Guys: How can I lose weight in my arms?

[Anonymous]

I know this question may sound ridiculous, but I noticed in my pics that my arms don't look good. I seem to have a little weight on the upper part of my arms.

What exercises can I do at the gym to slim down my arms?

Thanks for any recommendations!

[glamphotog]

Hi,

Unfortunately, it is a common misconception that there are particular exercises that you can do to lose weight/fat from a particular area of the body. For example, some people think that doing crunches would help lose belly fat. This is not true.

The fact is that if you want to lose weight anywhere, you have to lose weight gradually everywhere. When your body has a caloric deficit over the course of the day, your body burns fat to generate energy. There is no way to target which area of the body the fat will be burned from.

Of course you can exercise your arms if you want to tone them up a little but slimming will require you to lose weight/fat.

Losing fat is ultimately all about caloric intake vs. how much you burn. For example, if your body burns 2000 calories per day by doing every day normal things (without exercising). You can simply take less calories per day (ie. 1750 calories) and you will start losing weight because your body will start burning your fat instead of the calories from your diet.

Or, if you want to maintain your existing diet of 2000 calories per day, you basically need to burn more calories per day... so you can burn extra 250 calories by exercising. The caveat is that a lot of people fall into the trap of eating more BECAUSE they are exercising so even if they burn 250 calories by running, they eat 2250 calories which means you'll still not lose any fat.

Hope that helps. :)

[Asker]

Wow! Your answer is excellent! Thank you!

[WeaponZero]

You can't "spot burn." You can tone the muscle in specific spots when there's little to no fat covering it, but if there's a significant layer of fat covering it, then the only thing you can do is general weight loss workouts/dieting, which will lose fat from all over your body.

An ideal workout program should have both cardio and resistance training.

My workout:

Mon-

Total Body strength training using bodyweight exercises (suspension training)

Tues-

HIIT for 60 seconds rest, 30 seconds sprint pace for 9 intervals, either jumping rope or running.

Wed-

See Monday

Thurs-

See Tuesday

Fri-

See Monday

Weekends off.

I designed my workout the way I did because I work next door to a city park where nobody ever goes, and I wanted to be able to get in my workout on my lunch break at work. And it's been working.

[Asker]

Your routine looks great. I am focusing on my food intake, meals etc. Do you think increased cardio might help as well?

[WeaponZero]

Cardio always helps. But many women think that it's enough, while it's not. Resistance training is an integral part of it.

[AmberChick]

Do a lot of push ups and pull ups. That should give you muscle to substitute the fat. However, girls unfortunately gain weight there as they get older. :/

[Asker]

Seriously, you can gain weight there? I know I sound uneducated on the subject. I think gaining weight there is probably as bad as in the thighs. Thank you for your advice.

[preciouspressure]

The shake weight!

[WeaponZero]

As retarded as it sounds, that thing actually works. Not kidding.

[preciouspressure]

Yeah, they got the on for men too and in the adds on T.V. thy make him look exhausted, never though I'd see that usually it's "So simple! But watch the weight just sweat right off!"

[WeaponZero]

Actually I have the men's one, lol. And yeah, it is exhausting to use. It's based on a concept called isometrics which is one of the methods Bruce Lee used to train.

[Asker]

I saw that actually on an episode of South Park. I am surprised it works.

[imnotsure]

weights

[MrsJones7]

NO... you can't lift weights when you still got significant amount of fat in a particular area. Then she will look horrible.