For those people who have lost a lot of weight already...
Did you lose your "wings"? And by wings, I mean the underarm flab that flaps any time you move your arm. This part of my body has left me insecure for so long and I've had it my entire life, it seems like. I'm so scared that I'm going to lose all my weight and my arms are still going to look flabby and gross, if not for fat then for loose skin. How do I prevent that from happening? Or is there no way to prevent it?
Honestly though? You won't find out until you get to your goal weight. The best way I've found to prevent it though is lift weights. I lift heavy weights and my arms are fine It may or may not work for you however.
LOL Cut n pasted from my FB from yesterday (my 12 year old's observation):
Quote:
"That's the thing...you've lost all this weight and now you're all...FLAPPY!" (complete with exaggerate arm waves to emphasize her point)- Ah, the beauty of honest, innocent, straightforward truth that is Asperger's... I usually try really hard not to laugh when she says something like that, but I could not suppress it this time...laughed till my stomach hurt and the tears rolled. I ♥ my Aspie girl.
I don't know how old you are, I'm 33 and have been overweight (to say the least) since I was a teen. If you are significantly younger and since you are less overweight than I've been, and if you don't have 20 years of being overweight in your past you may stand a decent chance of firming back up. As for me, I'm just gonna deal with it till if/when I can afford surgery.
Last edited by sevencallmemom; 02-18-2012 at 12:42 AM.
Hahahahaha. No. Sigh. They aren't as bad as they could be, but they are still pretty impressive. I could probably go as Rocky the Flying Squirrel for next Halloween.
Thing is, though, I've only been at this for a little under a year, and I'm still pretty darn overweight, so who knows? Things might look great at 150. I'm not holding my breath, though.
I still have like 20 pounds until I get to the normal range and I have wings but small wings comparatively. I workout my triceps and biceps to try to make my arms look a little defined.
It's so funny I read this post now, becaue I was JUST inspecting my wings. My upperbody has never been big, but the past 24lbs have almost ALL come from my upperbody. I can honestly say my upperbody looks skinny again. My legs are my issue.
However, my armflab is still a bit there. It's weird because it doesn't feel like solid fat but more like little balls. I am thinking the skin maybe has to catch up some?
Goodluck and try not to obsess over a single part of your body, you can't control where the weight goes first. It might take untill you are at the bottom of healthy weight range before the area that you want to see change, finally does.
I gain a lot of weight in my upper arms. A disproportionate amount, some might say. I'm one of those girls with HUGE upper arms that never fit right in coats and tops. I have battled my hatred for them for a long time.
Having said that, as I was losing the first time (two years ago, so it wasn't in my youth or anything) I never could see my arms shrinking, but my sister sent me some pictures recently of me at 150 pounds, and my arms actually looked -- dare I say it -- normal. Not perfect, but nothing like they did in my mind.
Lift heavy things. I have done P90X this whole time and the weight training makes a big different in what you look like as the fat shrinks. There's no way to guess what you'll look like at a lower weight, but you'll feel better and be healthier, and you'll have a chance at a longer, happier life, so try not to worry about your arms so much. It'll all work out, honest.
(Now if you want to talk about enormous calves...)
They are still there but I'm only halfway to goal. I'm accepting a lot that has to do with things that I can't change because I was obese. I'm not going to obsess over it. The path I was taking was a dangerously unhealthy one. I am so glad that I am on a path to health.
I definitely have tons of loose skin under my arms. Sigh. I was obese for many many years, I'm 34 now - so that plays a part too - I'm hoping for some more tightening as time goes on (I've been maintaining 6 months) but if that doesn't happen I am going to seriously consider surgery. I want to be able to wear pretty sundresses and not feel self conscious!!
You know, if you lose more slowly, true, your wings will shrink of at about the same pace as your fat, BUT.. they shrink up at the same pace - meaning... if you lose fat fast or slow, your skin will shrink up slow. Might take one year to shrink up the most it will - either if you lose fast or slow. Does that make sense?
My bat wings are not nice, but they are still shrinking. These past two months when I've basically stalled out on the scale with the holiday gain and relosing, I've lost a lot of bat wings on my arms... that skin is still slowly shrinking up - catching up with the rest of the shrinking my body is doing.
Mine went away. I was overweight for 6 years, but only "really heavy" for the past 1.5 years. Not a ton of it went to my arms, b/c I am a total pear shape. They did get bigger, though. I lost almost 4 inches around each bicep. My arms are defined now, but if I am shakin' it in a dance class, I will see my arms wiggle and jiggle.
I'm also having this issue, my biceps are beefing up relatively easy (with low amount of fat on top) yet my tricep muscles are still flabby. I wish you could zap fat in spots but the body does what the body does.
If you need an exercise mixup, here are some ideas (you can google for images/video, I can't post links yet):
- Ticep Kickbacks
- Seated Triceps Extension
- Skull Crushers
- Dips
I use Your Fitness Evolved 2012 for Xbox360 Kinect and it pretty much mixes up these exercises for me. And yes, moisturizer!
For those people who have lost a lot of weight already...
It may or may not work for you however.
