How to Get Rid of Love Handles (Men): Why Side Bends Won't Do It

To get rid of love handles, a man has to lower his overall body fat, because the fat on your sides can’t be burned by training the muscles under it. Side bends, Russian twists and oblique crunches strengthen your core, but studies of targeted training show the fat comes off the whole body, not the spot you work. Love handles are often among the last places to lean out, so expect them to shrink after your waist and face do. A steady calorie deficit, strength training, daily walking and patience are the plan.

Why spot reduction doesn’t work

The idea that working a muscle burns the fat sitting on it is one of the most tested myths in fitness. Two studies show it clearly:

• Abdominal training. Adults did seven ab exercises, five days a week for six weeks, with no change to their diet. Abdominal fat, waist size and skinfolds didn’t change compared with a control group (Vispute et al., 2011).
• One-leg training. Young adults trained only one leg for 12 weeks with very high-repetition leg presses. They lost fat overall, but it came mostly from the arms and trunk, and the trained leg didn’t lose more fat than the untrained one (Ramírez-Campillo et al., 2013).

Your body draws on fat stores throughout the body when you’re in an energy deficit. Which areas lean out first is largely down to your genetics and sex.

Why love handles hang on in men

Men tend to store fat around the trunk, including the flanks and lower back, so these areas often carry the most fat to begin with. When you diet, fat comes off everywhere at once, but areas that started thicker take longer to look different. Many men notice their face, chest and arms change first, and the sides last.

That isn’t a reason to give up on them. It’s a reason to judge progress over months, not weeks.

What actually shrinks love handles

On aerobic versus strength training: in an eight-month trial, the groups doing aerobic training lost more fat mass than the group doing only resistance training, while the resistance groups gained more lean mass (Willis et al., 2012). You want both: the aerobic work for fat loss, the lifting to keep the muscle that gives your torso its shape.

The core work that’s worth doing

Training your obliques and deep core won’t burn the fat, but it builds a firmer midsection under it and protects your lower back, which matters if you sit all day. For men over 40, these give the most return:

1. Suitcase carry. Walk with one heavy dumbbell or kettlebell at your side, staying upright. Your obliques work to stop you leaning.
2. Side plank. Start with 20 to 30 seconds a side, knees bent if needed.
3. Pallof press. Press a cable or band straight out from your chest and resist the pull to rotate.
4. Dead bug. Slow and controlled, lower back pressed to the floor.

Two or three of these, twice a week, at the end of a strength session is plenty. The core workout for men over 40 puts them into a program.

Track your sides properly

The scale won’t tell you much about love handles. Use:

• Waist measurement at the top of the hip bones, as Heart & Stroke describes (Heart & Stroke), every two weeks.
• Photos from the front, side and back every four weeks, same light and pose.
• Belt notches and how your jeans fit, which change before the mirror does.

If you want a number, a body-fat estimate helps you see whether you’re actually getting leaner overall; body fat percentage for men over 40 gives the ranges, and how to measure body fat compares methods.

The bottom line

Love handles go when total body fat goes, and they’re usually last in line. Skip the side bends as a fat-loss tool, keep core work for strength, and put your effort into the deficit, walking and lifting. For the full belly-fat picture, read how to lose belly fat after 40. If you want a coach to set the plan and keep you going through the slow final stretch, the 12-Week Body Transformation is built for that kind of focused fat loss.