Arms & Bat Wings

PhotographerOfNature

I have been overweight all my life. I am 5'7" and have worn size 18 & 20 all through high school. I have been fat since a child and although I have lost weight and gained weight more times than I can remember, and I am now 178 pounds and workout lots, I have out of proportion arms. Every coat or shirt that I try on, are tight in the arms even though they fit elsewhere. I know that spot reducing is not possible, but I wonder when I finally lose down to my weight goals, are my arms still going to be flabby and bat wingy??? I saw on the BL that the girls were wearing sleeveless shirts or dresses, which I never allow myself to wear because its gross. But, those women were bigger than I ever have been and they are wearing sleeveless items. Granted, some of them still had fat arms, but it didn't look as gross as my arms look. My arms look like there is a bunch of chicken fat underneath. Yuck!!! Thoughts???

PhotographerOfNature

I have been overweight all my life. I am 5'7" and have worn size 18 & 20 all through high school. I have been fat since a child and although I have lost weight and gained weight more times than I can remember, and I am now 178 pounds and workout lots, I have out of proportion arms. Every coat or shirt that I try on, are tight in the arms even though they fit elsewhere. I know that spot reducing is not possible, but I wonder when I finally lose down to my weight goals, are my arms still going to be flabby and bat wingy??? I saw on the BL that the girls were wearing sleeveless shirts or dresses, which I never allow myself to wear because its gross. But, those women were bigger than I ever have been and they are wearing sleeveless items. Granted, some of them still had fat arms, but it didn't look as gross as my arms look. My arms look like there is a bunch of chicken fat underneath. Yuck!!! Thoughts???

ckmama

I think it is all in how you see it. For some people it doesn't bother them to have big arms or big legs even.

I think it is really a body image issue. I have the same problem with my upper inner thighs from loose skin, from weight loss. But it is just something I will have to learn to love.

AJCM

One thought to add.... those gals on BL (I saw the recent finale - those women looked AMAZING!!!!) do a lot of exericse, including intense strength training. While one can't spot reduce per se, you can build create muscle strength, and increase muscle tone in specific areas, which gives added structure underneath the layer of skin and fat.

Strength training might just do the trick. Good luck!
:flowerforyou:

Phoenix_Rising

Weight assisted chin ups and dips in the gym have helped to tone my arm, as well as free weights with exercises designed to tone my biceps and triceps.

PhotographerOfNature

i workout with the machines at our new gym "Anytime Fitness" and work the arms quite often, but am not seeing many results or changes in the way my arms look. Still a lot of fat and hanging flab on them. I gues I need to make myself do push ups again. That is when I saw the most difference is when I was doing pushups everyday. Yuck! I don't like pushups, but I guess I don't like batwings either. :bigsmile:

cp005e

I have always had fat arms, too - but they are finally looking better. I've been doing pushups since August and it does help them look a lot more toned. I know what you mean about having shirts fit (or even be loose) in the torso but tight in the arms. Eventually as you lose more fat it will have to come off your arms as well, I promise!

Feel free to join the Hundred Pushup challenge in the Motivation and Support section. Sometimes it's easy to do something hard when you see other people doing it, too!