Bat wings

MamaSteg · March 2018

I’m 60 is it possible for me to lose/reduce my bat wings with diet and exercise?

middlehaitch · March 2018

It really depends on genetics how much the skin will retract once one has lost weight.
It can also make a difference how much weight one has to lose, or lost, and how long one has been o erweight.

Getting plenty of protein, .8-1g per lbs of lbm or ideal body weight if over weight, and a resistance/ weight lifting programme will help you get the best results possible.

It can take a couple of years or more to get the final results, but there is hope for improvement.
My arms, at 64, ended up pretty good, but I only had 30 lbs to lose.

(Collagen and elastin levels and composition do change as we age, so we don't alway get as good results as we may have if we had lost weight in our 20's- 40's)

Cheers, h.

thereshegoesagain · March 2018

I turn 60 in a couple of weeks, I lost 90 lbs over a couple of years, been in maintenance for over a year and yes, I too have bat wings.
For the last 6 months I've been using hand weights at home and have noticed an improvement, but alas, I fear they will always be there.
I do get compliments on my shoulders now, so that counts for something.

CarlydogsMom · March 2018

Remember, bat wings are essentially loose skin. I lost 70+ pounds when I was about 50, and in hindsight, I lost it too fast and without incorporating resistance training. I have major bat wings. I started lifting rather seriously a few years ago, partly to gain strength and to do something I know is good for my overall longevity, and partly to try to reduce my bat wings.

While I love weightlifting, and I went from barely being able to bench a bar to benching nearly 100 pounds and was able to move from bicep-curling 8-pound dumbbells to 20-pounders, triceps similar....I still have bat wings.

Unless you fill out that loose skin with muscle (extremely difficult), or remove it with surgery...OR, if you lose weight slow enough with incorporating resistance training to maintain as much muscle mass as possible...it's a big challenge.

But one I'd rather have than have those 70 pounds back on my body!!!

CarlydogsMom · March 2018

Remember, bat wings are essentially loose skin. I lost 70+ pounds when I was about 50, and in hindsight, I lost it too fast and without incorporating resistance training. I have major bat wings. I started lifting rather seriously a few years ago, partly to gain strength and to do something I know is good for my overall longevity, and partly to try to reduce my bat wings.

While I love weightlifting, and I went from barely being able to bench a bar to benching nearly 100 pounds and was able to move from bicep-curling 8-pound dumbbells to 20-pounders, triceps similar....I still have bat wings.

Unless you fill out that loose skin with muscle (extremely difficult), or remove it with surgery...OR, if you lose weight slow enough with incorporating resistance training to maintain as much muscle mass as possible...it's a big challenge.

But one I'd rather have than have those 70 pounds back on my body!!!

seltzermint555 · March 2018

I'm "just" 41 but lost my weight in my thirties and have bat wings galore, they have firmed up very very slightly with continued maintenance at goal weight but I have to admit I don't lift weights at all. Anyway, I just wanted to chime in that I would much rather have bat wings than all of the excess weight (well over 100 lost). I have known a few women who had surgery to correct the problem and honestly it's not such a good result on either of the two ladies I know...both have considerable scarring and unnatural looking upper arms...just for whatever it's worth.

AnnPT77 · March 2018

Yes. The arm in my profile photo is 60 years old, and had recently lost 60 pounds. I don't think it looks too bad. (I'm now 62, maintaining a healthy weight, BTW)

But first, be sure you understand what you actually have (warning, long rant coming):

Maybe this isn't you, but too many women hold their arm out from their body, all relaxed, wiggle it, and if anything moves underneath, they call it "bat wings" and hate on it.

No.

Flex your arm, kinda like a bodybuilder. Tighten up every part you can, especially the muscles on the back of your upper arm (triceps). If you haven't done this much, you might have to experiment a little with the best way to get everything as clench-y tight as it will go, curling your wrist over, bending at the elbow, figuring out the best angles between upper arm & shoulder as you work on making it as tight as it'll go. But do it.

OK - now move the arm around. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that less of the upper arm is gonna flop around. Why? Because relaxed triceps (those muscles in the back of the upper arm) are a bit slack, and will move around. Even quite fit, slim women can get some movement from the back of a relaxed upper arm.

Another test: When your arm is relaxed, grab onto that "bingo wing" with your other hand - get a good handful of the floppy bits, fingertips up by the bone. Now tighten up/flex the arm you're holding onto. Did part of the floppy bit turn kind of firm in your hand? That's a muscle. There may be some fat, too; there may be some loose skin. And for any of us, it can become a stronger and firmer muscle with more exercise. But it's still a muscle.

I've done this stuff with many women. Literally every one of them was mis-identifying some of their actual muscles as fat, disgusting "bat wings", "bingo wings", "arm flaps", etc. Do they sometimes have some extra fat or skin? Sure. But part of what they think is fat or skin is actually muscle. For many of us, our body image is so distorted, that we mis-identify our nice, relaxed muscles as ugly fat (or loose skin) and hate on them.

Make sure you're not doing that. Then keep working out, especially strength exercises, and getting to a healthy body weight, to improve the rest. If there's loose skin involved, it can take some time to shrink back, even after the weight loss. It may even look worse temporarily, partly through weight loss, when there's a small amount of remaining subcutaneous fat conspiring with gravity to keep the skin stretched out. Don't panic at that point, it'll improve. The skin can shrink when that fat is depleted.

My loose skin continued shrinking, even into my 2nd year of weight maintenance. The whole process isn't super-speedy, but it works. I'm not guaranteeing perfection, but improvement can definitely happen, at any age.

Best wishes!

Bat wings

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