Your body has a unique way of storing and burning fat, influenced by hormones, genetics, and age. These biological factors play a significant role in why arm fat can be particularly stubborn.
Extra skin and fat in the arms can be caused by obesity, significant weight loss, or genetics. Individuals born female are at a greater risk of carrying excess weight in their arms. Hormonal imbalances and a stagnant lifestyle can also cause arm fat.
The best way to reduce fat in your upper arms and shoulders is to engage in regular aerobic exercise and strength training. Cardio exercises such as jogging, biking, and swimming can help to burn fat throughout the body, including the upper arms and shoulders.
Here's some good news. Even if you have arms that are out of shape with flabby underarms, you can get them back into shape. However, you first need to do targeted arm exercises to build muscle. Adding more muscle is essential, and it can help your arms get nice and toned.
Training arms too frequently
"The muscles in the arms are much smaller than the rest of the body, so you need to ensure you have enough rest between workouts to continue progressing with your training," advises Harras.
Imbalances in the hormones oestrogen and testosterone, two important hormones involved in fat storage, can cause fat to be stored in the arms. Age can also be a factor as metabolism tends to slow down with age, which can lead to weight gain. A slower metabolism also makes arm fat harder to get rid of.
The awkward stage of fat loss occurs when your body fat becomes more "droopy", "jiggly", "flabby", or "watery" than it looked before. Please do not freak out, this is the natural process of fatloss. When you are in a caloric deficit your body takes the fatty acids that are in your fat cells, and replaces it with water.
The time it takes to tone your arms can vary depending on several factors, including your current fitness level, diet, exercise routine, and genetics. However, with consistency and dedication, you can start to see visible results in as little as four to six weeks.
These include lack of exercise, age, genetics, and poor diet. Additionally, some medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism, can cause the body to store excess fat in the upper arms. To reduce flabbiness in the upper arms, it's important to combine regular exercise with a healthy diet.
You have your genetics to thank for this. They play a large role in where you store fat on your body. Your gender also has a lot to do with where your body stores fat. For instance, women are more likely to have extra fat in their hips, arms, and thighs.
“Increased upper arm and belly fat may increase the risk of [neurodegenerative disorders such as] Parkinson's disease due to inflammation, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular health issues. However, these findings are associative, and causation cannot be firmly established.
Why Is Arm Fat Hard To Lose? As we now know, flabby arms are not lost with targeted exercises. Thus, arm fat is so hard to lose because it requires a strict approach that involves losing weight and reducing one's overall fat levels. This comprehensive process is the only way to lose arm fat on your own.
Fat upper arms are typically caused by a combination of imbalanced hormone levels, aging, and weight fluctuations. Human growth hormone (HGH) and estrogen regulate muscle mass and skin elasticity and determine where the body stores fat.
That's because your body pumps out the hormone cortisol, which ramps up your appetite and encourages the storage of fat in places like your hips, thighs, and, of course, upper arms. It also reduces your levels of testosterone, which may make it harder for your body to build muscle.
If you are training arms twice a week, eating enough protein, and (if weight loss is required) following a moderate calorie deficit (find out how many calories you should be eating to lose weight here), you should begin to see improvements in around 4-6 weeks.
V exercises
For this exercise, hold your dumbbells down at your hips. Then reach the weights forward and up on an angle, drawing a V, and then release them back down towards your hips. Keep the arms straight throughout the entire exercise. Repeat this 10 times, and complete 3 sets total throughout your workout.