Get Ahold of Your Love Handles

None of us are ever going to look like this...

But who want to look like this guy?





Looking great is nice but there are some more serious health related things that are more important.



Quick Stats:
5 of the 6 killers in the United States are directly related to diet and exercise. 


1.  Heart Disease-diet and exercise
2.  Cancer-yes research is there showing that most (not all) forms of cancer can indeed be eliminated by proper diet and regular exercise
3. Cerebrovascular disease (Stroke)-diet and exercise
4. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease-smoking
5. Trauma-diet and exercise
6. Diabetes-diet and exercise



The shocking truth of modern day U. S. of A. is that only around 12% of of these deaths are unintentional.


"Hold up man!" "I'm not intentionally killing myself by eating a steak every once in awhile."  "I'm not giving myself cancer by having a cigarette periodically."

You are correct and no one can be perfect.  All these sculpted TV personalities that look like Barbie and Ken that constantly preach of doing 27,000 push ups daily and eating only raw broccoli only for breakfast either, one, have great genetics, or two, have something altering their own genetics (see Barry Bonds). 

But, much can be said of these staggering trends and equally how if we make some moderate changes to our daily life, it is proven by research to increase life expectancy and improve how you feel, look, and live.

Two components must be addressed:  Amount of food and amount of exercise. This is the most simple way to get your love handles under control.  I'm not going to go into peer reviewed research on the a1C down regulation in relation to pre- and post- stage consumption induced diabetes, nor am I going to attempt to talk about aerobic vs. anaerobic respiration rates in relation to being mesomorphic, ectomorphic, or enomorphic and their properties in relation to fast glycolytic or slow glycolytic fibers.  This is the basics.  Very simple to follow. 

#1 Caloric intake must be less than caloric burn.  Translation: If you eat more than you burn you put on weight. 



#2 If you don't exercise, your metabolism will gradually slow, your ability to burn calories diminishes, and your musculoskeletal system will decondition to look like Screech.



Think of this...If you convert 10 lbs of fat to 10lbs of muscle,
A. Your Metabolic Rate would rise by approximately 140 calories per day – the equivalent of about 45 minutes per day of brisk walking – without you having to even leave the house!
B.  If you ate the same as normal (and you’re not gaining weight at the moment), you’d burn a pound of body fat every 23 days (that’d be 16lbs lost per year) without even leaving the house!
C. Since muscle is 22% denser than fat, and because you never find muscle tissue on your body hot spots like the waist, hips and thighs=love handles - if you had replaced 10lbs of fat with your 10lbs of muscle, you’d look massively thinner. 



So what to eat and how to exercise?



1. Eat a protein-rich diet.
Muscle tissue is made out of protein, your body can’t make them out of carbohydrates like pasta, rice or bread. So you need to increase the amount of low-fat protein you’re consuming each day. Cut the whites: Flours, sugars, creams..etc.

2. Do resistance exercise:

In pure resistance terms, the best exercises are weight training exercises. If you use either the machines or the free weights you’re going to firm up and build muscle tone with every visit.

Most women I have educated react negatively when I discuss weight training with them. In women, greater muscle mass shows itself as muscle firmness. Many people think of it as muscle tone – how firm are your forearms or legs? Well they can probably get firmer, and as they do, you’ll maximise the results of a well thought-out weight loss program.
-Aerobic gym machines (like treadmills, cross trainers or steppers) do not offer much in the way of resistance training. They’re great for your heart and burn the calories, but they don’t offer much in the way of muscle toning / building.  Ever seen a cardiovascularly fit overweight person, pretty common. 

If you cut back on the overall amount of food you eat, try not to cut down on protein too. This is a serious risk to whatever muscle tissue you currently have. Because protein is used in essential processes in your body, like repairing your organs, you can’t go without it. If you cut down on the amount of protein you’re eating, your body will break down your existing muscle tissue to release protein. Losing this muscle mass is why deprivation dieting rarely works.

Want to rid the handles?  Eat the right foods, the right amount of foods, get up and move.  Set short and long term goals.  Have a strategy on foods you'll eat, exercise, and routine.  You might just get rid of the love handles, but more importantly, you'll decrease the chance of being one of the statistics.