"Bat wings"

babygurl48
babygurl48 Posts: 1,237 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hello, I've been on here for a year and a couple of months. I think I may have mentioned this before, but only on my profile page. Anyway, I'm 49 yrs old (got nothing to hide..lol..) and when I was about 18 or 19 yrs old, I stopped eating for 2 months because I was sick of being fat!

Well, to make a long story short, over the course of those 2 months, I lost about 60 lbs, give or take a few lbs, and obviously I was anorexic. Under the care of my doctor and school nurse, I became healthy again, but I had to gain every lb and ounce that I lost. Which brought me to over 200 lbs back then. Ugh! Live and learn.

I ended up with"bat wings" for arms because I lost the weight so fast! I wasn't doing any form of excercise back then, just biking once in a while for leisure.

My question for anyone: I have been doing a lot strenght training at the gym even before I was on this site, some light , some heavy, but no matter how heavy or how many reps I do, even until I can't do no more with proper form I can't tone up my arms, sad: ..Do you think I should have surgery to take off the extra fat or just grin and bear them and keep going as I am?

Keep in mind though, that my doctor already went against that, specifically he said that I would have a scar under both my arms and chances are that I would never wear sleeveless tops again because of them . Who wants to wear sleeves all the time?

Replies

  • babygurl48
    babygurl48 Posts: 1,237 Member
    bump, anyone???
  • fordguy74
    fordguy74 Posts: 108 Member
    What's more important to you? I would rather have the scars instead of the extra skin on my arms, but I'm a guy!
  • tigerlily8045
    tigerlily8045 Posts: 402 Member
    Hard call. I would try to doing different strength training first. Surgery seem so extreme for me. I have flabby under arms too and am trying my best to make them not. If not oh well. that is life.
  • cinsuccess
    cinsuccess Posts: 333 Member
    Unfortunately the surgery to remove the extra skin does usually require a large incision from the elbow to armpit if it's that bad. There are a lot of creams and other items that you can use to minimize scars but there will still be some visible lines. The final question for you is whether the extra skin bothers you more or less than a scar would. No one needs to know where the scar came from unless you want to tell them so I see no reason why you would have to wear long sleeves all the time. Also, the surgeon should be able to keep the incision on the underside of the arm so it won't be significantly visible unless you raise your arms.

    You are really the only one that can decide if it's worth it.
  • babygurl48
    babygurl48 Posts: 1,237 Member
    Thanks for the input guys. I will wait a little longer until I lose another 29 lbs to see if they get any worse then I will see. Much appreciated.
  • christamt
    christamt Posts: 48 Member
    Pretty sure you have to do specific arm exercises with weights that are heavy enough. ie: try a 10 pound weight hold with both hands over your head and lower weight toward your back, bring up and down. That sort of exercise will tone that area in time.
  • babygurl48
    babygurl48 Posts: 1,237 Member
    Pretty sure you have to do specific arm exercises with weights that are heavy enough. ie: try a 10 pound weight hold with both hands over your head and lower weight toward your back, bring up and down. That sort of exercise will tone that area in time.
    i have done that many times. I am going to try the 20lbs weight and see if that will help more. Thanks. it sucks because it makes me feel self-conscious.
  • cpiton
    cpiton Posts: 380 Member
    My arms are my biggest issue, so I can relate. I lift heavy now, (for me) and it has really helped tighten things up. Also, I think reducing my overall body fat is going to help. Specifically for my triceps I do 2 dumbell extensions using 20lb DBs--though I'm almost at 25s.
    But I don't think one exercise is the answer. I do bench presses, shoulder presses, pullovers, curls, rows (I LOVE rows!) and push ups, too. Maybe add some into your routine, if you haven't already and lift as heavy as you can.

    I would try everything before having surgery that could possibly leave me scarred for life. I'm not anti-surgery, I just think you should exhaust all options before going under the knife. Best to you!
  • cyrinak
    cyrinak Posts: 1 Member
    Try not to think of the people around you - or think of them cheering you on to reach your goal of toning your arms... I have the same problem of worrying how dorky I look in the gym and then I remind myself that at some point in time I will not be so dorky as the exercises become old hat. Scars will not go away completely. I would try loosing, toning and see what comes of it... Good luck
  • smlamb33
    smlamb33 Posts: 342 Member
    I have the same issue and have lost alot of weight. I am working on it too. I would rather have flabby arms than have a large scar and also have to miss workouts because I was recovering from surgery. I am currently doing a kettlebell workout and one of the exercises that we do is one that christamt mentioned. I also read in my Women's Fitness magazine to do 2 sets of 15 reps of tricep dips. You sit on a bench or step, etc...then lower yourself down until your booty touches the floor and then you pull yourself back up again. I do these 3x a week and I still have bat wings but my hubby says that they are starting to look a little smaller, so maybe there's hope yet! There's also an article about toning up arms in the May issue of Women's Health. It talks about doing rows with a tricep kickback. I'm going to have to add these to my workouts too! Hope this helps, for you and me! :)

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