Another question about baggy arms...
 

Hi all

My question is; was anyone super worried that they would end up with saggy baggy arms, but once they had slimmed down/worked out ended up with the arms they wanted? This is mainly aimed at peeps who have lost 60+ lbs. Any tricks or tips which helped you along the way.

My arms are my bugbear! Since i have lost some weight my arm circ has gone down by 2" which is great, but they are still pretty huge!

Thanks x

Forgot to add, i have some 5lb weights which iv started over the past few weeks to help tone ect. Any excercise advice would be fab.

So far I haven't noticed much of any loose skin on my arms. I'm not sure what they measured in at when I started but they're currently about 13.5-14" (15" after a workout due to water retention) and I have clear muscle definition when I flex (even on my left arm too, which took awhile!). As for lifting, I started with the New Rules of Lifting for Women. I love the book and still do many of the exercises from it (but not strictly due to an injury).

Even at low weights, I've carried weight in my arms, so I don't expect it to go away completely. That being said lifting has helped a lot. :D

Oh, baggy arms, I call them bat wings were a huge problem for me. I do weight lifting 5 days a week and this has really helped my arms. I use a weight machine mostly and am lifting up to 50lbs. Took me a while to build up. I have purchased some free weights and I am working on incorporating them into my routine. Keep working on the arm weights, it will take a while but you will notice a difference.

I've found that my last few pounds have come from my arms and I have a little bit of fat there left, which most women have anyway. I carried a lot of weight in my arms and it annoyed me how much flab was there. I started lifting heavier weights and I found that recently my arms got quite thin and I can now see some muscle definition.

I lift heavy weights regularly and I also lift 10lb free weights whenever I can. I'm looking to move up to the 12lb now.

Up until about 2 weeks ago I didn't lift weights to try and tone. My arms wern't to bad just a little loose skin. If you lose weight slowly enough your skin has time to adjust and snap back, and you won't wind up with alot of excess skin. But you will need to tone eventually :)

If you're lucky and happen to have skin that bounces back.

Some folks do, some don't. And those that don't aren't necessarily losing weight wrong (too fast, too slow, wrong diet, wrong exercise, wrong whatever).

I do weights, I have some 2lb ones. I do bicep curls, tricep dips, tricep extensions, and chest presses (I think you also call them bench presses) I still have loose skin but it's a lot less than it was not so long ago, and I have muscle definition. I find lighter weights and lots of reps work for me.

Yup!! Mine were huge and they look fab now, if I may say so ;).

I lift HEAVY and they're not bulky, they just look nice and defined. Hit the weights!

This largely has to do with genetics and your age.

If you are going to have bat wings, you are going to have bat wings. Lifting weights can help with defining the muscles of your arms, but they will not make bat wings disappear because that is the fat/loose skin over those muscles. Why? because you can't make your body lose fat where you want - your body takes from where it wants and when it comes to bat wings, a lot of it is loose skin and that takes 1-2 years to tighten back up - if it ever does - again, depending on age and genetic mostly.

So, while I'm all for strength training, it won't be what gets rid of loose hanging skin.

But muscle can help fill some of that empty space and having more muscle overall burns more calories when your body is at rest. It can't hurt!

Do you know how long it takes to build that kind of muscle? Especially as a woman? I have super bat wings (lost 97 from top weight) and I do strength training 3 times a week (not recommended to do more than that) and I can grab a good two inches of loose skin/loose fat on the under side of my arms. (oh, and I'm also nearly 42 years old). Muscle takes up less space than fat, we all know that, so you will never 'fill the void' with muscle - at least most of us won't as I haven't seen too many muscle bound women around.

Fair enough. I guess I just got lucky. I had massive batwings before I started heavy lifting, that's all I know. I've got some pretty mean biceps for a girl. Instead of hanging down, my arms are defined upwards, if that makes sense. I'm only 28, so that probably makes a difference, I don't know.

You were young, had genetics on your side (do you get stretch marks easily or no?) and with time that loose skin tightens up - just not as fast as fat disappears.

The weight lifting gives shape to your arms and is good for your body, but getting rid of bat wings? Nope... just like doing a ton of crunches won't get rid of loose, hanging skin on the belly.

I'm noticing on my gut that while the skin still hangs, it's much less than it was and I figure that will continue for awhile.

I have massive stretch marks on my belly. Massive. They cracked and bled while I was pregnant. My skin sucks! Weird, phenomenon... they've actually migrated to my back. It's like the healthy skin took up the slack and shrunk down. I have them all the way around now. The human body is a weird amazing thing!

I am in the over 40 catagory and my arms have hanging skin. Been workun out with weights.but a part of will never recover due to me being heavy all my life.