Most men, when they hit middle age, develop a bit of a paunch around their middle. Put this down to middle age spread, put it down to good living, put it down to laziness. Whatever you put it down to, it is there to stay unless you do something about it. Your love handles can be removed with a little bit of hard work and effort.

The first step to getting rid of love handles is strengthening your abdominal muscles and losing the fat. Sits ups and stomach crunches are very effective for removing love handles. They are simple to do and you can build up the amount slowly so you remain comfortable with them. They also strengthen your back and so can prevent problems there. Swimming also works the stomach without seeming like hard work. It works the entire body gently and ensures that you are in better condition.

You diet is important when trying to get rid of love handles. Cut as much salt out of your diet as possible. Sodium not only affects your heart, it encourages water retention, which then makes your stomach appear swollen and highlights your love handles even more. Processed foods need to be cut out of your diet as far as possible and drink more water to hydrate yourself and encourage normal bodily functioning. It will also reduce your appetite and cut down on snacking.

Alcohol also encourages your love handles to stay put so look at cutting that down or out of your diet. It is not like water. Instead it adds calories to your daily intake. It cannot be used at all and so in turned into fat which settles around your midriff. The more you drink, the bigger your love handles. A couple of beers never hurt anyone, but a couple more will. It will also be counterproductive if you are trying to get rid of them anyway, because you are putting back exactly what you have lost!

A few cardio exercises will also help you to banish your love handles. It burns off calories and will ultimately burn off those love handles. Cardio will then help you keep them off. Twenty minutes cardio three times a week is usually sufficient. You do not need to spend all day on the treadmill to see and feel the benefits. Walking, jogging, running, climbing and so on are all excellent forms of cardio. It may be wise to start easy and work your way up the difficulty levels. This way you do not stretch yourself too far and your love handles are gone in no time.

Without doubt, the biggest problem area for most people is their stomach. Having a spare tire around your mid section can not only put a huge dent in your self esteem and sense of self worth and seriously affect your self confidence, it can also put your health at serious risk.

The superficial affect of excess stomach fat hardly compares to the serious health consequences and risks of carrying around excess baggage around your midsection.

The type of fat which accumulates around your mid section is a specific type of fat called visceral fat. Not only is the fat unsightly to look at but it provides a warning sign that we are not as nearly healthy as we should be.

Visceral fat greatly increases the risk of a number of serious diseases and you don’t technically have to be obese or even overweight to be at risk.

This is because visceral fat or the fat that typically collects around your mid section is metabolized by the liver, which turns get converted into cholesterol, which is then circulated around your vascular system in your blood.

The problem is the more cholesterol your blood contains the more of this cholesterol is deposited onto the inside walls of your arteries which takes the form of plaque.

Over time this plaque thickens and narrows your arteries, which hampers the flow of blood around your body which can raise your blood pressure and ultimately place undue strain on your heart as well as cause a number of undesirable health affects.

It stands to reason that the more belly fat you have the more cholesterol you will have in your blood and if you do nothing about this problem the eventual plaque build up in your arteries can have very serious health consequences.

Serious Health Risks Associated with Excess Stomach Fat and Obesity

• Vascular Disease
• Heart Disease
• High Blood Pressure
• Diabetes
• Many types of Cancers
• Digestive disorders
• Depression
• Infertility
• Impotence

To make a bad situation worse, the eventual build up of plaque in your arteries will reduce your capacity for exercise and gradually even the most simple of tasks become a chore. As physical exercise become harder to perform you tend to do exercise less often if at all.

This situation may be all too familiar with you, as you quickly find yourself spiraling into ill health exercise just becomes to hard. The cold hard fact is that if you fail to take action and accept responsibility for your own health and weight loss no one will, and you will have to accept that one day it will catch up with you.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to take action now and promise yourself to make the life changes and health choices necessary as well as educate yourself with the best possible information to help you get back to optimum health, if not for yourself for your family and loved ones.