Often with any weight loss journey, you will reach a point where the 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 (points to heavenly music and the sun parting the clouds lol), however this is more due to hormonal manipulation than specific exercises. Through changes to your diet, lifestyle, and supplementation with natural products, you can target those stubborn areas of fat, whether it’s your belly, love handles, or thighs.
the love handles
Before we start focusing on losing specific love handle fat, I would 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 strenuous exercise or regular activity.
– consume one liter of water for every 25 kg of body weight
– go to bed at 22:30 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 do the above over an extended period of time. Okay, so are we up to it 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 particularly this storage 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 fizzy drinks, candy, chocolate, etc.
Our typical response to these foods is for the body to produce insulin to tell the receptor cells to receive the broken down sugars to lower our blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, because we overconsume these foods over an extended period of time, our cells become desensitized to constantly high levels of insulin, which ultimately leads to insulin resistance and specific 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 the refined and overly processed foods, like pasta, white rice, bread, and all the sugar (look for it on food labels like fructose, dextrose, glucose, or anything that ending in osa and avoid it 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 complex carbohydrate intake, so alternate days with normal servings of potatoes, brown/brown rice, with days of very small or no carbohydrate servings. By alternating these cycles, you ensure that you keep energy levels up, allowing your body to rest from high insulin levels and encouraging the body to tap into fat stores as a preferred energy source :).
On low-carb or no-carb days, be sure to balance out your portions with meat or vegetables so your body is getting adequate nutrients each day—you may miss out on carbs, but you shouldn’t go hungry. If we get 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 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 helpful on days of carbohydrates). I would advise looking for a good source online (as the street versions are not as potent and taste horrible), ideally there shouldn’t be any 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 in 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 your resistant cells a “breath”.
Magnesium:
Magnesium is quickly becoming recognized as an essential mineral for health, sadly now it is also being published that many of us are already magnesium deficient. It would appear that magnesium is a potent protector against insulin resistance and will aid in our process of taking the pressure off oversensitive cells.
Magnesium can again be found in health food stores and the most appropriate type is magnesium citrate, please follow dosage advice as if taken in too high a dose it may be a bit ‘loose’ lol. Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you understand why love handles can be such a tough area to get rid of and gives you some key points to put into action for your health and happiness.
natan