Leg-Slimming Exercises

There are two steps to slimming down your legs. First, you must lose the extra body fat that’s padding them. Second, you must build lean muscle mass and tone your leg muscles.

There’s a proven formula for losing body fat: Get enough exercise to burn off more calories than you eat, and use toning and strengthening exercises to produce lean leg muscles.

The best slimming routine contains a combination of cardio exercise and strength training. Any cardio will do; pick something you like, and keep at it. If you want to get skinny legs fast, go heavy on exercises that target your legs. Ride a bicycle, tread water, or go jogging through sand or water. 

You could also hit the gym and use the treadmill, cross-trainer, or stair-climbing machines.

Try to do 20 to 30 minutes of your chosen exercise every day, with a couple of “break” days to give your body time to recuperate.

To get skinny legs at the gym, use leg machines to work your inner and outer thighs, calves, and hip flexors. At home, try some classic leg exercises like leg lifts, lunges, and wall sits. Start by doing 3 sets of 30 leg lifts with each leg. Side and front leg lifts work different areas of your legs and abdomen, but all are effective. For wall sits, start by holding the sitting position for 15 seconds at a time, and work your way up. Stop when your thighs feel trembly and have difficulty supporting you.

Foods for Skinny Legs

For weight loss, nutrition is just as important as exercise. Some foods, like those containing sugar and corn syrup, can make your body produce too much insulin. The insulin makes you hungry, so you eat more. It’s a disastrous cycle to be in.

Give your diet a makeover by trading out saturated fats for healthier, unsaturated ones that actually help your heart. You don’t have to give up carbs, but you do need to choose healthier ones. Eat complex carbs that come from dark green vegetables, fruits high in water and fiber, and bread and pastas made from whole grains.

And don’t skip the eggs! Recent studies have shown that whole eggs aren’t harmful to your cholesterol, and can actually help you lose weight. Get at least three servings of dairy each day, and swap your morning coffee for green tea. Calcium and green tea leaves are proven fat-busters.

With the right diet and exercise, you’ll get skinny legs by swimsuit season!