Weight Loss Tips - Love Handle Workout

Love handles - the name sounds so affectionate but it is something that you have always wanted to get rid of. It is that flabby area on the lower side of your external oblique abdominal muscles that are formed when your body stores energy as fat. This area is often neglected in stomach and abs exercises, and as a result, this fat still stay even after long hours of what you thought are perfect love handle workouts. Here are some weight loss tips that will be of great help with your urge to achieve a good-looking body and losing them.

These workouts can be easy and this is because all you have to do is simply burn this spot in order to get rid of them, but you need first to raise your body's metabolism until it's enough for spot toning. That means you have to start with cardio exercise routines for you to be able to lose those stubborn love handles.

There are a good number cardio exercise routines that you can try and these ranges from gym machines to outdoor workouts. These include using a rowing machine or a treadmill and elliptical bikes. However, there are also simple routines that you can do at home, doing froggy jumps, squat thrust, or jumping jacks for example. With these routines you do not only have a love handle workout but you are also targeting endurance and boosting your fitness level. A solid foundation of 3-5 times a week of 30-60 minutes cardio exercises can be a good start.

Now you can do more exercises in order to burn more calories that will eventually lead to losing your love handles. It is actually a misconception that sit-ups, crunches, and twists are the perfect love handle workouts, although they are good abs exercises, since most of the time they burn an unimportant amount of calories but that doesn't mean that they are targeting your love handles. What then are better routines than these exercises? A regular small-distance walking and running will do better, and these exercises are not difficult to do since these can just be simply part of your daily routine. These are the most practical weight loss tips, and a sure and effective love handle workout.

In addition, you must lower your body fat percentage, and a calorie-restricted diet will be of great help as you go on with your love handle workout. A simple concept of less calorie intake and more exercises greatly helps you in your workout routine. That means hours of following serious routines of different love handle exercises will just go to waste if you go home to a bad diet. You have to maintain the combination of eating good food and regular exercise.

Do theses exercise consistently in moderation (considering love handles are your only problem, not abs):

1. Side Bridge (Planks)

2. Twists (using broom or empty barbell)

3. Side Bends

4. Side Crunches

5. Side Jacknife

6. Ab Bicycles (Knee-to-elbow Crunches)

I can't post all the links here because this directory doesn't allow me to. For details on how to do them, just Google it up.

For starters, do side bridges for 1 minute each side, do the twists for 5 minutes and do everything 10 each side every other day consistently.

Most importantly than all those exercise, beginners MUST start with High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT) around 3 times per week. The function of this is to burn fat. You won't lose those love handles if you have high body fat percentage. Long cardio and slow brisk walking are not just boring (useful in some situation), but also useless if your target is love handle. Basically, HIIT is doing an intense and slow cardio back to back after a warm-up.

Example: let's say jogging (you can apply the same concept in frog jumps or other cardio mentioned before as well)

a. 4 minutes moderate jogging (warm-up)

b. 30 seconds sprinting

c. 30 seconds slow jogging

d. Repeat b and c 4-12 times (depend on your fitness level, beginners should start with 4)

e. 4 minutes moderate jogging (warm-down)

After you advanced, do a combination of HIIT, old school sprinting and brisk walking every week ( like on Monday, Wednesday, Friday). This is to beat plateau, where you won't make any progress no matter how hard you try.

You can substitute HIIT with sports that require you to move slowly and suddenly quickly like football, soccer, rugby, basketball and so on.

These weight loss tips are your guides to effectively achieve your goal of toning your body, but these suggested love handle workouts would only take effect when done together with proper discipline. In addition, care should also be taken especially when you do more strenuous abs-toning exercises, or better yet, do these routines with the supervision of a qualified fitness instructor.

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Zayd Dean is the Ex-Obese Dude who used to blame it all on the genetics, busy lifestyle and fast food commercials. After finally learn what works and what doesn't, he managed to add and drop inches 'on the right places'. Now, he's helping others to lose weight for good with his simple yet effective weight loss tips.

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Dieting To Lose Your Love Handles

Most of the great bodybuilders, trainers and athletes will agree with this statement, "Bodybuilding is eighty percent diet!" That doesn't mean you don't have to workout to achieve results, but it does mean that without a proper diet, you efforts at muscle building will be hidden under a layer of subcutaneous fat. Exercise alone will not get rid of body fat, though it will reduce it greatly.

Ingesting foods that support your bodybuilding efforts and don't contribute to the adipose around your middle is very important if you want to lose those love handles and have your obliques show up (along with your six-pack and buff body, of course).

The question then arises, "Which type of diet is best to get rid of my love handles and other body fat?" Taking that a bit further, "Which type of diet is the most healthy, low-fat or low-carbohydrate?"

A simple response (more detail later) is that your body needs protein to rebuild tissue that your damage during strenuous workouts, so a high protein diet is the best for a bodybuilder. But, is a high protein, high fat diet healthy?

Researchers studied two randomly divided groups of people, one of which was placed on a low-fat diet of about 1,800 calories or less per day, the other went on a low-carb diet following the Dr. Atkins program. Both groups lost weight.

In the low-fat diet group was instructed to keep their fat intake to less than 30 percent of their caloric intake. Their diet was high in complex carbohydrates; grains, breads, cereals, pasta with only the daily calories restricted.

The low-carb group restricted their carbohydrate intake to 20 grams per day of low-Glycemic, fibrous vegetables. This follows the "induction" stage of the Atkins Diet. After the initial three months, this group added back 5 grams of carbs per day for each successive week of the study. They were allowed to eat all of the protein they desired.

When evaluating the weight loss it was found that there was no difference in the results between the low-fat and low-carb groups.

Now, low-carb diets have been getting a bad rap from the medical community, so the researchers next evaluated the risk factors of heart disease in both of the groups. After six months of the program, the low-carb group had a greater reduction in blood pressure from greatly lowered triglycerides and a lessening of the "bad" cholesterol called VLDL (very-low-density-lipoproteins).

After two years of the study, the low-carb group had an increase in "good" cholesterol, HDL. Overall, both groups lost the same amount of weight, but the low-carb group was healthier. Both groups did lose LDL and had gains in HDL, but the low-carb group experienced greater beneficial changes to their metabolism and bodies.

Keep in mind, this was a two year study, and that both groups did achieve similar weight loss and both groups did improve their cardiovascular health, but the low-carb dieters achieved great results... and the were still holding their own or even improving after two years. The low-fat group had started to regain their weight losses and their cardio risk factors.

Give a choice of diets that both achieved the weight loss goals, which diet is best for you. In my book, the low-carb approach is my diet of choice.

It is also important to note that both groups did incorporate exercise into their program and they also made voluntary lifestyle changes that improved their long term health.

What does this all mean for you? If you want to lose those love handles and other body fat, you should incorporate a good diet into your program. Which one you select is up to you, but remember this; your body needs lots of protein, as well as fiber, fats and unrefined carbohydrates. Whatever you choose, do some research and consult with a competent nutritionist or your family physician.

Carol Winberg is a fitness and nutrition expert and understands exactly what is required to lose your love handles and more importantly, keep them off, while still living an active, healthy lifestyle. Carol and her husband James have just released a brand new e-book that explains exactly why your love handles appear, and what you can do to get rid of them forever. "Losing Your Love Handles" is available at http://LoveHandles.com.au

Is the Low Carbohydrate Bodybuilding Diet an Effective Muscle Building Method?

A critical factor in achieving bodybuilding success is muscle definition, which is directly linked to body fat percentage. In search of the perfectly sculpted physique, bodybuilders need to consider various theories, and carbohydrates receive a fair amount of criticism in bodybuilding circles, with articles regularly written on how carbohydrates lead to excessive body fat levels, and because of this overwhelming negativity, many weight lifters pursue muscle gain with a higher fat, lower carbohydrate approach, with hopes of sustaining a reasonable body fat level. But is there a point where carbohydrate grams can decline excessively, reaching levels where muscle building becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible? For those riding the current bodybuilding bandwagon, the answer to this question would seem to be no, but reality is often far different than what regularly promoted bodybuilding notions are saying.

There is truth to the claim that excessive carbohydrates will cause body fat levels to rapidly rise, blurring muscle definition, and many battle a portly stomach and love handles due to haphazard carbohydrate consumption. But dipping carbohydrates to very low levels with the hope of bypassing the common bulge battle is a common blunder, as although body fat will certainly decline using such a technique, the potential for muscle gain will inversely follow carbohydrate reduction, with dramatic reductions in future muscle mass improvements, to the point where no additional muscle gains will soon be possible. Obviously, a bodybuilder not only has the goal of controlling body fat levels, but also maximizing muscle building, therefore bringing carbohydrates to either extreme will interfere with one of the two goals, leaving the bodybuilder with an angry, unproductive experience as he or she attempts to produce a balance between muscle mass and low body fat levels.

What proponents of the low carbohydrate diet plan fail to realize is that muscle gains relies upon carbohydrates to fuel individual hormones in the body, especially insulin, which offers amazing anabolic properties, leading to massive muscle increase, but also fueling quick body fat gains when implemented incorrectly. Since insulin is directly linked with carbohydrate consumption, in order to achieve the most impressive muscle gains, carbohydrates must be available in the diet, but to avoid rapid body fat gain, both the amount of carbohydrates and timing of such nutrients must be correctly integrated in order to offer muscles sufficient carbohydrate nutrients for muscle increase, while greatly reducing the negative impact on body fat percentage.

In addition to stimulating insulin for muscle building impact, carbohydrates offer an immediate energy source, and since the body must produce explosive output during weight training workout sessions for muscle building, carbohydrates offer this energy source for maximum effort. When following a low carbohydrate diet regimen, the muscles are unable to generate maximum intensity during each weight training set, and therefore muscle gains are negatively impacted, and already built muscle is also at risk. Those who follow a low carbohydrate focus tend to lose weight training workout motivation, as insufficient carbohydrates can adversely impact motivation, leading to very poor weight lifting performance, which directly impacts muscle building in an extremely negative way.

Yet another detrimental factor when following a low carb diet is metabolic slowdown, and although initially a low carbohydrate diet plan may shed body fat and enhance definition, the long term impact of such a diet philosophy will not only burn muscle, but will also attack metabolism (the rate at which the body burns calories), which means that you will require a lower food intake to maintain a specific body fat level. As a result, fat percentage will start to increase when food reaches the required quantity for muscle gain due to this metabolic slowdown, and the surprising result is a greater fat level than will occur when properly balancing carbohydrates with protein and fat.

When your goal is to improve muscle mass and definition, please reject the mistaken theory suggesting that carbohydrates are the harmful enemy that hampers success, as by banishing this important nutrient from your weight training diet routine, you will experience far less muscle mass and definition than is otherwise possible, but by integrating carbohydrates at strategic times during the day and in proper quantities, you will allow the body to gain muscle without the notorious body fat surge that accompanies common weight gain strategies. Carbohydrates, if used wisely, are one of the few fat loss and muscle building keys to success.

Francesco Castano authors MuscleNOW.com, a workout plan for muscle gain without supplements or drugs. He also owns FatVanish.com, where you will find his natural weight loss diet program.