I have love handles, what causes them? Find out what causes love handles in both men and women. The cause of love handles could be in your favorite food or drink or just lifestyle.
It is possible that you have developed love handles and are looking for ways on how to burn your muffin top with workouts. Before that, think of the causes to help the process.
In summary, the following are the causes of your love handles:
- Unhealthy diet that includes a lot of starch and fatty foods
- Lack of exercise (to tone your body)
- Too much sugar that is stored as fat around your waist and stomach
- Stress that may cause general weight gain
- Lack of sleep that may lead to metabolic problems and encourage love handles
In summary, foods that cause love handles include the following:
- Sugary sweets and sweetened beverages
- Packaged foods e.g. Cookies, snack bars, crackers and most baked goods
- Fatty foods such as pizza, friend chicken, French fries
Note that packaged foods are high in calories but contain very little nutrients. These will encourage rapid fat and weight gain. Fat is gained around the waist, stomach and back, causing muffin tops in both men and women.
“Fat contains 9 calories per gram, whereas each gram of protein and carbohydrate provide less than half of that amount — 4 calories.” Fat is known to be a satiating nutrient. However, eating too much of it will cause you to gain belly fat rather than lose it.
While exercises do make the process of losing love handles faster, they do not work exclusively. You have to know the real cause of your bulging on the waistline.
It is by knowing the root cause that you will be able to take care of the current muffin top and prevent future developments of the same.
You could end up with even bigger love handles after undergoing an expensive surgical procedure such as liposuction to get rid of muffin top. Therefore, it is best to know what causes love handles in both men and women and know how to keep them at bay. The cause of your predicament could be in the food you eat each day among other factors.
What Causes Love Handles?
The causes of love handles range from the food you eat to exercises to lose love handles. What causes love handles? For starters, the cause is the food you eat every day. If you do not watch your calorie intake, you may consume more than you burn. As a result, your body accumulates fats because of these calories and deposit themselves on your midsection.
Another cause of love handles is lack of inactivity. If you hardly walk about, exercise or perform any chores around your house, you body does not burn any calories. Consequently, the effect of these will show with accumulation of fats at the sides and back of your abdomen.
What causes love handles? Hormones also play a major role in the fat deposits in your midsection. These hormones are triggered by stress, many sugars in the blood and old age among others.
You may not have control in some of these hormones, while you can with others. Learning what each hormone is triggered by, will enable you to keep watch day and night.
Your body makeup could also cause love handles. What causes love handles? Genetics some people are more predisposed to accumulate fat around the abdomen than others are because of their body types. Therefore, no matter what best exercises to lose love handles you do they will still be on your abdominal area.
What Causes Love Handles in Men – Muffin Top in Men
Love handles occur in both men and women. In men, a hard belly accompanies the muffin top. What causes love handles in men is the same reasons explained above. However, there is more to it than just the right diet.
What causes love handles in men includes:
- Excess calories
- Overindulgence in alcohol, which makes them eat fatty foods
- Lack of enough protein in their diet, which makes the blood sugar not to balance
- Abdominal musculature, the over the development of abdominal muscles from lifting weights
- Leading a sedentary lifestyle where the muscles go to waste because no calories are burnt. Hence, the body fat increases around the abdomen.
- Low testosterone
Failure to watch the diet and exercise may lead to the love handles, which put the men at risk of heart attacks and diabetes mellitus type II. Therefore, men who start to see the development of love handles on the back and at the sides of the stomach should work at losing them to avoid the risk of death from heart problems.
Here are exercises to get rid of love handles for men. A proper diet is vital to ensuring that these workouts actually work. If you plan to do more exercises you may have to eat more, but if you plan to do little workouts, eating less is advisable.
The ratio of food should be 3:2:2 for example if you want to body build and lift weights intensely. Meaning you will eat more of vegetables than will do proteins and starch respectively. On the other hand, if you do not want to exercise the ratio of vegetables, proteins and starch should be at 3:2:1 respectively.
Muffin top in Women – What Causes Love Handles in Women
When it comes to women, their body is predisposed to store fats in the arms, buttocks, thighs and boobies. However, sometimes the storage occurs in the midsection. What causes love handles in women?
- Stress
- Pregnancy- the belly sags because the muscles suffer tears during pregnancy
- Menopause- the estrogen levels get lower then causing women’s bodies to store fats in the midsection.
- Genetics- women with apple or pear shaped bodies accumulate fats around their abdomen
- Age factor- as women become older their metabolism declines hence the fats deposits to create love handles
- What causes love handles in women is other hormone factors such as higher testosterone especially in women with PCOS and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) hormone.
One way to reduce stress in women is by taking Epsom salt baths , sauna therapy, spending time with loved ones and pets, leisure walking, naps, meditation, having sex and restorative yoga among other relaxing activities.
What Food Causes Love Handles? Foods to Avoid
What food causes love handles? Here is a list of foods to avoid:
- Processed foods with fructose
- Alcohol and wine
- Fried potatoes and white potatoes in general
- Saturated fats instead opt for monounsaturated and polyunsaturated
- White grains, flours and cereals
- Red meat
- Chicken with skin
Strive for a diet that controls hunger, balances energy, reduces cravings , gives results in weight loss and optimal health.
