Increasing hit area of a link also increases text's underline

I am trying to increase the hit area of the link in the menu but doing so also increases the underline effect of the text. I have tried padding and width but no imrprovement. I want a effect just like the one present in highfive mobile menu(Underline from left). Here is the fiddle and Here is the code

.hvr-underline-from-left {
text-decoration:none;
padding: 3px 0;
color: #000;
cursor: pointer;

  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: middle;
  -webkit-transform: translateZ(0);
  transform: translateZ(0);
  box-shadow: 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
  -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;
  backface-visibility: hidden;
  -moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
}
.hvr-underline-from-left:before {
  
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  z-index: -1;
  left: 0;
  
  right: 100%;
 bottom : 7px;
  background: #E13F3F;
  height: 2px;
  -webkit-transition-property: right;
  transition-property: right;
  -webkit-transition-duration: 0.3s;
  transition-duration: 0.3s;
  -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out;
  transition-timing-function: ease-out;
}
.hvr-underline-from-left:hover:before, .hvr-underline-from-left:focus:before, .hvr-underline-from-left:active:before {
  right: 0;
}

<html>
  <body>
    <a class="hvr-underline-from-left" href="#">About  </a>
  </body>
</html>

Solution

You could add a span within the a-tag and put the underline effect on the span instead. This way you can add padding to your link element without it affecting the underline effect.

a {
  padding: 20px;
  display: inline-block;
  background: #eee;
}

.hvr-underline-from-left {
  text-decoration: none;
  padding: 3px 0;
  color: #000;
  cursor: pointer;
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: middle;
  -webkit-transform: translateZ(0);
  transform: translateZ(0);
  box-shadow: 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
  -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;
  backface-visibility: hidden;
  -moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.hvr-underline-from-left:before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  z-index: -1;
  left: 0;
  right: 100%;
  bottom: 7px;
  background: #E13F3F;
  height: 2px;
  -webkit-transition-property: right;
  transition-property: right;
  -webkit-transition-duration: 0.3s;
  transition-duration: 0.3s;
  -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out;
  transition-timing-function: ease-out;
}

a:hover .hvr-underline-from-left:before,
.hvr-underline-from-left:focus:before,
.hvr-underline-from-left:active:before {
  right: 0;
}

<html>

<body>
  <a href="#"><span class="hvr-underline-from-left">About</span></a>
</body>

</html>