What Is The Best Shapewear To Hide My Love Handles?

One frequently asked question I get emailed A LOT is

"what is the best best shapewear to hide my love handles?"

What Are Love Handles?

Love Handles, haunches, those sticky out bits above your hips. Love handles are a cute way of describing that annoying bit of your body that lives above your hips and just under your waist. Love handles often appear almost overnight as soon as you hit a certain age - or you have had lots of babies!

They are quite a tricky part of the body. They often seem unaffected by diet (I know some quite slim women who still have love handles) and exercise barely touches them as they aren't part of your major muscle groups and so you can't really tone them up too easily.

Dress Well

What you wear will really help to disguise your love handles. Lots of tight trousers will really emphasize them, especially if the rest of you is more in proportion.

My go to outfits to hide my love handles (of which I have more than a handful!) are tunic tops, drapey tops and things that don't cling to my hips. I have fairly slim legs in proportion to the rest of my figure, so I really do notice my bulgy hips if I wear skinny jeans and a top that finishes at my waistline. I'm all for the float these days!

My Shapewear Rules For Hiding Love Handles

Your love handles are basically a layer of flesh over bone. There is only one way to hide them. And that is to squash them and encase them in strong fabric! This is the ONLY part of your body I advise doing this with - the rest needs a bit of shaping and TLC too.

You need STRONG shapewear on your love handles to make a good difference. Go for EXTRA FIRM control that will help to firm them up.

You also need to have something that covers your lower hips, bottom and thighs too. If you have squashy bits on your hips, the chances are you have a bit of squash too on your bottom and thighs. If you wear knicker leg shapewear you ARE going to get VPL, no matter how well made and finely cut the shapewear is.

I also advise you to go for something HIGH WAISTED. The shapewear will firm and flatten your love handles and let's be frank, the flesh has to have somewhere to go. If it goes UP, you will get some spillage over the top of low waisted shapewear. And no one wants that! High waisted shapewear will solve this issue.

My Best Choices For Shapewear To Hide Love Handles

1. Spanx Oncore High Waisted Mid Thigh Shaper Shorts. These are totally brilliant at firming up love handles. They are extra firm in control, high waisted and mid thigh in length. They give really strong control on your hips and also make a superb job of slimming and shaping the rest of you (love the bum shaping on these!).

2. Miraclesuit Extra Firm Control Mid Thigh Shaper With Back Magic. These bad boys are STRONG. They will really help to flatten and firm everything up. They aren't seamless (like the Spanx), but give such strong hold and shape they are worth a couple of seams. They also have hidden boning in the back at the top which helps to cinch in your waist, giving you a much more in and out waistline.

3. Trinny and Susannah All In One Body Shaper. I love these as they give such a clean line under your clothes. They are extra firm in control but aren't QUITE as strong as the Spanx and Miraclesuit. However, they are SEAMLESS and have shoulder straps - they are wonderful if you find lots of high waisted shapewear rolls down on you.

4. Trinny and Susannah All In One Body Shaper Dress. These are very similar to the Body Shaper. The main difference is the style - the bottom section is a skirt. If you are wearing a very tight mid length dress these work beautifully at hiding your love handles and giving you a much tighter, slimmer figure.

5. Miraclesuit Rear Lift & Thigh Control Waistline Leggings. Yes I know these are waistline, so don't quite fit in with my rules. However, my best friend RAVES about these. She is a pear shape and has a slim waist, so can get away with wearing waistline shapewear. During the cooler weather she wears these under everything. She says they are the best shapewear we sell and work wonders on her love handles.

I hope this helps you on your quest to find the best shapewear to hide your love handles. As always, if you need help in choosing shapewear just drop me a message and I will get back to you with some recommendations. Don't be shy, I'm here to help x