Ah, love handles, those pesky things we DO NOT LOVE! What are they, why do we have them, and what are our treatment options? In this blog post, we’ll be covering these questions and more. Find out how to get rid of love handles below.
What Are Love Handles?
For the most part, the term “love handles” is used to mean pockets of subcutaneous fat over our hips and lateral trunk area. Fat in this location is sometimes also present in association with excess fat over the abdomen and back.
Like fat pockets everywhere on the body, the presence and size of our love handles will be influenced by our overall weight. So, it is true that if we drop weight, our love handles will indeed shrink. The inverse is true, of course. The fat cells will enlarge with weight gain, even if the total number of fat cells is finite and cannot change (without surgical intervention).
What Causes Love Handles?
Love handles are primarily caused by hormones, genetics, and dietary and lifestyle habits. Stubborn fat in this area tends to be resistant to diet and exercise, even though the number of calories we consume and the types of food we eat can exacerbate the issue.
Can You Treat Love Handles Without Surgery?
A healthy diet, rich in vegetables and healthy grains, as well as some healthy fats (yes, polyunsaturated fats are indeed healthy such as those found in avocados, nuts, and fish), and a diet low in sugars, simple starches, and unhealthy fats (like trans-fats found in fast food) will help you slim down, which, in turn, can help shrink love handles.
While some fitness gurus will tout specific exercises for the oblique muscles, which underlie the fat over our lateral trunk, the truth is that this will in no way affect the fat that is there. That’s not to say exercise isn’t desirable—exercise revs up your metabolism, which also helps keep weight under control, as well as having a myriad of other health benefits.
But, exercising a particular set of muscles has no effect specifically on the pocket of fat in that same anatomic area. So, contrary to popular belief, just as crunches may strengthen tummy muscles but won’t shrink tummy fat, side sit-ups and other oblique exercises DO NOT shrink love handles.
If you are pretty close to your desired weight overall, but you can still pinch and tug the fat on your hips, then the only solution is a body contouring procedure.
How To (Actually) Get Rid of Love Handles
Our top treatment suggestions for banishing love handles are CoolSculpting® and liposuction. Find out more about these two fat reduction procedures below.
CoolSculpting
CoolSculpting is a non-surgical procedure that involves cooling the tissues to a very low temperature. This causes fat cells to break down over the following weeks (a process called cryolipolysis), which prompts the body to metabolize them. This noninvasive procedure is popular for those who don’t want surgery.
The procedure typically takes a couple of hours (an hour per side) and is not associated with any downtime. Optimal results usually require several treatments spread out over a few months. Patients typically see around a 25% reduction in fat after each treatment (i.e., the second treatment would remove 25% of the remaining 75%).
Liposuction
Liposuction typically requires only one treatment, though occasionally a touch-up procedure a couple of months later may be required to correct any contour irregularities. For love handles, this minimally invasive surgery can typically be carried out with local anesthesia and a single small incision per side.
Downtime is also short following liposuction, depending on the amount of fat removed. For small amounts of fat, people are often back to their normal activities within a couple of days. Liposuction for love handles is often carried out along with liposuction of other areas, like the back or abdomen, so it does have the advantage that several areas can be addressed at the same time.
Will I Lose Weight After CoolSculpting or Liposuction?
Neither procedure is intended for weight loss; however, your improved body contours will make your clothes fit better (you may even expect to drop 1 to 3 sizes, depending on the degree of correction). The number on the scale may not change much, but you will see and feel a difference.
What Happens to the Fat? Will It Come Back?
In the case of both CoolSculpting and liposuction, the fat in the love handle area is removed permanently. That is not to say that if you gain lots of weight, no fat will appear in those places again, but your overall contour will remain altered (i.e. fat will be gained everywhere if you put on pounds), but the size of love handles will remain proportionally smaller than if you had not had the procedure done.
Get a Handle on Your Love Handles
If you think it’s time to finally address your love handles, call us at (905) 273-3045 in Mississauga, or (416) 207-9090 in Toronto for a consultation or to request an information package.
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