how to lose upper body fat?

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altairego21
altairego21 Posts: 52 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know some people are about to furiously type in BE IN A CALORIC DEFICIT. I am currently in a caloric deficit. I am about 10 pounds away from my fat loss goal. I have a lot of fat still remaining in my upper body mostly my arms. Will doing strength training help give the appearance of smaller arms? If so, what workouts would u guys suggest? Or would cardio be beneficial in losing upper body fat? I am currently trying to eat around 1200 calories a day and walking 10k steps a day but I have not been consistent.

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  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    Unfortunately, you can't choose where the fat comes off. Your best bet is to continue losing that last 10 lbs and see where your body decides to take it from. Maybe most of it will come off of your arms, maybe that's where your body naturally holds fat the most.

    In the process, I would aim for 0.5lbs loss per week to protect your muscle mass, and do some full body strength training. Often, strength training will change your shape even more than losing weight will.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited May 2018
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    Agree on not being able to spot reduce.

    And sorry, but a small calorie deficit is what you need for that. And strength train now, you will able to prevent further muscle loss and as you move to maintenance consider doing recomp.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    For your arms to look smaller you need to lose fat from there. You can replace its weight with muscle weight if you want but the fat has to go one way or another. If the fat stays as is now, gaining muscle under it will not make your arms look smaller. Quite the opposite.

    The only way to lose fat in your arms is to burn it (or liposuction). And the only way your body knows for burning fat is eating insufficiently i.e. at a deficit.

    Strength training can improve their form.
    You can look thinner and be at the same weight by strength training and eating close to maintanance but this too depends on you losing the fat and gaining muscle (only in this case the losing fat part will be much slower because the deficit will be very small).

    Eat at a deficit.
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    ccsernica wrote: »
    I'm willing to bet that about 95% of us on this site are dissatisfied with our bodies' genetically-determined fat distribution. And none of us can do a thing about it.

    Preach!!!

    Ding! Ding! Ding!
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
    edited May 2018
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    deleted
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,708 Member
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    fr33sia12 wrote: »
    While you can't concentrate on losing fat in a certain part of your body, I do believe you can change the shape of certain parts of your body while losing fat too. I believe while you're losing weight/fat if you concentrate on a certain area of your body with exercise it will change the shape. For example while I'm losing weight at a steady 2lb a week and walking for exercise, I also do exercises concentrating on my waist and arms (basically top half of my body) and am seeing a difference now in them which I didn't see the last time I lost weight and didn't exercise the same. I think the exercises I'm doing now are helping and toning those particular areas and wouldn't look the same if I weren't doing those exercises.
    You can CONDITION and RETAIN the current muscle you already have under the fat, but you essentially cannot change your shape. That's already predetermined at birth. Now one could enhance shape by ADDING muscle, but that requires a surplus and progressive overload training to achieve it.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
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    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    As mentioned you can't spot reduce, but strength training in a deficit can help retain the muscle in areas so that when you do lose fat (according to genetics) it can give you a more defined appearance, of course depending on your muscle base under.

    That being said, with only 10lbs left to lose there is no guarantee that fat will come off where you want it to, unfortunately.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
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    Can we trade for a bit???? I lose upper body fat first, them the lower body. It's just the way my body decides to pull the fat from.

    Our bodies decide where to lose the fat first and last. Without surgical intervention, there's nothing we can do about it.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    just continue to lose your last ten pounds. Many of us jump the gun, you have 10 more pounds to lose.. at that point see how your arms look.you can also exercise them...and it will tone and make them appear smaller.

    I have learned and seen in all my weight loss efforts..that losing the fat is what is needed to look good. Most are imaptient and want to use exercise to make things better...when losing the fat through diet is your best bet.

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