Love handles, also known as muffin tops, refer to the excess fat that accumulates around the sides of the waist, often hanging over the top of pants. While the name might sound endearing, many people find this fat difficult to lose. However, with the right combination of nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle adjustments, it is possible to get rid of love handles.
Many individuals attempt to target this area specifically with exercises like side crunches, which focus on the obliques. Unfortunately, this approach is not very effective for spot reduction. To eliminate love handles for good, a holistic approach involving dietary changes, exercise, and overall lifestyle adjustments is necessary.
Dietary Adjustments for Reducing Love Handles
Cutting Out Added Sugar
One of the most effective ways to improve your diet and reduce overall body fat, including love handles, is by eliminating added sugar. Added sugars are prevalent in many foods and beverages, such as cookies, candies, sports drinks, and sodas. These sugars differ from the natural sugars found in whole fruits.
Consuming too much added sugar has been linked to various health issues, including heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, and can lead to increased body fat, especially in the abdominal area. Sweeteners like table sugar, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), honey, and agave nectar contain fructose, a simple sugar that studies have shown to increase belly fat, particularly when consumed in sweetened beverages.
Most sugary foods are high in calories and low in nutrients. Reducing your intake of added sugar can significantly contribute to reducing body fat and, consequently, love handles.
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Focusing on Healthy Fats
Incorporating healthy fats into your diet can help slim your waistline. Healthy fats, found in foods like avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish, not only taste good but also promote satiety, helping you consume fewer calories throughout the day.
A study involving over 7,000 participants demonstrated that individuals who followed a high-fat Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil experienced greater weight loss and accumulated less belly fat compared to those on a low-fat diet. Replacing less nutrient-dense foods with healthy fats can aid in reducing body fat. For instance, adding a few slices of avocado to your meals can make a difference.
Even though healthy fats are calorie-dense, incorporating them in moderation can help you shed pounds.
Filling Up on Fiber
Adding foods rich in soluble fiber to your diet can help eliminate stubborn love handles. Soluble fiber, found in foods like beans, nuts, oats, vegetables, and fruits, helps you feel full for longer periods by slowing down digestion and reducing hunger.
The prolonged feeling of fullness that fiber provides can decrease the number of calories consumed daily, leading to weight loss. A study revealed that increasing soluble fiber intake by just 10 grams per day over five years resulted in an average reduction of 3.7% in visceral fat, a harmful type of belly fat.
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Foods rich in soluble fiber are also packed with nutrients and beneficial for the health-promoting bacteria in your gut.
Adding in Complex Carbs
Replacing refined carbohydrates with complex carbs can help you shed belly fat. Swapping refined carbohydrates like white bread, pasta, and white rice for nutrient-dense complex carbs like sweet potatoes, beans, oats, and brown rice can help you shed belly fat.
Unlike refined carbs that leave you feeling hungry, complex carbs keep you feeling satisfied throughout the day and may help you eat less. This is because complex carbohydrates are digested more slowly due to their high fiber content. Studies have shown that including fiber-rich carbohydrates in your diet can help you lose weight, which can help slim down love handles.
Choosing fiber-rich complex carbohydrates over refined carbohydrates is a great way to lose weight and get rid of love handles.
Boosting Your Protein Intake
Adding high-quality protein to your meals can help you lose fat and maintain a healthy weight. Protein helps keep you full between meals and may even reduce the urge to snack.
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Studies have shown that diets rich in protein are more effective at reducing belly fat than diets that are low in protein. Additionally, following a high-protein diet may help you maintain your weight once you have reached your goal.
Including high-quality protein sources like eggs, nuts, seeds, legumes, seafood, poultry, and meats in your meals may help reduce excess fat, including love handles.
Eating Whole Foods
One of the simplest ways to get rid of love handles is to eat a diet rich in whole, unprocessed foods. Highly processed foods like fast food, fried foods, sweets, and TV dinners contain ingredients that aren’t good for health. Studies show that people who eat lots of processed foods are at a greater risk of obesity, along with chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Incorporating more whole, natural foods into your diet is an excellent way to shrink your waistline. Healthy whole foods include vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, lean proteins, and whole grains. Preparing meals made with whole foods at home, rather than opting for premade dishes, may be another great way to lose love handles. Research shows that people who regularly eat readymade meals sold at grocery stores and fast food restaurants have more belly fat than those who don’t.
Practicing Mindful Eating
Focusing on your food and paying more attention to how you feel while eating can help you shed pounds from your midsection. Mindful eating is a practice that can help you gain control of your eating habits and may lead you to consume fewer calories.
Mindful eating involves paying attention to hunger and fullness cues, eating slowly without distraction, and understanding how food impacts your mood and health. This is an excellent way to get healthier, both physically and mentally, and has been shown to be an effective method for weight loss.
What’s more, practicing mindful eating can help you maintain a healthy weight once you’ve reached your goal.
Drinking Water to Stay Hydrated
Properly hydrating your body is a must for optimal health. Though water is the best fluid to drink, many people tend to reach for sweetened beverages like sports drinks, teas, and juice when they feel thirsty.
The calories and sugar found in sweetened beverages add up and can cause you to gain fat around the waistline. Studies have shown that a higher intake of sugar-sweetened beverages is linked to weight gain, specifically in the abdominal area.
Instead of sugary beverages, hydrate with plain or sparkling water, or unsweetened tea.
Cutting Back on Alcohol
An easy way to cut calories and lose weight is to cut back on alcoholic beverages. Drinking too much alcohol has been linked to obesity and an increase in body fat, especially in the midsection.
Alcohol also increases feelings of hunger by stimulating brain cells that regulate appetite, which may cause you to consume more calories. Plus, many alcoholic beverages are loaded with calories and added sugar, which can cause you to gain weight.
While drinking small amounts of alcohol has been linked to health benefits like a reduced risk of heart disease, drinking too much isn’t good for your overall health or waistline.
Exercise Strategies
Increase Your Cardio
Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise is defined as any activity that raises your heart rate for an extended period of time. Aerobic workouts help burn calories and reduce excess fat on the body, which can help slim down love handles.
Experts like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. That’s about 20 minutes per day.
Move Throughout the Day
Many people lead sedentary lifestyles and work desk jobs that involve sitting for hours on end. Studies show that sitting for long periods of time isn’t good for your health or your waistline.
Creating a habit as simple as setting a timer every half hour to get up and walk to the water cooler can make a big difference for weight loss. Investing in a pedometer is a great way to track your steps and see exactly how much you are moving during the day.
Lift Weights
Engaging in any kind of physical activity can help you lose your love handles, but adding weight training to your routine may be especially beneficial. The terms weight training, strength training, and resistance training are generally interchangeable. They all mean contracting your muscles against some form of resistance to build your strength.
While aerobic training typically burns more calories during a workout, resistance training helps the body build lean muscle and burn more calories at rest. Combining resistance training with aerobic exercise has been shown to be very effective for burning off belly fat.
Plus, resistance training gives your metabolism a slight boost, helping you burn more calories throughout the day.
Add in Whole-Body Moves
Focusing on working out the part of your body that bothers you the most may be tempting, but exercising the whole body may be a more effective way to slim down love handles. Spot training is not a worthwhile way to lose stubborn fat and has been shown to be ineffective in several studies.
A better way to lose resistant body fat is to incorporate whole-body moves into your workout and add in aerobic exercises that work a large number of muscles at once.
Try a HIIT Workout
HIIT workouts involve short bursts of intense aerobic exercise, each followed by a recovery period.
Engage Your Abs With Pilates Moves
It can be difficult to find an effective workout that you actually enjoy. Fortunately, pilates is a beginner-friendly exercise method that is beneficial for toning the abs. The practice helps improve flexibility, posture, and core strength.
Adding pilates workouts to your routine may even help you lose weight and shrink your waistline. Pilates can be modified depending on your fitness level and is appropriate for all ages.
Lifestyle Changes
Stress Less
Being stressed out has a negative impact on both your mental and physical health, and can even cause you to gain belly fat. This is because stress triggers the production of the hormone cortisol. Also known as the “stress hormone,” cortisol is produced by your adrenal glands in response to stressful situations.
Although this is a normal function, prolonged stress and overexposure to cortisol can cause unwanted side effects like anxiety, headaches, digestive issues, and weight gain. Many studies have linked increased levels of cortisol with weight gain, especially around the midsection.
To reduce stress and prevent belly fat, focus on activities like yoga and meditation that have been shown to reduce cortisol levels.
Get Enough Sleep
Like stress, not getting enough sleep increases cortisol levels in the body, which can lead to weight gain. Studies have shown that sleep-deprived people tend to weigh more and have more body fat than those who get enough sleep.
Lack of sleep has also been linked to an increased risk of diabetes and obesity. To prevent yourself from gaining weight due to inadequate sleep, aim to get seven to eight uninterrupted hours of sleep per night.
Sample Meal Plans
Here are some sample meal plans that you can follow:
5-Day Menopause Meal Plan
- Monday
- Breakfast: Baked eggs with avocado and a side of blackberries
- Lunch: Arugula salad with olive oil, lemon, parmesan shavings, and turkey meatballs
- Dinner: Marry me chicken with a side of cauliflower rice
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: Apple protein pancakes
- Lunch: Cheddar salmon burger on a whole-grain bun with side of steamed broccoli
- Dinner: Zucchini boats with ground turkey
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: Overnight oats with strawberries
- Lunch: Turkey in a high-protein cottage cheese wrap with sprouts and cheese
- Dinner: Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce and crumbled ground chicken
- Thursday
- Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with mushrooms and asparagus, and a side of sprouted grain toast and avocado slices
- Lunch: Chopped kale salad with pistachios, pears, and balsamic dressing, topped with grilled salmon or chicken
- Dinner: Tahini lentils with sirloin kabobs
- Friday
- Breakfast: Mushroom frittata and sweet potato hash browns
- Lunch: Quinoa with slivered almonds, roasted Brussel sprouts, and chopped dates bowl
- Dinner: Black bean tacos with zucchini chips and guacamole
Snack Ideas
- Dark chocolate bar
- Mixed nuts
- Popcorn
- Cottage cheese or yogurt cup with cinnamon
- Hummus and whole grain pita
- Mixed berries
- Protein balls
- Salmon chicken jerky
- Celery with almond butter
- Apples with peanut butter
7-Day Meal Plan
- Day 1
- Breakfast: Combine 3/4 cup bran flakes, 1 banana, and 1 cup fat-free milk in a bowl.
- Lunch: Build a pita sandwich with 1 mini whole wheat pita, 3 ounces turkey breast, 1/2 roasted pepper, 1 teaspoon mayo, mustard, and lettuce. Serve with 1 stick part-skim mozzarella string cheese and a serving of fruit, like 2 kiwis.
- Dinner: Barbecue cutlets with citrus slaw.
- Day 2
- Breakfast: 1 cup of plain or low-sugar Greek yogurt with 1 cup berries of choice and 1/3 cup low-sugar granola to make a simple but delectable yogurt parfait.
- Lunch: Heat up 1 cup vegetable soup and serve with 1 veggie burger on a slice of whole grain and seed toast or an English muffin. Pair with 1 cup of fresh grapes.
- Dinner: Combine barbecue sauce, Dijon, and 1 teaspoon of peeled orange to make our barbecue cutlets with citrus slaw.
- Day 3
- Breakfast: In the microwave, cook 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats with low-fat or unsweetened soy milk. Add 1/2 apple (sliced or chopped), 1 teaspoon honey, and a pinch of cinnamon.
- Lunch: To make a chicken salad, toss 4 ounces shredded skinless roast chicken breasts with 1/4 cup sliced red grapes, 1 tablespoon slivered almonds or nuts of choice, 1/4 cup chopped celery, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, and 1 tablespoon plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt. Serve over lettuce. Eat with 1 large piece of multigrain toast.
- Dinner: Serve 4 ounces steamed shrimp with 1 baked potato topped with 3 tablespoons salsa and 1 tablespoon unsweetened Greek yogurt, plus 3 cups spinach, steamed. Finish the meal off with 1 ounce of chocolate or a 100- to 150-calorie ice cream bar.
- Day 4
- Breakfast: Top 1 cup of plain or low-sugar Greek yogurt with 1 cup berries of choice and 1/3 cup low-sugar granola to make a simple but delectable yogurt parfait.
- Lunch: Heat 1 cup tomato soup and serve with a sandwich made with 1 mini whole-wheat pita, 3 ounces thinly sliced roast beef, 1 teaspoon horseradish, mustard, tomato slices, and lettuce. Eat with 2 cups raw veggies and 1/4 cup of hummus.
- Dinner: Serve 4 ounces poached salmon with a slaw made by tossing 1 1/4 cups coleslaw mix and 2 sliced scallions with 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar and 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil. Add spices, herbs, and seasoning as desired. Pair with 1 cup of a 100% whole grain, like quinoa.
- Day 5
- Breakfast: Combine 1 cup Cheerios, 1/2 cup berries, 1 tablespoon slivered almonds, and 6 ounces plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt in a bowl.
- Lunch: Mushroom quesadillas. Complete the meal with cucumber spears and 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese or Greek yogurt, topped with 2 clementines.
- Dinner: Spicy sausage jambalaya.
- Day 6
- Breakfast: Toast a 100% whole-grain frozen waffle and spread 2 tablespoons nut butter on top. Add 1 small sliced banana, plus cinnamon and nutmeg. Serve with 8 ounces fat-free milk.
- Lunch: Healthy tuna salad recipe. Serve with 10 baby carrots and 2/3 cup plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt with a small pear.
- Dinner: Spicy sausage jambalaya, serviced with 3 cups spinach sautéed with garlic in 1 tablespoon olive oil.
- Day 7
- Breakfast: Layer 1/2 toasted English muffin with 1 ounce reduced-fat sliced cheese, 1 sliced tomato sliced, 1 cup steamed and drained spinach, and 1 poached egg. Serve with one grapefruit.
- Lunch: Make black bean salad by tossing 1/2 cup canned black beans, 1/2 cup orange slices, chopped red bell peppers, red onion, scallions, and any other desired veggies with 1 teaspoon vinegar.
Addressing Menopausal Weight Gain
Menopausal weight gain, affecting between 60-70% of menopausal women, is associated with a decline in muscle mass due to hormonal changes. The shifting hormones also cause a redistribution of abdominal fat.
These are some of the diet changes I put in place (and have advised my patients to consider) that have worked for me in combating menopause-related belly fat. However, it has taken time and hard work and an attention to multiple components of lifestyle beyond diet (like sleep, for example).
These diet changes include:
- Choose foods that take longer to digest. Studies show that a low-glycemic index diet may be beneficial for managing weight and blood-sugar levels associated with menopause.
- Get to know isoflavones. This low-GI food may benefit menopausal women due to the presence of isoflavones.
- Eat more soluble fiber. Soluble fiber slows gastric emptying. That means it keeps you fuller, longer.
- Promote protein. Observational studies have linked higher protein intake with increased lean body mass in postmenopausal women.
- Lose the booze. This dietary modification has also made a difference in the menopausal patients I've counseled.
Additional Tips
- Look Beyond Diet and Exercise: A muffin top is influenced by hormones, genetics, stress, and sleep.
- Focus on Overall Fat Loss, Not Spot Reduction: Your body loses fat from all over, not just the area you’re exercising.
- Use Professional Treatments for Stubborn Areas: When you’ve done the work but still have persistent fat, non-invasive treatments can help.
- Be Patient: It’s important to remember that it won’t be as quick of a transformation as it might have been in your 20s or even 30s.