Bodybuilding question

[Alter854]

Most of my body is cut except there is a little fat on my love handle section (only on the side). I keep a pretty good diet and feel that cardio workouts do not necessarily eliminate this small amount of fat on my body. I was just wondering what exercises I can do to tighten up this area. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

[TALO]

crunches.

Write down your diet so we can see what a pretty good diet is.

[Alter854]

I'm 5'9" 155 lbs. My body has very little fat. My diet consists of 3 protein shakes a day (one with each meal). 1 piece of fruit a day. Eggs in the morning. Turkey sandwich or tuna sandwich on wheat bread with no mayo or cheese for lunch. Salad and some kind of meat for dinner (usually hamburger or another sandwich). I try to calorie count and keep away from any food with fat in it (especially saturated). I do snack occasionally but it will be triscuits or something fairly healthy like a granola bar. Basically, I try to keep protein high and calorie and fat intake low. I do a bunch of ab exercises including crunches, reverse crunches, and leg raises. However, I find it hard to keep this area "cut". It's not as if I have a ton of fat but it is basically the only part on my body where I am not tone.

[Scorcher2005]

For starters, you should eat 6-8 meals a day instead of 3.

[verbatimreturned]

Diet NOT nessisarily exercise will help eliminate that last bit of fat

[Sleazy]

Also keep in mind that the love handles area is a real common place for people (especially men) to hold onto those last reserves of fat. There is NO such thing as spot reduction when it comes to fatloss, so trying to target that area won't do a whole lot. If you are currently losing fat then I would say continue doing your routine and you will eventually see reduction in this area. If not, you may want to consider increasing the cardio or decreasing the calories (small amounts at a time) until you start seeing results.

[Alter854]

Thanks for the help!

[thonaker]

I'm not so sure trying to cut out fat is all that healthy. It used to be the thing to do, but your body needs some healthy fat. If memory serves me correct, eating fat has an anabolic affect on the body. "Eating fat" does not have to equal "getting fat." Not eating fat may also make it harder to lose fat. The idea is that your body will tend to hold onto this fat, since it isn't getting any from the diet. If you overeat carbs, you can get fat from that too.

It doesn't sound like you have very much to cut away. 3 high intensity 15 minute cardio workouts a week and a slight calorie deficit might be all you need to shed that little bit of fat.

Troy

[hrdgain81]

Increase the healthy fats in your diet. Switch to HIIT style cardio twice a week, and tweak from there.

[KOkid]

Originally Posted by Alter854

I was just wondering what exercises I can do to tighten up this area. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

Of course diet, which you know, but you can try side crunches which are great. Or at the cable cross overs grab the lower cable and stand close to the frame and keeping the handle to your side bend at the waist (left or right), or grab a 45lb plate or more and do the same. These do work, if you need better details just let me know. Just a lil something diff to change up your routine.