Cursed fat

[Snikfingern]

Hi,

I'm truly struggeling to lose the "love handels".
I've been consistenly working out for 2 years (Was on and off for 5 years before that), and i've been on a clean "diet" except a day on the weekend every now and then. Everything i eat is tracked 100%, with no exceptions.
Stats:
26 years old
85.8 KG
192 CM
Waist: 83.5 CM
Love handles: 93 CM
Gym 5 times a week
A minimum of 10k steps every day

My frame is decently large (Except calves ), but i cant for the life of me get rid of the "love handels....
At the moment i hover around 2.200 calories (Cutting), but no matter how long i keep going, they never go away.
I dont have much fat other than at the bottom of my stomach, which is why this is starting to get annoying.... At this point it also feels like i shouldnt go down much more in weight, as my current weight is good considering my build.

I have a suspicion at it might be my test levels, as i have a father who has struggled with low test levels (My current test levels are 12-13 nmol/L, and the referance is 8-35nmol/L) and because i've developed a slight gyno, even though i've never touched any steroids.
Does anybody have any advice as to what to do? Train more? Eat less? Eat more?

I'd appreciate all the input i can get

[Rich1143]

Hi,

I'm truly struggeling to lose the "love handels".
I've been consistenly working out for 2 years (Was on and off for 5 years before that), and i've been on a clean "diet" except a day on the weekend every now and then. Everything i eat is tracked 100%, with no exceptions.
Stats:
26 years old
85.8 KG
192 CM
Waist: 83.5 CM
Love handles: 93 CM
Gym 5 times a week
A minimum of 10k steps every day

My frame is decently large (Except calves ), but i cant for the life of me get rid of the "love handels....
At the moment i hover around 2.200 calories (Cutting), but no matter how long i keep going, they never go away.
I dont have much fat other than at the bottom of my stomach, which is why this is starting to get annoying.... At this point it also feels like i shouldnt go down much more in weight, as my current weight is good considering my build.

I have a suspicion at it might be my test levels, as i have a father who has struggled with low test levels (My current test levels are 12-13 nmol/L, and the referance is 8-35nmol/L) and because i've developed a slight gyno, even though i've never touched any steroids.
Does anybody have any advice as to what to do? Train more? Eat less? Eat more?

I'd appreciate all the input i can get

I think most replies here will tell you that you need to eat less and they wouldn't be wrong necessarily. Losing that last bit of fat is the hardest for most people because your body fights you so hard to keep it on. If you have been cutting for a long time, you might need a diet break at maintenance for a few weeks to repair a slowed metabolism. Then you can jump back into it and you should be able to lose fat easier again. There are documented scientific studies showing how diet breaks help break through fat loss plateaus but the prospect of extending a cut and perhaps gaining a couple of temporary pounds in the process scares most people away.

[TolerantLactose]

At the moment i hover around 2.200 calories (Cutting), but no matter how long i keep going, they never go away.

How long have you been cutting and what has the weight change been during this time?

Losing that last bit of fat is the hardest for most people because your body fights you so hard to keep it on.

93cm = 36.6in

Dude is a ways away from that last bit of fat.

[faithbrah]

either you have naturally wide hips, or your love handles will melt off when you cut enough fat (like until 10-12%)

[Snikfingern]

I think most replies here will tell you that you need to eat less and they wouldn't be wrong necessarily. Losing that last bit of fat is the hardest for most people because your body fights you so hard to keep it on. If you have been cutting for a long time, you might need a diet break at maintenance for a few weeks to repair a slowed metabolism. Then you can jump back into it and you should be able to lose fat easier again. There are documented scientific studies showing how diet breaks help break through fat loss plateaus but the prospect of extending a cut and perhaps gaining a couple of temporary pounds in the process scares most people away.

I guess i can try a few weeks with breaks. I've only been cutting around 8 weeks, so i had a hope to keep it going for atleast 1 month more. I could of course try to decrease calories more, until i reach a point i'm happy with.

[Snikfingern]

How long have you been cutting and what has the weight change been during this time?

Went from 91 to 85.8 in around 8 weeks

93cm = 36.6in

Dude is a ways away from that last bit of fat.

I do agree with you there, but other than just my love handels i dont have much fat, which is why i'm here asking for tips. What i meant was also the last bit of fat i need to lose before i'm happy with the results

[Snikfingern]

either you have naturally wide hips, or your love handles will melt off when you cut enough fat (like until 10-12%)

I dont have wide hips, not that i'm awere of atleast!
I guess i can try to decrease calories even more in the near future, i just feel that 2.200 is quite low to begin with, but maybe i'm just "overthinking"

[tadpole25]

Most guys overestimate their muscle mass and underestimate their bodyfat percentage.

You may have more lbs of fat to lose than you think you do. You may think you just need to lose 5-7kg, when you actually may need to lose 10-14kg to get down to the bodyfat percentage you want.

Try cutting down from 2200 to 2000.

[RapidFail]

Sounds like you carry your fat in a similar way to me. Your weight isn't excessive for your height - the key to improving your physique may be adding more muscle mass, which would reduce the visual impact of the love handles.

In terms of losing the love handles - a calorie deficit will get you there, but if that's where your body naturally holds onto fat you may have to get light and very lean (possibly lighter and leaner than you want) to really get rid of them.

[TolerantLactose]

I guess i can try a few weeks with breaks. I've only been cutting around 8 weeks, so i had a hope to keep it going for atleast 1 month more. I could of course try to decrease calories more, until i reach a point i'm happy with.

...

what has the weight change been during this time?

[air2fakie]

i cant for the life of me get rid of the "love handels....
At the moment i hover around 2.200 calories (Cutting), but no matter how long i keep going, they never go away.

I've only been cutting around 8 weeks

I think you probably just suffer from unrealistic expectations.

[Snikfingern]

...

When i quoted my reply was merged with your reply, as you might see if you check.
But went from 91 to 85.8 in around 8 weeks (Keep in mind i've been at around 2.500-2.700 calories prior to this for quite some time)

[Snikfingern]

Most guys overestimate their muscle mass and underestimate their bodyfat percentage.

You may have more lbs of fat to lose than you think you do. You may think you just need to lose 5-7kg, when you actually may need to lose 10-14kg to get down to the bodyfat percentage you want.

Try cutting down from 2200 to 2000.

The overestimate might might be true, but i dont really feel like that's the case. In my humble opinion i've got decently developed muscles, of OK size (Except calves).
Most of my fat development is around my lower stomach, for example, my arms are 40 cm with very little fat.

I have decreased my calories down to around 2.000 now!

[Snikfingern]

Sounds like you carry your fat in a similar way to me. Your weight isn't excessive for your height - the key to improving your physique may be adding more muscle mass, which would reduce the visual impact of the love handles.

In terms of losing the love handles - a calorie deficit will get you there, but if that's where your body naturally holds onto fat you may have to get light and very lean (possibly lighter and leaner than you want) to really get rid of them.

I agree with you there, but i dont want to lose all my muscles either. At the moment i just want them decreased, i dont have to remove them completely.
For a guy with my build, i dont think i should go any lower than 80kg lowest.

I'll try to slightly increase muscle mass after the summer, thank you for the input
At this moment, i think i'll just try to remove it as much as i can, but again, if i go much lower than 85kg i feel that decrease my muscles more than my fat.

[TolerantLactose]

In my experience, people who worry about losing "all my muscle" during a cut generally don't have a lot of muscle to lose.

[Spanishdream]

There are documented scientific studies showing how diet breaks help break through fat loss plateaus but the prospect of extending a cut and perhaps gaining a couple of temporary pounds in the process scares most people away.

Do you have a source(s) for this claim?

A "slowed" metabolism as you put it is explained by people not adjusting their TDEE due to their weight loss. A 5"8 200lbs man losing 1lb a week at 1,800 calories a day will need to lower his calories further to stay on the same 1lb per week trajectory as their Total Daily Energy Expenditure will have decreased. To get to 10% body fat, I had to dip as low as 1,400 calories when I had been cutting from 25%+ on ~1,900 calories a day.

The body cannot stop losing weight due to you being on a cut for too long. Physiologically that cannot make sense. Energy is energy. We see a lot of these posts in the Losing Fat section with frustrated people talking about plateaus when they're eating the same amount they did 40-50lbs heavier.