25 Foods to Eliminate Your Love Handles

Love handles. They plague men just as much as women (whether or not you care to call them that or prefer "spare tire"). Regardless, if you do in fact have the extra poundage hanging around your midsection, take a look at these fat-eliminating foods selected by Yuri Elkaim, holistic nutritionist and author of the All Day Fat-Burning Diet, and Jessica Cording, R.D. a clinical nutritionist at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

While these foods won’t literally incinerate the fat from your abdominals, they will promote weight loss, and aid in your long-term goals without making you feel deprived. “So many diets are bereft of proper protein,” Elkaim says. Instead, many guys count calories and eat tiny portions of high-sugar foods or juices that actually create a starving sensation, he adds.

The principle behind the selection of these foods is simple: You'll eat real food (Read: not a bunch of bars or shakes) that come from every major food group. “You want 80 percent of what you eat to be raw, whole, plant-deprived foods to support your system and create an optimized environment for health and wellness,” Elkaim says. We picked foods packed with protein, fiber, and healthy fats to keep you energized to power through every day and any workout.

Leafy greens will provide vital nutrients, cleanse your body, and fill your stomach with healthy fiber and a surprisingly high (pound-for-pound) amount of protein. Seeds and legumes will provide additional satiating plant-based protein to make sure you never have that starving sensation, which causes even valiant men to binge on Twinkies.

Healthy fats from nuts and oils will help you drop the pounds (fat doesn’t make you fat), and keep your hunger at bay from meal to meal. Adding some lean meat into the mix will help build muscle. You want organic, grass-fed meat, and sustainably wild-caught fish. Low-glycemic fruit will cater to your carb and sweets needs, though the craving will diminish drastically after about three days.

You should eat meals every four to six hours and snack very minimally. Snacking, and eating in general, raises insulin levels, which is responsible for storing excess carbs and sugars as fat. Even with the best intentions, you’ll never lose weight if you slack when it comes to snack time. Add these eating principles and food guidelines to your daily diet, and watch that extra weight slip right off your midsection.