Double chin and fat arms

Fidgetbrain

Is there any way other than mewing (which people say doesn’t even work?) to get a sharper jawline? I physically cannot get the back of my tongue on the roof of my mouth so it’s really frustrating that it’s the only thing people suggest. I also would like some tips on how to slim down my arms. I’ve heard a lot that you can’t spot reduce fat but I’m already underweight on BMI so I would really like to just target arms instead of losing more weight (I’m 19y so according to the CDC children’s calculator I can lose a little more and still be healthy if that really is the only way). My body shape is really weird, pear shaped torso, with narrow shoulders and skinny legs but big arms (and I have a skin problem that makes them look red sometimes which just makes it look worse). Thanks in advance!!

tinkerbellang83

As you mentioned you can't spot reduce fat and if you're already underweight then you defintely don't want to be in a calorie deficit.

Recomp could be an option: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat

Essentially that's eating at or just above maintenance whilst doing a progressive weight training plan and ensuring adequate protein intake.

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springlering62

I would second recomp.

I’m about as opposite of you as I could be (old, female) but recomp has been amazing for me.

You may even find that you look better with a few more pounds with recomp.

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

And being old enough to be your loving grandma, I would take a moment to say, at 19, you may (or may not) have stopped growing height wise, but you haven’t reached mature body yet, either.

Focus on the positive, and let the rest go. None of us are perfect, despite what filters would con us into believing.

I’m sorry this thread below is a chick thread, but you can see some recomp results here to show how effective it is. I’m sure there’s a guy thread equivalent somewhere, too, but this is the one I follow.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky/p1

I can also sincerely say, I don’t lift heavy, I don’t compete, but weight training has really helped with my confidence. Yeah, even old chicks dispensing advice on the internet suffer with that. 🤦🏻‍♀️

BTW, my husband of 36 years, whom I dearly love, has no jawline and no chin. He has disguised it with a mustache ever since I’ve known him. You wouldn’t think that would work, but it draws the eye away from what he perceives as a flaw. In my eyes, though, he’s flawless. (Except for crumbs, but that’s a gripe for another thread. It’s like living with Cookie Monster.)

springlering62

And your profile pic is cute, but do you really want to relegate yourself to #2? You say or write stuff often enough and you start to believe it.

That’s why people with user IDs like “FattyFatterson” drive me bonkers.

They’re already in the mindset of “oh well I’ll try it for a minute but I have low expectations for myself and I’ll probably fail. Again.” And then they’re disappointed when they do.

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goal06082021

Mewing doesn't actually do anything, so don't worry if you can't do it.

But yeah I'll cosign everything springlering says, she knows what she's talking about.

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springlering62

Fidgetbrain wrote: »

Thank you so much, I’ll take a look at those threads! I’m also female (poor choice of username from when I used this just to track and not talk) sorry for the confusion 😬 but if it was normal for girls to have beards you bet I’d be rocking one lmao

That was the fastest name and profile pic change i’ve ever seen! You rock!

See, already positivity!!!!!!!

Beverly2Hansen

Have you considered the possibility you're suffering from body dysmorphia? While it's possible your body shape is abnormal it's as likly that you're not seeing yourself with the same neutrality another person would and are seeing yourself inaccurately. I very much agree with building your overall strength and recomping. It might also help to discuss how you feel about the way you look with someone you trust who's older and might be able to put some of your fears to rest.

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claireychn074

I think it was @AnnPT77 who posted a while ago about bingo wings and them just being loose muscle - it was a great post, and hopefully she’ll see this and repost it for you. 👍

yirara

claireychn074 wrote: »

I think it was @AnnPT77 who posted a while ago about bingo wings and them just being loose muscle - it was a great post, and hopefully she’ll see this and repost it for you. 👍

Yes, this!
And a double chin might just be what you look like, TO. Or poor connective tissue. Then there's literally nothing you can do about it. But you know what? I'm sure most people don't randomly see you on the street and think: wow, look at what she looks like! And those few that do will probably think the same about everything else: Oh no, she's wearing green pants! He's a bit too skinny, why does she have muscles? Ugh, brown eyes!

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AnnPT77

claireychn074 wrote: »

I think it was @AnnPT77 who posted a while ago about bingo wings and them just being loose muscle - it was a great post, and hopefully she’ll see this and repost it for you. 👍

OK, not sure it's what's going on for the OP, but maybe. Since it was requested, here's my standard "arm fat rant".

Many women hold their arm out horizontally and see some floppiness under the upper arm. They identify this as fat or loose skin. In every single case where I've discussed this with another woman in real life, they have been misidentifying some of their nice, useful upper arm muscles as fat or loose skin. (I'm not saying there's zero fat or loose skin, I'm saying maybe it's not *entirely* fat or loose skin.

Here's the deal:

Everyone, even very fit people, has some underarm tissue that moves when they hold their arms straight out. Relaxed triceps muscles do that, with gravity. Triceps are slack/mobile when relaxed, and only tighten up when they contract to do work. When you hold your arm out straight, they're relaxed.

Hold your arm out horizontally, relaxed, then grab a handful of the hang-y bit with the opposite hand, grabbing up as close as you can get to the upper arm bone with your fingertips. Hold on.

Next, while continuing to hold on with the opposite hand, take the extended arm and flex it like you're a bodybuilder. Get the upper arm and elbow at an angle above your shoulder, curl the lower part of the arm down toward your shoulder, curl the wrist downward/inward, and just generally work as hard as you can by positioning and intention to tighten up every bit of your arm that you can, especially that upper arm. (Basically, it's the position in my profile photo, but with the elbow up so the upper arm is raised maybe a 45-degree angle above horizontal, more wrist curl, and more tightened. In my photo, the triceps muscles aren't really engaged.)

Anything that you have grabbed with the opposite hand, that you feel tighten up or get firmer when you do the flexing, is muscle, not fat or loose skin. It's just that when that muscle is relaxed, especially with the arm outstretched, gravity makes it hang a bit. (If it didn't, how would it contract to do work?) Any large/long muscle in your body can act like this, such as hamstrings in the back of the upper legs. The triceps just happen to be located in an area where its easy to see them and obsess about it. Sometimes women misidentify some hamstrings as fat, too - in the seated, relaxed position, part of the upper thigh that squishes out horizontally is just relaxed hamstrings. If one raises the leg while lying down, but keeping the hamstrings relaxed, they'll wobble, too.)

Even quite fit women (and men) can typically make the upper arm area wobble, if they hold it in the right position with triceps relaxed.

So, check it out, see if some of what you have is actually relaxed muscle. 🙂

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springlering62

I’d just like to add, same with so called “thigh spread”. I was wearing shorts and looking at mine yesterday, mildly annoyed. But I thought of @AnnPT77 so I stood up and tried to pinch them.

Nothing doing. I couldn’t even get a grip.

Hers was some of the best advice I’ve read here, and applies to far more than bat wings.

As always, we are our own worst critics.

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autumnblade75

For the record, I think your arms look fine. Normal. They'd look funny if they were thinner. If that were my body, If I chose to improve it in some way, I'd try adding muscle, instead of worrying about fat. I don't see any excess fat that wants losing.

springlering62

Agree. Consider recomp. I don’t do particularly heavy weights, though I do try to challenge myself. I haven’t turned into some bulked up Incredible Hulk in the last two years, and I’m happy with the results.

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Beverly2Hansen

I don't think arms look fat. I think my assessment that you're not seeing yourself with neutrality is accurate. That being said muscular arms can improve confidence so I think you'll feel better with recomping. You're doing great!

AnnPT77

I think your arms look fine, normally proportioned.

I personally believe that there's an extra-weird pop culture thing around women's arms, like even on over-thin models their arms look even more disproportionately thin than the rest of them (even "toned" fitness models sometimes). One of my personal pet peeves is that fitted workout jackets almost universally have tiny, tiny narrow sleeves. Workout jackets!?! WT(bleep)?

OTOH, I suspect that in some people's conceptual vocabulary, I'm "bulky" because I look like I might have actual functioning biceps. 🙄

OP, I think @springlering62 has a point: While I think your arms look just fine now, and proportional, you might like the look of them more if you you worked on recomp, added a bit more muscle in your arms.

I hope I'm not overstepping to add that I think some posture work would help you, too, really more for avoiding future back problems than about current appearance. In your side photo, it appears that you have a bit of the head-forward posture that most of us have these days (from leaning over phones and computers, probably). Because that posture comes with a tiny bit of rounding the shoulders forward, it can affect the appearance of arms *a little* as well. (It can kind of squoosh some front-of-shoulder tissue into the upper arm area, make it look a little broader/softer. Try standing sideways to a mirror, roll your shoulder back and down, as if pulling your shoulder blades closer together and down your back. See if that creates a different upper arm look - may or may not.)

The technical term for this posture is "postural kyphosis", but it's more casually called "head-forward posture", or less flattering names like "nerd neck". (If you look up "kyphosis", you'll find that there are scary types; the postural sub-type isn't scary, just worth fixing). There are lots of exercise videos from physical therapists (that last is important) on YouTube. These guys are an example:

https://youtu.be/DB6RNxThAxU

That head-forward thing can also affect jawline appearance, maybe even the double chin perception - but that's not the shoulder part of it that can do that, it's the head part of it. We all have soft tissue under our lower jaw. Head forward can squoosh that out a bit, too. It's harder to describe the posture correction to try it in the mirror, but it's kind of about pulling the head and chin back, making the upper spine straighter (not rounded, but still relaxed/natural, as if suspended by a string at the crown of the head), and lifting the chin a little as well.

I 100% endorse the idea that we're our own worse critics. If I may be so bold, I think it's an even bigger possibility when relatively young (like 19 😉), because there's more social pressure, and we've usually just been going through a lot of body-shape changes in the past few years, and that can be disorienting for body image. It'll be OK: You'll figure out ways to be the best you, and to love your body for the many amazing things it can do.

springlering62

@AnnPT77

😲 that was beautiful

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rheddmobile

In terms of equipment, starting as a beginner you can do a lot with just bodyweight. Try pushups and squats to start.

goal06082021

Fidgetbrain wrote: »

Thank you! You’re dead right I do have pretty bad posture, a year of online college didn’t exactly help either 🥲 I wanted those elegantly slim arms where the elbow is wider than the bit above it but I’m not sure that’s possible for most people?

What you describe as "elegantly slim" is better thought of as "skeletal." You have perfectly normal-looking human arms, attached to a perfectly normal-looking human body.

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AnnPT77

Fidgetbrain wrote: »

Thank you! You’re dead right I do have pretty bad posture, a year of online college didn’t exactly help either 🥲 I wanted those elegantly slim arms where the elbow is wider than the bit above it but I’m not sure that’s possible for most people?

No idea. I have giant elbows because I have Really Big arm bones (really! even at BMI 20 I have large-ish wrists, usually wear men's large gloves (lots of women's don't fit at all), my ring finger is size 10 (common women's rings often stop at size 9), etc. ). I absolutely would never, ever, call my arms "elegantly slim", but I don't know if my giant elbows are bigger visually than my upper arm, or not. That's my arm in the profile photo, but it's hard to tell what it looks like when bent like that. I guess I think I'm sort of skinny/stringy, but defined-ish in the arms? I don't have a current photo with straight arms, but they looked like this at BMI 19-point-something a few years back when I overshot goal weight.



Personally, I feel like the vital thing is to find our own beauty in the general overall body shape we personally have. We can work on that shape, to bring it to (realistic) points that make us happy. That, plus confidence that comes from finding it, is IMO what makes people attractive - that's what I mean in my PP by "figure out ways to be the best you".

At this stage, I have to be honest, I'm not very interested in my *appearance* much at all, more interested in capabilities for doing stuff. If anything appearance-wise, I think it's fun to look stronger or fitter than most people seem to expect a 65-year-old woman to be. 😉 (Photos are both more like age 60, I think. I don't look much different now, though, IMO. Someday I will, since I'm Getting There age-wise, but that'll be fine, too.)

AnnPT77

Fidgetbrain wrote: »

goal06082021 wrote: »

Fidgetbrain wrote: »

Thank you! You’re dead right I do have pretty bad posture, a year of online college didn’t exactly help either 🥲 I wanted those elegantly slim arms where the elbow is wider than the bit above it but I’m not sure that’s possible for most people?

What you describe as "elegantly slim" is better thought of as "skeletal." You have perfectly normal-looking human arms, attached to a perfectly normal-looking human body.

I think I described it badly I don’t mean the elbow bone is literally jutting out but just that the upper arm curves inwards a little instead of continuing to get wider until the shoulder. Again, I see it’s not a reasonable goal for me though

I'm still not sure about verbal descriptions, but I think you'd find your upper arms would be "contour-y-er" or "shape-y-er" long term from some patient strength training. (Do full body, though, not *just* arms!)

Consider programs here:

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

(There are bodyweight ones in there for beginners - you don't need weights or a gym, at least not right off the bat.)

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