The term “Love Handles” refer to the extra flab around the belly. Health conscious people try to cut this to look slim and healthy.

There are many explanations for the use of this term.

Young unmarried people are very conscious of their figure because they think that looking slim is attractive. But after they are married, their competition ends and happy couples gorge more food leading to obesity.

The term was popularised by actress Debbie Reynolds. Although she was not fat, her mother was. His father liked her mother as such.

She said in an interview

“My mother is—well—rather plump, but my dad likes her that way. He calls the excess ‘love handles.’ As a matter of fact, he’s always saying to me, ‘The trouble with you, Debbie, is you’ve got no love handles.’”

“Daddy says a woman should have curves, which he calls, in the idiom of the Southwest, love handles. Isn’t that sweet, love handles?”