Many people who aspire to shape up and experience weight loss are eager to work on their abdominal muscles.
For both men and women, the excess fats from the food we eat go to different parts of the body that have fat cells, but most of these fats go to our stomach fat cells.
This mechanism is actually our body's survival mechanism.
Our body needs to store fats to have a stored energy resource for future use.
The midsection is the perfect area to store fats because we do not really move them about so much so as to expend energy.
However, abdominal fats also cause a plethora of health problems.
It has been suggested by studies that excess fats in the abdominal area are a leading cause of heart diseases, breast cancer, gallbladder problems, high blood pressure, or colorectal cancer.
Increased cholesterol levels increases risk of diabetes and hypertension.
Besides the visible fats, or what is called the 'love handles,' there are subcutaneous fats lying deep in the abdominal cavity that tends to produce hormones that cause inflammation in the body.
Thus, weight loss and exercising to tone abdominal muscles is not just an aesthetic endeavor.
It is important for ones overall well being as well.
Now that we have established that abdominal fats are serious health issue, lets talk about ways of how to get rid of them.
First, we have to watch what we eat.
Salty foods causes water retention, thus making fats a lot harder to burn.
Thus, lowering the salt intake is very important.
Also, eating less will do a lot.
Eating less does not mean starving yourself, though.
It only means eating only as much as your body can burn.
Also avoid sodas and sweet drinks because excess sugar also contributes to excess weight.
Look into the labels of the food you eat.
If it contains unsaturated fats, which you will know if you find words such as 'shortening' or hydrogenated oil', on the food labels, avoid them.
This type of fats increases the risk of heart disease.
Do not skip breakfast and then eat more during the lunch and dinner.
Food taken in earlier in the day gets used up faster and is easier metabolized.
Besides proper diet, however, exercise is also a must if you want to trim off those unsightly fats from your midsection.
There is no getting around it.
Cardiovascular exercises, such as running, swimming, working on the treadmill or 'steppers,' are important in burning up calories.
The more you do cardio exercises, the more you burn up fats in your body and the easier it will be to trim off the excess weight in the midsection.
As you burn calories by doing cardio, it will help a lot to supplement your exercise regime with weight training.
Lifting weights will build muscles, which in turn cause fats to burn faster.
This way, doing crunches and exercising the abs would be a lot more effective.
Abdominal fat do breaks down easily; however, it also comes back easily.
Thus, proper diet and exercise should be a lifetime commitment if you want to permanently get rid of those love handles.