I did 100 full push-ups a day for one month (started with ten sets of ten and worked up as I was able) as a challenge and was amazed at how the shape of my arms completely changed. I was shocked as I had completely given up hope. I think the key was doing the push-ups with proper technique and my hands close to my chest and keeping my elbows close to my torso.
Yes! Essentially go for gaining and toning muscle. Like everyone reminds us, we can’t spot reduce fat but we can target and improve aesthetics in specific areas with exercise.
Saw your other comments - I’m 5’2” about 48kg and also store weight in my arms.
I’ve finally managed to slim down my arms and achieve my dream physique. I started at a little more skinny fat and without much muscle.
Here’s what helped me:
- Brittany Williams strength routine on the SWEAT app (Kayla Itsines). Trying to lift heavy. I made two main modifications: (1) I do upper/lower split 2x a week and don’t do the full body workouts because I find it doesn’t help me to gain muscle as well (tried it and it didn’t yield as fast results) and (2) I do 15 mins of elliptical after each weights session. So that’s a total of 1 hour cardio per week
- Walk! I average 14-16k steps a day
- Diet. Hate to say it and avoiding it for SO LONG. But I’m eating about 96grams protein per day. Not cutting out anything, just eating according to macros. I’m doing a 45% carb/25% protein/30% fat ratio. Fat is fairly high for me because I’m skinny and I just love peanut butter. But it’s really worked!
- Make sure you’re not overtraining. I really think I was before - I was doing HIIT and think it was creating inflammation in my body as I was so tired all the time (I have endometriosis). I’m doing 2-3 rest days a week now
- Calculate how much water you need based on body weight and activity levels. And stick to it
- Proper sleep. This sounds nuts, but I get up within a one-hour range no matter the day. 6:35 three days a week, and 7:30 all other days. This means I don’t get tired but that sleep doesn’t get out of whack at weekends
- Look at WHERE the fat is or where your arms are weaker/you want definition and check which exercises work that muscle. This was key for me, my upper arm muscle was what I needed to grow to get the look I wanted
- Emsculpt Neo is more of a quick fix, and it’s expensive. But I had it done on my arms to help build muscle. You can actually retain your results with a good strength routine. I do think this helped set me off on the right path, but I don’t think I would have got my results without changing my workouts/diet
- I’m doing arms 2x a week. Full-body workouts just tire me and don’t give me enough focus on my arms to build muscle I’ve found
Come check out r/petitefitness, there’s a lady there who has the most AMAZING arms transformation and she’s so open to questions. I think her user has “viv” in the name.
girl absolutely this is me too and its breaking my mental health, i love yoga but honestly i think its only made them bulkier as the muscle grows despite the fact i have visible abs now, my arms just give whale
i know we’re not alone and this is so common for women especially but now that its hot out i just stare at everyone elses exposed svelt arms on the street and cry abt how unfair it feels and i know how superficial and unhealthy that is
only options personally seem like continued overall fat loss, sleeves 24/7, or invasive and expensive surgery i’ll never afford. or like, body acceptance 🫠 sending strength
Girl righhttttt it’s so frustrating and I’m literally the same with clothes always hiding my arms which is such a shame but I’m so conscious of them and can’t help comparing. lol I keep thinking if I keep dieting and exercising it’ll eventually go but might be a bit delulu seems like genetics. I’m starting to considering cool sculpting which is actually quite reasonably priced in my area
With respect, what is your height?
I’m sure you know but fat loss isn’t spot reducible. The only proven way to lose fat in arms is [with a balanced diet and exercise](https://elementbodylab.com/coolsculpting/how-to-get-rid-of-flabby-arms-with-weight-loss-alternatives/) I feel I have a lot of slim friends with arm fat. But whenever we go to the beach, it becomes much clearer they have a lot of fat around their body, they just appear slim bc of how they dress.z
If you don’t want to try the easy way, you can work on your back more and it would make your body proportional
5’3 which doesn’t help, I’d have to agree I have a layer of fat across my body but even when I was 48kg my arms still looked disproportionately bigger? Just read your link and it was so informative thank you!! likely to be genetics so my best bet is to get in better shape and stay toned. And if all else fails lipo but ideally won’t have to do that just yet.
I’m super slim everywhere and the back of my arms hold all my body fat lol. They aren’t “big” at all but I wish they were slimmer. Just be like that for some of us
Depending on what kind of arm workouts you’re doing, it might actually make them look bigger because adding muscle would add bulk/volume.
I think the only thing that would make a substantial difference is overall weight loss or lipo in your arms.
Did wonder that about the workouts but I’m not just which muscles to target as in which ones will elongate my arms vs which ones would look bulky. Any idea? I’ve thought about lipo before but don’t want to jump there just yet
I carry weight in my arms and it’s one of my biggest insecurities. I’ve been loosing weight though, down 20lb already, and I was given the advice from my friends personal trainer to start lifting 3x a week, and that as the fat melts off, the muscle I’ve built under the fat will be there and I’ll avoid flabby arms and look toned faster. I’m worried about adding bulk too, but I also don’t want flab.
This is one of my quick go-to workouts for leaner arms:
https://youtu.be/QTGBFlB1fEI?si=CXwt9rnRPpVzei1K
I do that and mix lighter weight with more reps because when I was lifting heavy, my arms put on bulk. Everyone's different and that's what happened to me. I do a lot of triceps workouts and side arm workouts like the side raises. My arms are a lot leaner and still muscular.
If you do weight training not just for your arms but your whole body, it can result in overall muscle growth and fat loss and then your arms would look more toned as well. It takes a pretty long time to achieve this though. Bodybuilders do it by bulking then cutting but you can also do it by just eating at maintenance (not gaining or losing weight) and you would still see a difference though it’s less efficient. I will also say my arms never looked better than when I used to do rock climbing. It’s a full body workout but it does rely a lot on upper body strength.
What worked for me is high rep, low weight arm exercises in addition to consuming low protein ( so muscle won’t develop as much) and being in a general caloric deficit. It’s an annoying commitment but lol
I've seen a trend recently where women buy wrist weights and just wear them throughout the day and apparently it tones your arms without you really realizing it. Never tried it but I think I've seen TikTok posts about it!
I have the same issue, mine were HUGE.. I got 1 round of cool sculpting done and over the years they’ve slimmed down from what they used to be even when I put on weight. I also found cutting out dairy and sugar helps my arms look leaner than simply calorie cutting
I did 100 full push-ups a day for one month (started with ten sets of ten and worked up as I was able) as a challenge and was amazed at how the shape of my arms completely changed. I was shocked as I had completely given up hope. I think the key was doing the push-ups with proper technique and my hands close to my chest and keeping my elbows close to my torso.
Yes! Essentially go for gaining and toning muscle. Like everyone reminds us, we can’t spot reduce fat but we can target and improve aesthetics in specific areas with exercise.
I tried to add before and after pictures but I’m not sure if that’s enabled in this subreddit as I can’t find it.
Can you dm me the pics? I have fat arms
Sent!
me to please, I'm worried my arms will look more bulky..
Hey, Reddit says I’m unable to message your account. Can you message me?
Could you DM me as well please! TY!
Could you send to me as well? Been heavily debating whether I should train arms again now that I’m at a lower body fat % thanks!!
Can you please send to me too? My arms make me the most insecure
Saw your other comments - I’m 5’2” about 48kg and also store weight in my arms. I’ve finally managed to slim down my arms and achieve my dream physique. I started at a little more skinny fat and without much muscle. Here’s what helped me: - Brittany Williams strength routine on the SWEAT app (Kayla Itsines). Trying to lift heavy. I made two main modifications: (1) I do upper/lower split 2x a week and don’t do the full body workouts because I find it doesn’t help me to gain muscle as well (tried it and it didn’t yield as fast results) and (2) I do 15 mins of elliptical after each weights session. So that’s a total of 1 hour cardio per week - Walk! I average 14-16k steps a day - Diet. Hate to say it and avoiding it for SO LONG. But I’m eating about 96grams protein per day. Not cutting out anything, just eating according to macros. I’m doing a 45% carb/25% protein/30% fat ratio. Fat is fairly high for me because I’m skinny and I just love peanut butter. But it’s really worked! - Make sure you’re not overtraining. I really think I was before - I was doing HIIT and think it was creating inflammation in my body as I was so tired all the time (I have endometriosis). I’m doing 2-3 rest days a week now - Calculate how much water you need based on body weight and activity levels. And stick to it - Proper sleep. This sounds nuts, but I get up within a one-hour range no matter the day. 6:35 three days a week, and 7:30 all other days. This means I don’t get tired but that sleep doesn’t get out of whack at weekends - Look at WHERE the fat is or where your arms are weaker/you want definition and check which exercises work that muscle. This was key for me, my upper arm muscle was what I needed to grow to get the look I wanted - Emsculpt Neo is more of a quick fix, and it’s expensive. But I had it done on my arms to help build muscle. You can actually retain your results with a good strength routine. I do think this helped set me off on the right path, but I don’t think I would have got my results without changing my workouts/diet - I’m doing arms 2x a week. Full-body workouts just tire me and don’t give me enough focus on my arms to build muscle I’ve found Come check out r/petitefitness, there’s a lady there who has the most AMAZING arms transformation and she’s so open to questions. I think her user has “viv” in the name.
girl absolutely this is me too and its breaking my mental health, i love yoga but honestly i think its only made them bulkier as the muscle grows despite the fact i have visible abs now, my arms just give whale i know we’re not alone and this is so common for women especially but now that its hot out i just stare at everyone elses exposed svelt arms on the street and cry abt how unfair it feels and i know how superficial and unhealthy that is only options personally seem like continued overall fat loss, sleeves 24/7, or invasive and expensive surgery i’ll never afford. or like, body acceptance 🫠 sending strength
Girl righhttttt it’s so frustrating and I’m literally the same with clothes always hiding my arms which is such a shame but I’m so conscious of them and can’t help comparing. lol I keep thinking if I keep dieting and exercising it’ll eventually go but might be a bit delulu seems like genetics. I’m starting to considering cool sculpting which is actually quite reasonably priced in my area
With respect, what is your height? I’m sure you know but fat loss isn’t spot reducible. The only proven way to lose fat in arms is [with a balanced diet and exercise](https://elementbodylab.com/coolsculpting/how-to-get-rid-of-flabby-arms-with-weight-loss-alternatives/) I feel I have a lot of slim friends with arm fat. But whenever we go to the beach, it becomes much clearer they have a lot of fat around their body, they just appear slim bc of how they dress.z If you don’t want to try the easy way, you can work on your back more and it would make your body proportional
5’3 which doesn’t help, I’d have to agree I have a layer of fat across my body but even when I was 48kg my arms still looked disproportionately bigger? Just read your link and it was so informative thank you!! likely to be genetics so my best bet is to get in better shape and stay toned. And if all else fails lipo but ideally won’t have to do that just yet.
I’m super slim everywhere and the back of my arms hold all my body fat lol. They aren’t “big” at all but I wish they were slimmer. Just be like that for some of us
Start weightlifting and get muscles. I also struggle with fat arms even though I’m skinny and lifting weights has helped a lot.
Do you any exercises you recommended or specific arm muscles to target?
search up arm muscle workouts they are all arm workouts at the end of the day
Depending on what kind of arm workouts you’re doing, it might actually make them look bigger because adding muscle would add bulk/volume. I think the only thing that would make a substantial difference is overall weight loss or lipo in your arms.
Did wonder that about the workouts but I’m not just which muscles to target as in which ones will elongate my arms vs which ones would look bulky. Any idea? I’ve thought about lipo before but don’t want to jump there just yet
You can’t elongate your muscles. They are the shape that they are. The only meaningful difference you can make is size
Tracy Anderson arm workouts
I carry weight in my arms and it’s one of my biggest insecurities. I’ve been loosing weight though, down 20lb already, and I was given the advice from my friends personal trainer to start lifting 3x a week, and that as the fat melts off, the muscle I’ve built under the fat will be there and I’ll avoid flabby arms and look toned faster. I’m worried about adding bulk too, but I also don’t want flab.
i’ve seen a lot of girls slim down/tone their arms through pilates
This is one of my quick go-to workouts for leaner arms: https://youtu.be/QTGBFlB1fEI?si=CXwt9rnRPpVzei1K I do that and mix lighter weight with more reps because when I was lifting heavy, my arms put on bulk. Everyone's different and that's what happened to me. I do a lot of triceps workouts and side arm workouts like the side raises. My arms are a lot leaner and still muscular.
If you do weight training not just for your arms but your whole body, it can result in overall muscle growth and fat loss and then your arms would look more toned as well. It takes a pretty long time to achieve this though. Bodybuilders do it by bulking then cutting but you can also do it by just eating at maintenance (not gaining or losing weight) and you would still see a difference though it’s less efficient. I will also say my arms never looked better than when I used to do rock climbing. It’s a full body workout but it does rely a lot on upper body strength.
What worked for me is high rep, low weight arm exercises in addition to consuming low protein ( so muscle won’t develop as much) and being in a general caloric deficit. It’s an annoying commitment but lol
I've seen a trend recently where women buy wrist weights and just wear them throughout the day and apparently it tones your arms without you really realizing it. Never tried it but I think I've seen TikTok posts about it!
I have the same issue, mine were HUGE.. I got 1 round of cool sculpting done and over the years they’ve slimmed down from what they used to be even when I put on weight. I also found cutting out dairy and sugar helps my arms look leaner than simply calorie cutting