How to lose that jiggle under upper arms and on lower body

Yupper, you've hit on one of my pet peeves: Women misidentifying nice, relaxed triceps muscles as fat or loose skin.

I'm not saying you have zero arm fat or loose skin. I have no way of knowing.

(Brace yourself, this is going to be a lengthy essay, once I get going. 🤣)

What I do know is this: I've had this conversation quite a number of times with women in my real life. Every single one of them was holding her arm out horizontally, relaxed, and identifying anything that hangs/wobbles as fat or loose skin. In every single case, some of that was relaxed muscle.

Any long muscle, when relaxed, has some slack in it. When we position our body so that gravity acts on that muscle, it tends to droop or wobble. That's true for even very fit people (men as well as women).

Try this:

Stretch one arm out straight horizontally and relaxed, then take the opposite hand, and grab the hang-y jiggle part on the extended upper arm. Put your finger tips close to the upper arm bones, and hold on firmly.

Next, flex that extended arm in as "bodybuilder-like" a pose as you can accomplish: Upper arm above shoulder level, elbow bent, hand curled down/in toward the inside of the arm, consciously/conscientiously tightening every single muscle you can feel, especially those underneath the upper arm. Tight tight tight, still holding the area with that opposite hand.
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Anything that firms or tightens in the holding-on hand when we do that is muscle, not fat or loose skin. There may be some fat or loose skin, but I'd bet that a good bit of your "jiggle" tightened up. If you're not used to bodybuilder poses, there's probably even a bit more muscle than you felt, because it's hard to tighten up those muscles if we're not used to flexing them.

Now, on top of that, if you have more weight to lose, you're maybe not "there yet", in a larger sense. When we lose weight, most of the fat needs to deplete before the skin in an area can start to shrink, because the remaining fat conspires with gravity to keep the skin stretched. Then, it can take quite a time for the skin to shrink as much as it will. My loose skin kept shrinking at least into year 2 of maintaining a healthy weight . . . maybe longer, as it is a little slower process toward the end.

I hate to say it, but it's another process - like the weight loss itself - that requires some patience. Many of us even look a bit worse part way to goal weight than we look at goal (I did), and then worse at goal than we will after some time passes at that healthy goal weight. It can get better, almost certainly will get better, all along the way!

Let me add a personal example about the arm-hang issue. I'm 67 now, lost 50+ pounds about 7 years ago, after having been overweight/obese for about 3 decades before that. This is my very own arm - I think I was 65 at the time - held out horizontally, and relaxed:



Scary, huh?

Here, in the spoiler, is that very same arm, mere seconds later, after I've flexed my arm sort of bodybuilder style to tighten up that area.

I think that looks pretty different . . . seconds apart. Now, I do have a bit of arm muscle (from rowing, for 20+ years now, starting when obese - not much weight lifting). But I'd guarantee that you have some triceps muscles, because if you didn't, you couldn't raise your arms, y'know? Don't hate your triceps muscles: They're good guys!

Here's what I think helps with loose skin. First is losing enough weight so that skin can start shrinking.

Beyond that, skin is an organ. The things that keep other organs healthy will also tend to keep skin healthy, which means elastic and more willing to adjust. These include:

* avoiding fast loss (because it's a physical stress to lose fast),
* getting good well-rounded nutrition (macros and micros, especially but not exclusively protein),
* getting regular exercise (both cardiovascular and strength),
* managing all-source life stress,
* hydrating adequately (not crazy much, but enough),
* avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol,
* specific to skin, also avoiding tanning.

People will say all kinds of things about creams, dry-brushing, supplements, etc., but personally I'm inclined to think those are mainly ways to pass the time while skin does pretty much what it was going to do anyway. Help a little? Maybe. Big help? I'm a skeptic. But it can feel good to feel like we're doing *something*, and as long as it's not prohibitively expensive or dangerous, why not?

FWIW, if you're interested, here's a more complete post I made at around age 64, about 4 years after weight loss, being very honest about my loose skin at that time.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10809632/loose-skin-50lbs-loss-at-60-4-years-maintenance/p1

This is another good thread, from someone who lost substantially more weight than I did:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10763291/my-turn-to-overshare-my-adventure/p1

Here's another, also 50+ age with bigger losses:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10672121/4-year-milestone

There are others, women 50+ who've lost weight and look pretty great . . . especially after some time passes: Take a look in the "Most Helpful Posts" section of "Success Stories" here in the MFP Community, and you'll find some.

I know, it's hard to be patient. But improvement is out there for you - you may well surprise yourself!

Wishing you all the best, going forward!