Often with any weight loss journey, you will reach a point where stubborn fat just sits there and refuses to budge. Each individual is different and many times we read that this is purely genetic and we must be patient, it will go away when our body decides to let it go from that area.
But what if your patience has run out? Is spot reduction possible?
Despite popular belief, it is (pointing to heavenly music and the sun parting the clouds lol), however this is due more to hormonal manipulation than specific exercises. Through changes in your diet, lifestyle, and with natural product supplements, you can attack those stubborn areas of fat, whether it’s your belly, love handles, or thighs.
love handles
Before we start focusing on losing specific love handle fat, I must assume that you are already completing the following prerequisites, without them you are fighting a losing battle:
– a clean, healthy and balanced diet with a slight caloric deficit compared to the daily maintenance intake.
– moderately vigorous exercise or regular activity.
– consume a liter of water for every 25 kg of body weight
– go to bed at 10:30 p.m. 5 nights a week
If you’re not doing these 4 things, start now as your body isn’t ready to be specific… you may not even need to if you complete the above over a long period of time. Okay, so we’re up to the task and ready to go? Great, so the main culprit behind accumulated fat in the love handle area is insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance in its simplest terms causes the body to store carbohydrates from your diet in fat cells rather than muscle or liver cells, and this storage particularly occurs in the love handles. Insulin resistance develops from years of eating refined and sugary carbohydrates like pasta, white rice, bread, and consuming large amounts of soft drinks, candy, chocolate, etc.
Our typical response to these foods is for the body to produce insulin to tell receptor cells to take in the broken down sugars to lower our blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, because we over-consume these foods over an extended period of time, our cells become desensitized to constantly high levels of insulin, ultimately leading to insulin resistance and targeted fat storage.
OK, that doesn’t sound good, what can I do about it?
First, we need to give your body a break from all refined and overly processed foods like pasta, white rice, bread, and all sugar (look for it on food labels as fructose, dextrose, glucose, or anything that end in bear and avoid like the plague). ). Do this over a 30-day period and you’ll be well on your way to resetting your body’s responses to sugar-based foods.
Second, cycle your intake of complex carbohydrates, so alternate days with normal servings of potatoes, brown/brown rice, with days with very little or no carbohydrate servings. By alternating these cycles, you ensure that you keep energy levels high, allowing your body to rest from high insulin levels and encouraging the body to access fat stores as a preferred energy source :).
On low-carb or no-carb days, be sure to balance your servings with meat or vegetables so your body gets the proper nutrients each day—you may miss out on carbs, but you shouldn’t go hungry. If we do these two parts right, we should see results within 30 days :), we can help the process with the following health supplements…
Fish oils:
Fish oil supplements, whether they are capsules or oil, are without a doubt one of the best health products out there. Among the many health benefits (Google them), you’ll see that fish oils speed up fat burning, slow down fat storage, and reduce insulin response when taken with meals (so specifically useful on hot days). of carbohydrates). I would advise you to find a good source online (as the street versions are not as potent and taste horrible), ideally there should be no fishy aftertaste if you get a good product.
Fenugreek:
Fenugreek is an herb often used as a Mediterranean culinary spice, it can be used in seed form sprinkled on food or in capsule form, both of which can be found at high street health stores. For insulin resistance, fenugreek helps slow gastric emptying (so sugar doesn’t overwhelm your bloodstream) and lowers blood sugar, which will reduce insulin responses to your carbohydrate-based meals and help to give its resistant cells a “breather”.
Magnesium:
Magnesium is quickly becoming recognized as an essential mineral for health, sadly it is now also being reported that many of us are already deficient in magnesium. It would appear that magnesium is a potent protector against insulin resistance and will aid in our process of taking pressure off of over-sensitized cells.
Magnesium can again be found in health food stores and the most appropriate type is magnesium citrate, follow the dosage advice as if taken in too high a dose it can be a bit ‘loose’ lol. Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you understand why love handles can be such a difficult area to get rid of and gives you some key points to put into action for your health and happiness.
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