“Love handles” are excess fat deposits that accumulate around the waistline and hips, creating visible bulges that extend outward. Making exercise and dietary changes can help reduce their appearance.

Love handles can become more pronounced when combined with tight clothing, but they aren’t caused by tight clothes alone. They indicate excess fat accumulation around the hips and abdominal area.

Learn more about the causes of love handles and how you can reduce their size and appearance.

The underlying cause of love handles is fat retention. Weight management and fat retention are often dictated by the balance of energy, or calories, in your body over time.

Fat cells can accumulate in your body when you’re in a calorie surplus. This means you consume more calories than you burn each day, and this extra energy can eventually be stored as fat.

Over time, fat cells can increase in size or number and become noticeable as they accumulate in certain areas. The most common areas include the upper back, glutes, thighs, and abdomen, such as around the waist.

It’s important to note that fat accumulates differently for every individual, and where it accumulates is out of your control. This also means you can’t target specific areas for weight loss, a process known as spot reduction.

Some non-modifiable factors contribute to how and where fat is stored in your body, including genetics, body composition, and hormonal changes in cortisol and insulin.

Other factors can contribute to how much fat accumulates, which can impact the appearance of love handles. Some of these factors can be modified to help you manage your weight. These include:

Many people claim that you can target specific areas with exercise to promote weight loss, known as spot reduction. Some studies have found that abdominal spot reduction may be possible, but overall, the research is mixed.

Fat loss is a multifactorial process, which means it can’t be achieved with exercise alone.

If you’re trying to lose love handles, it’s important to focus on overall fat loss and to maintain a calorie deficit of around 500 calories daily. Exercise can play a key role in maintaining a caloric deficit.

For optimal results, combine aerobic (cardiovascular) and strengthening exercises with a balanced diet.

Resistance activities can help with muscle strength and flexibility, but they don’t shrink fat cells. That said, they give shape and size to muscles. This means that after you lose fat, your muscles can be more visible and give the appearance of a slimmer waistline.

Here are just some of the exercises that target the back, abs, and hip regions.

Side planks

There are several modifications for side planks that can make the move more or less challenging. To perform the basic side plank:

  1. Start by lying on your side and propping yourself up on one arm. Your elbow should be in line with your shoulder; your forearm should be flat against the ground, at a right angle to your body.
  2. Stack your legs, one on top of the other, so that your body forms a straight line from head to hip. With your knee still touching the ground, raise your hips.
  3. Squeeze your glutes (gluteus muscles) and hold the move for 30 to 60 seconds. Focus on keeping your abs tight to help support your body.
  4. Switch sides and repeat.

For a more challenging move, try raising your knees off the ground so that the only parts of your body touching the ground are the side of your foot and your forearm.

Bicycle crunches

It can be tempting to rush through bicycle crunches, but the key to this move is slow, controlled movements.

  1. Lie on your back with your hands behind your head and your knees bent.
  2. Lift your shoulders and head off the ground as you engage your abs. At the same time, lift your feet off the ground, keeping your knees bent, so that your shins are parallel to the ground.
  3. Slowly twist your body so that your left elbow moves toward your right knee. As you twist your body, extend your left leg straight out in front of you.
  4. Slowly twist in the other direction, bring your left leg back to its bent position, with your right elbow moving toward your left knee. As you twist your body, extend your right leg out in front of you.
  5. Do 15 to 30 repetitions.

Russian twists

Russian twists are another seated exercise. To make it more challenging, try holding a weighted object to increase the resistance.

  1. Start in a seated position on the floor with your butt on the ground, your knees bent, and your feet flat on the floor.
  2. Tightening your abdomen, lean your torso back so that you’re at about a 45-degree angle to the floor. If you’re not using a weight, clasp your hands together. If you’re using a weight, hold it in your hands, just above your abdomen.
  3. Still with knees bent, lift your feet off the ground so that you’re balancing on your butt. For additional support, you can cross your ankles.
  4. Twist your torso to the right, bringing your clasped hands or your weight to the right side of your body.
  5. Twist to the left, touching the weight of your hands to the left side of your body.
  6. Repeat for 30 to 60 seconds.

Mountain climber

This move can help increase your heart rate as you strengthen your muscles. As you get stronger, work up to increasing your speed.

  1. Start in a plank position. To get into a plank position, lie flat on the floor, face down. Place your hands underneath your shoulders, curl your toes so that they’re pressing into the floor, and push up. Your arms should be straight, but not locked, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your toes.
  2. Lift your right foot off the ground and pull your right knee toward your left elbow. Keep your abs tight.
  3. Hold the move briefly, and then return your foot to its original position.
  4. Repeat on the other side.
  5. Continue this move for 30 to 60 seconds.

You can increase your speed and extend the time as you develop more strength.

Bridge

Glute bridges target the glutes, lower back, and core.

  1. Start by lying on your back with your knees bent, your arms at your sides, and your palms flat against the floor.
  2. Slowly lift your butt and lower back off the floor to create a straight line from your knees to your shoulders.
  3. Squeeze your glutes together and hold for 1 to 3 seconds. Slowly release your muscles and lower yourself back down to the ground.
  4. Repeat 10 times.

To make the move more challenging, try lifting one foot off the floor as you lift your hips. Switch the leg you lift with each repetition.

How much exercise do I need to lose love handles?

Exercise plays an important role in maintaining a calorie deficit and strengthening your core.

There’s no specific amount of weekly exercise you need to lose weight, but a minimum amount is recommended to help prevent weight gain and other chronic health conditions.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend getting the following exercise weekly:

  • Aerobic: At least 150 to 300 minutes of light to moderate intensity exercise, or 75 to 150 minutes of high intensity exercise.
  • Resistance: At least 2 days of resistance training, targeting all of the major muscles in the body.

Adopting healthy habits can help you get rid of love handles and prevent them from coming back.

If you need to lose weight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends losing 1 to 2 pounds weekly to ensure gradual, steady losses.

Some dietary changes can complement increased exercise and fat-burning activities, including:

Along with exercising regularly and making dietary changes, some lifestyle changes can contribute to losing your love handles. These may include:

  • staying physically active during the day, such as going for regular walks and gardening
  • managing stress, such as by meditating, writing in a journal, and speaking to a loved one or therapist
  • getting at least 7 hours of high quality sleep each night
  • wearing trousers that fit at the waist, rather than at your hips

A healthcare professional and a registered dietitian could help you develop a lifestyle and dietary plan to manage your weight.

Certain forms of plastic surgery are sometimes used to reduce fat retention in specific areas of the body. One of these procedures is called liposuction.

During liposuction, a surgeon injects a solution into the targeted region, such as your hips, to liquefy fat cells. Then they remove the fat cells using a vacuum-like aspirator. Results may be seen within a few days of treatment.

Liposuction isn’t a whole-body solution. It only treats specific, targeted areas. Plus, without lifestyle changes, the fat cells are likely to return. Liposuction is recommended only for people who have moderate overweight.

Other procedures, such as bariatric surgery, may be used to support weight loss in adults with obesity.

Love handles may be the result of having excess body fat. But they can also be where your body stores fat first, so you may simply have more fat there than in other body parts.

General fat loss is the safest and most effective approach to reducing their appearance. This may involve increasing your physical activity and eating a balanced diet to maintain a caloric deficit.

If you’re unable to get rid of love handles despite adopting lifestyle and dietary changes, speak with a doctor. They may order blood tests to check for possible underlying issues or provide other recommendations for weight loss.