What are love handles?

“Love handles” are areas of skin that extend outward from the hips. When combined with tight clothing, love handles can become more pronounced, 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 treat them.

What causes love handles?

The underlying cause of love handles is fat retention.

Generally speaking, fat cells accumulate when your body takes in too many calories or you don’t burn as many calories as you’re consuming. Over time, these fat cells can become noticeable as they accumulate in certain areas, such as around your waist and hips.

Fat can accumulate anywhere in the body, but there are certain factors that increase the likelihood for retaining fat in the hip, lower back, and abdominal areas. Factors that contribute to love handle formation include:

• hormones, especially too much cortisol
• age (belly fat accumulation is particularly common as you get older)
• lack of physical activity
• diet high in fats, sugars, and high-calorie foods
• sleep deprivation
• undiagnosed or untreated conditions that slow down your metabolism
• (hypothyroidism — or underactive thyroid — for example, makes it difficult to burn off extra calories)

Do love handles pose risks?

Love handles aren’t dangerous, but they may indicate underlying risk factors for chronic illnesses. These include:

• high blood pressure (hypertension)
• high cholesterol
• heart disease
• sleep apnea and other breathing issues
• stroke
• type 2 diabetes (too much body fat can lead to insulin resistance)
• cancer, especially of the colon and breast
• liver disease
• osteoarthritis
• Preventing love handles may help boost your overall health.

Even with dieting and regular exercise, there are parts of the body that seem to refuse to slim down and tighten. The “love handles” are excess fat around the sides of our waistline and are notoriously difficult to reduce. However, with Liposonix, there is a method that you can use to reduce an inch in just an hour!

Liposonix works to reduce your love handles by using ultrasound energy. This technique is targeted at the fat layer and destroys fat cells without harming the skin. After the procedure, your body naturally metabolizes the destroyed fat cells and removes them from the body. The procedure is just an hour long and can reduce your waist by an inch without any incisions or complicated surgery.