It’s not always easy to lose body fat of any kind, but when it seems as if one area has been targeted most than others, then it’s even more frustrating. Most people have at least one part of their body where stubborn fat seems to take hold, and if you know where yours is, then the chances are that you’ll have become pretty obsessed with getting rid of it.
Let’s take your arms, for example. If fat seems to be drawn to your arms more than other places, then of all the things you’ll need to know, it’ll be how to lose arm fat. The good news is that this is far from an impossible task. Indeed, just by following a few crucial steps, you’ll be able to transform your arms from flabby to toned. It’s a process, and it’ll take a little bit of time, but if there’s one thing we know, it’s that no matter how stubborn your arm fat might be, it doesn’t have to become a permanent part of your body!
Table of Contents
What will you need?
As with most things related to fitness, you don’t need all that much to achieve your goal of losing fat in your arms.
Motivation
This is the most important detail! As we said, anyone can lose fat in their arms, but it does take some work. If you’re determined enough, then you’ll be halfway there.
Access to gym equipment
Your arms will need a little bit of help to shift the fat. Diet alone won’t do it. You’ll need access to basic gym equipment, such as free weights. It’d be easier to join a gym, but if you space, then investing in some basic equipment for your home will be the best option.
Cooking equipment
What you do at the gym is half the battle. The other half is what you eat. It’ll be much easier to prepare healthy meals that’ll actively help you lose arm fat if you have a spacious, clean kitchen with all the best kitchen appliances.
How to lose arm fat
Ready to dive into ‘Project Lose Arm Fat’? Then buckle up, because here we go. Below, you’ll find several useful tips that’ll push things in the right direction. Note that these aren’t listed in any particular order; it’s a matter of bringing them all together at the same time. If you make all of the points listed, then you will notice results!
Overall weight loss
You might want to lose weight in your arms specifically, but it’s important to remember that spot targeting weight loss isn’t always effective. The truth is that fitness gurus haven’t yet come up with a way to lose weight in just one body part. It might come in time, but we’re not there yet! For now, we’ll have to make do with looking at losing weight overall. If you take a whole-body approach to your weight loss, then you’ll be much more successful. You can use other tactics to target your arms (outlined below), but in terms of more general weight loss in the arms, focus on the whole body.
It’s logical, if not convenient, because while some parts of the body attract fat more than others, the whole body is interconnected, and we haven’t quite figured out how or why some parts of the body get more fat than others.
Tone your arms
If you want to lose fat in your arms, then look at lifting weights. Resistance training is useful for many body-related matters and is especially good for the arms since they’re a part of the body that is easier to train than others. After all, it’s simple enough to pick up some free weights and begin curls. It’ll have a positive impact on the appearance of your arms in a couple of different ways. For one, it’ll help to drive weight loss; used in conjunction with other fat-busting tactics; it can be highly effective.
The other way it helps with arm fat is that it tones the arms. The actual size of your arms might look the same, but they’ll be more defined compared to when you weren’t lifting weights, and that can make them seem smaller. You’ll also be getting stronger simultaneously, which can have long-lasting benefits on your overall fitness.
Add more protein
You are what you eat. If you’re currently chowing down on fast-food multiple times a week, then it doesn’t matter how much time you’re spending in the gym: you’re going to find it much more difficult to lose weight in all parts of your body, including your arms. When it comes to improving diet, many people have misconceptions about what will work for them. It’s not necessarily about reducing the amount of food you eat (though it may help), but rather, improving the food you eat.
For example, you’ll find that it’s much easier to maximize the effects of the time you spend in the gym if you have a lot of protein in your diet. One study showed that adding protein increased the effects of the gym by as much as 25%. To add more protein to your diet, look at increasing the amount of seafood, lean meats, and eggs, and other dairy products to your meals.
Add fiber too
Protein gets a lot of credit with fitness-buffs, and it’s a reputation that’s rightly merited. However, it’s not the only thing that you should be adding to your diet. You’ll also want to look at increasing the amount of fiber in your diet too. Indeed, adding fiber to your meals can be one of the most effective ways to drive weight loss.
Why? Because it helps you to feel full for longer. If you find that you’re eating a meal, but then, not long later, you’re snacking on foods, then you’ll be making things more difficult for yourself. Fiber is a slow mover. That means that it takes longer than other foods to work its way through your system. The upshot is that you can ride the wave of the meal that you ate for even longer. Adding fiber is simply one of those easy, straightforward things you can do to drive your weight loss.
Eating better
You can do plenty of exercises to lose weight, but one of the best — and delicious — ways to lose weight is to overhaul your diet. If you haven’t given too much thought to what you’re eating before, then you may be making at least one error that’s contributing to fat gain. Indeed, you can think of what you’re eating as being just as important as anything else you’re doing to lose the fat in your arms.
The key point is to eat fresh. Even foods traditionally thought of as healthy may be unhealthy for you if they’ve been sitting in a can or loaded with preservatives. Don’t worry about eating frozen stuff — in many cases, frozen vegetables are just as healthy as the vegetables sitting in the open air. It’s worthwhile looking up some easy to make, healthy meals. There are many to choose from! Plus, if you’re not that experienced in the kitchen, then they’ll get you into the habit of preparing your meals from scratch.
Focus on cardio
You’ll want to focus a lot on building strength through resistance training, but don’t discount the merits of cardio work. This is the original method of losing weight and should very much be a staple of your exercise regime. While strength building will be the activity that builds all the headlines (toned arms are a big hit), you won’t be able to get there without spending some time on the treadmill or bike machine.
Some studies back this up. One found that people who only did cardio lost more weight than people who only did weight resistance workouts. Of course, it’s best to have both as part of your regime. Cardio can give you other things that weight lifting can’t, too — it’ll release more endorphins into your system that’ll get you hooked on working out, and that’s one of the best ways to make trips to the gym a long-term part of your lifestyle.
More Reps
When you visit a gym, it can sometimes be intimidating and discouraging to see the number of people lifting heavyweights. If you’re starting, then you’ll be nowhere near that level. But here’s the secret about fitness that you need to keep in mind: lifting heavier weights isn’t necessarily better for you. You can get toned arms even with the lightest weights. It’s just that you need to do more of them.
Studies have shown that it’s equally effective to do many reps of lighter weights compared with heavy lifting. People seem to think that they have to struggle to lift a weight for it to be effective, but that’s not the case.
Work out at the optimal time
If you’re going to spend your time working out, you’ll want to ensure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck. And according to one study, at least, you can increase the effectiveness of your workout by as much as 20% simply by working out first thing in the morning, before you’ve had breakfast. This is referred to as the “fasting” approach. If you must eat something before you go, make it extremely light, such as a banana. When you’re back home, you can have a filling breakfast that’ll keep you going for the rest of the day.
Get enough sleep
And don’t forget to get plenty of rest too. It can sometimes feel that to be the healthiest version of ourselves; then we have to be continually on the move, working out, using our body. But that’s not the case. Research has shown that having a regular sleeping schedule can boost weight loss and control appetite. Sleep deprivation can feel hunger and also make a person less inclined to put on running shoes and do some laps. So you consider this your pass to hit the hay and feel comfortable with getting plenty of rest.
Be patient
Finally, the number one way that you’re going to lose weight in your arms is by biding your time and being patient. It’s all good and well to adopt the tips that we’ve outlined above for a week, but that’s not going to have much of an impact on your body. The key to success is to make it part of your lifestyle. This can take a little time; experts are divided, but they think you need to fully form a habit somewhere in the region of three weeks. If you’re trying to overhaul your lifestyle, then you might need a little longer.
The important part is to stick with it. You won’t notice the results of your efforts within a week or two. Within a month, however, you’ll notice that you feel stronger and that your arms are looking more toned, and then you’ll know that it’s working. Many people give up before they get to this stage, even though they were probably closer to reaching their target than they realized.
Conclusion
So there we have it. It wasn’t so bad, was it? It took some time to figure out what was needed to lose that stubborn arm fat, but it changed everything once I did. Fat in the arms can be a little daunting since it seems like it just won’t go away, but that’s only slightly true — it won’t go away on its own. If you take the steps we’ve outlined above, then you’ll lose.
Do you have any additional tips for losing fat in the arms? Drop them in the comments section below. And as always, please feel free to share this article if you found it useful.
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Last update on 2021-01-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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