Love Handles result from the accumulation of excess fat around the waist and upper hip area. Factors like genetics, age and diet influence the development of these fat deposits.

• Genetics: Some people are predisposed to accumulating fat in their hip and waist areas due to their genetic makeup. Genetics can also make it challenging to lose the accumulated fat despite having a healthy diet and regularly exercising.
• Lifestyle: A sedentary lifestyle with little movement or exercise leads to weight gain and fat accumulation in the waist and around the hips, giving you love handles. Chronic stress can make this a more prominent issue by raising cortisol levels excessively, leading to more fat accumulation. 
• Age: As you age, your metabolic rate slows down and muscle mass decreases, making it easier to accumulate fat around your abdominal area.
• Diet: Consuming more calories than you burn (known as calorie surplus) causes weight gain and the abdomen is one of the common stubborn areas that accumulates this excess fat. 

In many cases, a combination of these factors causes weight gain and the formation of Love Handles.

You can lose Love Handles in many ways, from implementing lifestyle and dietary changes to cosmetic surgery. However, the effectiveness of these methods varies considerably based on individual factors like age, body type, and overall health.

Non-Surgical Methods to Treat Love Handles

Some non-surgical methods to get rid of Love Handles include:

• CoolSculpting: This non-invasive procedure involves freezing fat cells to destroy them. The damaged fat cells are then eliminated by the body over time. The procedure can specifically target the cells in love handles and give you a more sculpted look.
• Radiofrequency Treatments: These treatments use radiofrequency to target and heat the fat cells. The body clears these damaged cells on its own. 
• Dietary adjustments: Consuming a diet with fewer calories than your body burns (a calorie deficit) leads to weight loss, including the Love Handles. Ensure that your diet contains plenty of protein, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Exercises for Love Handles: A combination of cardio and strength training exercises helps you burn fat and tone muscles. 
• Lifestyle changes: Increasing your physical activity by walking more and taking the stairs will help to reduce the fat from around your hips and waist. Ensuring you get enough sleep every night, (at least 8 hours) will help to balance your cortisol levels and maintain a healthy basal metabolic rate.

Surgical Methods to Treat Love Handles

Liposuction and Tummy Tuck are the two primary surgical procedures to target male and female love handles. They are considered the best ways to lose Love Handles as they’re fast and effective procedures which produce long-term results. 

• Love Handle Liposuction: Excess fat is extracted from specific parts of your body, including the abdomen and the hip region. The procedure involves making small incisions and using a cannula to remove the Love Handle fat. While the procedure effectively removes the fat, it won’t significantly tighten the skin. 
• Tummy Tuck: Also known as an Abdominoplasty, this Love Handle surgery improves the appearance of your midsection by removing excess loose skin and tightening the abdominal muscles. 
• Body Contouring Surgery: Also known as a Brazilian Abdominoplasty, this procedure involves combining Liposuction on love handles and a Tummy Tuck to contour the waistline, eliminate fat deposits on your sides and tighten any loose skin

Non-surgical methods, like diet and exercise, may take a long time to show results and are most effective if you have mild to moderate fat accumulation. Surgical methods, while more invasive, offer dramatic and immediate results, especially if you have significant fat deposits around the hip and flank areas.

Cadogan Clinic offers surgical methods, like Liposuction and Tummy Tuck procedures to target Love Handles. Our experienced surgeons will help you form the best strategy to remove excess fat on your hips based on your unique situation. 

Cardiovascular exercise and weight training can reduce fat deposits around your hips and help you achieve a more toned waistline. 

Reducing fat from one targeted part of the body through exercise and diet isn’t possible. But a combination of the exercises below will help you lose fat everywhere, including your waist and abdomen.

• Cardiovascular exercise: Activities like brisk walking, running, jogging, swimming, and cycling are excellent for increasing your heart rate and burning calories. These exercises also stimulate your metabolism, helping your body burn fat at a higher rate throughout your body, including the midsection.
• High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): This type of training alternates between short bursts of high-intensity exercise such as sprinting with brief low-intensity rest periods. Research shows that HIIT sessions are more effective than traditional cardio in boosting metabolism and burning fat. Incorporate HIIT sessions 2-3 times weekly to maximise fat loss around the Love Handle area.
• Core strengthening exercises: Strengthening your abdominal muscles gives your midsection a more toned appearance. Exercises like planks, bicycle crunches, and Russian twists are excellent at improving core strength and losing Love Handles.

Consistency is crucial with this approach of targeting Love Handles. It takes time to see results as the fat around the hips and waist is notoriously difficult to get rid of naturally.   

Eliminating Love Handles has both physical and psychological benefits. From a physical standpoint, reducing excess fat around the midsection decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease, Type II Diabetes and certain cancers. Reducing your overall body fat will also help you control your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Losing fat around the waist also improves your physical mobility and comfort. Your clothes fit better, daily activities become more manageable, and you can improve your self-image and quality of life. 

Many people find that reducing their Love Handles improves their mental health and boosts their confidence and self-esteem. A more toned midsection motivates people to adopt a more active and healthy lifestyle to maintain the results. 

The Cadogan Clinic based in London offers comprehensive solutions to combat Love Handles for good, along with providing patients with the aftercare they need to ensure they receive the highest level of care. To find out more, send us a message through our contact form and a dedicated surgical patient advisor will contact you to discuss the most suitable treatment options for your concerns.