One of the most common questions we get is how do you get rid of arm fat? This is a really important concern, so in this article, we’ll look at what causes extra weight on the arms and what steps you need to take to get slimmer arms.
As we’ll explain, the core issue of why your arms are not slim is really down to excess body fat levels. You need to focus on weight loss because you cannot spot train body fat.
To lose weight, as we’ll explain, you need to make an energy deficit. As you make an energy deficit, your body will tap into its energy stores and your arms will begin to get slimmer.
Obviously, you do not get results overnight, but we’ll have a look at what causes this and how to get slim arms.
What Causes Arm Fat
How do you get rid of arm fat? We first want to start by understanding what causes us to have excess body fat on our arms. Understanding how this works can get you a lot better results (as well as save you a lot of time and effort).
There is really three parts to being toned. They are:
- Your body fat levels
- Your muscle tone
- How firmly your muscles are held
It’s important to understand, the above work independently of each other.
Firstly, you have your body fat levels. We all have a certain body fat percentage, which at your ideal weight will typically be between 19 – 24% for most women. Above this, this is where your body begins to store excess weight throughout.
This body fat itself cannot be spot trained as such (study, study, study). In other words, you cannot be doing arm workouts to get them slim. What happens is, you may be building tone, but it’s underneath and you’re unable to see it, so you don’t have visible results.
As you can see above, as you lose weight, your body fat levels will begin to reduce.
This is the reason to get toned it’s so essential to focus on weight loss. It gets you a lot better results to focus on this first because otherwise, you’re doing a lot of work, but you’re unable to see your results.
You also have your muscle tone and how firmly they are held. This is the muscle tone itself, but this works separately from your actual body fat levels.
For the question of how do you get rid of arm fat, this is not the core issue though.
It’s really caused by excess body fat levels. To get slim arms, you need to focus on getting to your ideal weight.
This is not a quick fix, but as you lose weight, which is about making an energy deficit, your body will tap into its energy stores and your body fat levels will start to reduce.
It is normal that your body will not always lose weight evenly, so it may not initially come off your arms (depending on your shape and genetics, it may come from areas like your legs first), however, the closer you get to your ideal weight, the slimmer your arms will be.
How To Get Slim Arms
So, how can I slim down my arms? To get slimmer arms, you need to focus on weight loss and getting closer to your ideal weight.
To lose weight, you need to make an energy deficit. This is the source of what causes weight loss.
Each day your body burns energy, or what’s known as calories. When you eat below what your body is burning, your body will tap into its energy stores and you will lose weight.
It takes 3500 calories to lose one pound (7700 to lose one kg). This means that by making an energy deficit of 500 each day, over the week that will add up to one pound burnt.
You want to know two things. They are your:
- Weight loss calories
- Maintain weight calories
These repeated over time, combined with making it sustainable and keeping your metabolism up is how you lose weight, which as you do this, you will begin to see slimmer arms.
Do I Need To Work Out To Reduce Arms?
No.
Because as you can see above, you may be building tone, but it’s underneath and you won’t have visible results.
This is a huge reason so many women struggle to get results, and this is extremely common for a lot of women working out.
In this case, you may be building the ideal amount of tone, but because you’re not lean enough, you don’t have visible results.
This is not to say there is no benefits to working out, but you get a lot better results to start with your nutrition first.
It’s not essential to workout to even get very slim arms. As you lose weight, they will automatically get slimmer for you.
How Do You Get Rid Of Arm Fat
As you can see above, to get slimmer arms you need to focus on weight loss. It’s the only real solution, and whilst not an overnight fix, you get a lot better results to focus on this.
You cannot work out to get toned arms. What happens is, yes, you may be building tone, but you won’t have visible results, because it’s underneath and you can’t see it.
As you lose weight, your body will tap into its energy stores and your arms will begin to reduce. Do note that unfortunately your body does not typically lose weight evenly, but as you start to get closer to your ideal weight, your arms will begin to get slim.