Expert: Ken Alan - 8/6/2007

Question
Hi Ken, I'm a 22 year old female & I weigh 105 pounds. I'm 5'2" feet tall.  My diet is pretty normal I guess. I don't have fizzy drinks & oily junk food. I have 2 - 3 fruits a day. I drink 8 glasses of water.

Climbing up and down the stairs to my flat which is on the 2nd floor everyday is all the exercise I get.

I don't put on weight that quickly. But I have slight love
handles on my sides, which are visible since I'm thin everywhere else. I want to reduce them a bit, before they get too big.

I have no time to go to the gym & have no equipment [except a dumbell - 2kg ] at home. So I started doing torso rotation exercises & stomach crunches. But I stopped after a week, as I read online that these excersises will make your stomach & sides look bigger since they build muscle under the fat.

I know losing love handles is not easy & spot reduction is impossible. But I don't want to change any other part of my body. I'm pretty patient & don't expect results right away. I have a few questions:
a)Does drinking too much water give my tummy a bloated flabby look ?
b) How to reduce love handles without building muscle under fat ? How to loose the fat first ?
c) What all can I do at home ?

Thanks.
Andrea


Answer
Drinking too much water doesn't give you or your tummy a bloated flabby look.  If you are bloated, it is due to something else going on, such as hormonal changes with your menstrual cycle, or a dietary element that may cause you to retain more fluid than normal.

Love handles are fat.  You lose fat by a combination of more physical activity and minor reductions in calories consumed.  I'd recommend you get more physical activity into your daily life since you have very little. For example, take stairs ALL of the time when you can instead of escalators or elevators.  Park further away so you have to walk an extra minute or two.  When you hear a favorite song at home, dance to it for a few minutes.  These type of things done regularly really add up and help you lose unwanted fat.  Plus, you don't have to take a big chunk of time out to go exercise since you said you don't have any time - you build it into your daily life.  

Crunches and torso rotations will not build inches of muscles making you look bigger.  I wouldn't worry about that.  It's hard enough for elite bodybuilders to put on an inch of muscle to a biceps.  Doesn't sound like your exercise routine is as intense as a competition bodybuilder, so that's not going to happen.  Crunches will help strengthen and firm your ab muscles, and that's a good thing.  Aerobic exercise is best for promoting fat loss.  Walking, dancing, jumping, skating, swimming, hiking, stairclimbing, running, biking - anything that makes you breathe harder than normal.

Hope this helps.