Millions of women struggle to lose fat from their arms these days. Are you in a war with your flabby arms too? Fat arms are caused by sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy food habits, the body’s metabolic rate, medical issues, or even your genes. To address this problem you have to work extra hard on your triceps and biceps and lose overall weight from your body to get the desired result.
Factors that determine how quickly you will lose the extra pounds from your arms are food, exercise, and lifestyle. In this article, you will know:
A.Exercises
1. Cardio
You can go for cardiovascular exercises to lose weight faster. Cardiovascular exercises such as walking, running, swimming, aerobics, cycling, rope jumping can be very effective in burning the calories.
It is recommended to do around 20 minutes of cardio workout 3-4 times a week. The duration of the workout should be increased gradually up to 30-45 minutes, and the frequency to 5-6 times a week as your endurance increases.
2. Push-Ups
Heavy lifting is very beneficial to strengthen your arms. However, most of us are not used to lifting heavy weights. As a result, doing push-ups becomes difficult, particularly for women.
You can start off by holding weights on your hands and knees instead of your hands and toes. Knee push-ups are a great exercise for beginners. Apart from these, you can resort to open push-ups with your arms placed wider than the width of your shoulders, or closed push-ups, where the arms placed close together.
3. Weightlifting
Exercising with weights also helps in losing fat from the arms. You can start off with light weights of about 2 to 3 pounds, and gradually move on to heavier weights. Weight lifting strengthens the muscles of your arms.
This will keep your arms toned.
4. Triceps Kickback
This exercise tones the back of the arms.
5. Plank Moving
This is effective in working the upper arms along with the core.
This also helps in strengthening your body.
6. Scissors
This exercise resembles a pair of scissors being opened and closed. It enables you to lose arm weight fast.
7. Triceps Dips
Triceps dips are very effective in toning the back of your arms.
8. Triceps Press
This is a much-recommended exercise to tone the arms.
9. Biceps Curls
10. Diagonal Raises
This exercise helps in toning your shoulders.
B. Food Habits
1. Reduce Your Caloric Intake
In order to lose fat from one specific region, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This can be achieved by cutting your daily caloric intake down to 500 calories. Apart from this, you have to burn calories through exercise. It is advisable not to drastically cut down your caloric intake as this may deprive your body of energy and cause fatigue and dizziness. Hence, you should gradually cut your caloric consumption and burn more calories than usual.
2. Fruits And Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are highly nutritious and keep your metabolism active. Therefore, more fruits and vegetables should be incorporated into your diet. Eat at least two types of fruits every day. Unhealthy items like colas, alcohol, and processed foods like chips and cookies should be eliminated. Mono and polyunsaturated fats from sources like olive oil, flaxseeds, walnuts, trout, and salmon should replace the unhealthy saturated fats. Reduce the intake of flour and refined sugars and consume more of whole grains.
3. Proteins
Lean protein is what you should bank on while on a diet plan to lose weight in general. Protein sources such as fish, chicken breast, turkey, soy, tofu, mushrooms, lentils, beans, nuts, and seeds should be incorporated in your daily diet. A good amount of energy is required to metabolize these foods, which helps to burn the fat and build muscle.
4. Carbs And Fats
Carbs and fats are essential for our body to function properly. Eat foods that are rich in good fats and carbs. Foods like brown rice, oats, wheat bread, sweet potatoes, multigrain cereal, dark chocolate, avocado, whole egg, chia seeds, nuts, fatty fish, rice bran oil, etc. are highly nutritious and keep a lot of health problems at bay. Avoid fried foods, potato wafers, cream cheese, donuts, cakes, flour products, polished rice, cakes, pastries, milk chocolate, etc. Even if you choose to eat them, make sure to workout to burn the extra kilos. Also, eat good fats and carbs in measured amounts.
5. Dairy
Include one glass of milk and one whole egg in your everyday diet. The yolk of the egg should not be thrown away as it is highly nutritious. It is full of fat-soluble vitamins, minerals, protein, and fat. If you eat an egg, you may avoid eating any other meat protein source for the day. Milk will augment your bone health. Cheese is also rich in nutrition and won’t make you bloated unless you eat more than what you burn.
6. Drink Plenty Of Water
Drink at least eight glasses of water in between meals to control your appetite. This will support metabolism and burn fat. Do not drink too much water with your meals as it can dilute the stomach acids and impair digestion. Drinking pure spring water detoxifies your system and balances your stress hormones. Sodas, coffee, and sugary drinks should be avoided.
7. Have Frequent Smaller Meals
It is advisable to have frequent, smaller meals instead of few large meals as it enables your body to repair itself after workouts while keeping your blood sugar low. Also, eating frequent meals makes you less likely to overeat.
8. Do Not Avoid Breakfast
In order to lose more weight, you should eat a healthy and balanced breakfast, comprising of lean proteins and high fiber carbs. Eating a substantial breakfast keeps you full for the rest of the day.
9. Refuel Your Muscles After Every Workout
Your muscles require nutrients after a workout. Therefore, it is advisable to have a liquid meal, such as protein shake, after doing exercise. Liquids are digested faster than solid food. Also, have your meals at least 90 minutes before a workout.
C. Natural Supplements
1. Green Tea
Green tea contains natural antioxidants called catechins. One of the catechins, known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), helps to burn fat. EGCG prevents the breakdown of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which regulates metabolism and burning of fat (1).
Drinking green tea two to three times a day would help you to lose the overall weight, which in turn will help you to lose fat from arms.
2. Ginger
Ginger has been used to cure many ailments, and now, researchers have found that ginger also aids weight loss. Ginger increases lactic acid production by the muscles. Lactic acid stimulates the release of the growth hormone, which results in the breakdown of fat. Therefore, adding ginger to your food or just eating a small piece of raw ginger will help you to lose weight (2).
3. Chili
Chili has a chemical known as capsaicin that helps in burning fat and increases the metabolic rate (3). Capsaicin works by increasing the levels of norepinephrine, which is a neurotransmitter that helps in the burning of fat. Therefore, an increased level of norepinephrine leads to weight loss. Incorporate chili in your daily diet to see the results for yourself.
4. Sesame Oil
Sesame oil contains a lignan known as sesamin, which is an antioxidant and also burns fat (4). Sesamin, in the active form, binds to a specific receptor known as peroxisome proliferator-activator receptor alpha (PPAR-alpha). These receptors are found in the heart cells, muscles, and the liver cells. The binding of active sesamin to PPAR-alpha activates the genes that help in burning fat.
5. Fish Oil
Fish oil is rich in omega-3-fatty acids. These get converted to a hormone-like substance called prostaglandins, which help in thermogenesis. Fish oil helps to increase lean muscle and decreases fat tissue in the body (5). You can either use fish oil in foods or take fish oil pills that are available in the pharmacy.
6. Soy & Whey
Soy protein contains small proteins or peptides that help to keep the resting metabolic rate levels high to promote the burning of fat. These small proteins also help keep your hunger pangs at bay (6).
Whey proteins help to burn fat by releasing hormones, cholecystokinin, and glucagon-like peptide-1. These hormones help to decrease hunger and therefore people tend to eat less (7).
D. Surgery
Upper arm lift or brachioplasty will help you get rid of sagging arms. Surgery should be your last option. If you have lost weight drastically that resulted in flappy arms, and no workout regimen seemed to have addressed the problem, you can opt for surgery.
E. Lifestyle
So the critical question is: how can you prevent your body from putting the weight back on? The answer lies in the lifestyle you choose to follow. If you are really serious about losing weight and keeping your body toned, you have to make significant changes in your lifestyle.
1. Do Not Stop Working Out
Keep yourself as active as possible. The weight you lost by putting in so much time and energy will come back right on where it was if you stop working out. Play a sport that requires full body movement, especially the arms. You can also mop and clean your room at least twice a week.
2. Get Proper Sleep
Apart from eating right and exercising, you also have to take care of your sleep. Sleep for at least seven hours. Also, try to go to bed early and wake up early in the morning. This way, you will get all the rest and also have time to go for an early morning jog and have breakfast as well.
3. Delete Bad Memories
Bad memories and brooding over them can only harm you. Depression, anxiety, and sadness increase the reactive oxygen species, which will harm your body, lead to weight gain, and also accelerate aging.
4. Avoid Junk Food
Try and avoid eating foods that do nothing but add weight. Have dinner by 7 pm and go to bed by 10 pm. This will help you avoid the late-night carb cravings.
5. Say No To Alcohol
Alcohol is another reason for weight gain. When you drink alcohol, it is broken down into sugars, which get readily absorbed by the body. Excess unutilized sugar finally gets stored as fat. Therefore, to lose weight, one should avoid drinking alcohol.
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