Almost anything and everything we do has an impact on our bodies. Moreover, our body’s metabolism has a lot of impact on our weight loss process. When we talk of weight fluctuations, water content truly rules the weighing scale. Sometimes, improper weighing techniques may also affect your weighing figures. No wonder you feel quite breezy and light weight after a yoga class. The intake of high carb foods and high salt content also shoots up your pounds.
Most of the times you’re in a tizzy trying to figure out what your real weight is. There may be hordes of explanations regarding the pros and cons of your diet plans and wacky ideas about what exactly kicks in your weight loss process. And when you try to line up so many things together, it only opens up a Pandora’s box of issues. Sometimes, the whole weight loss affair has such a psychological effect on us that we tend to weigh ourselves every minute.
Even though an instant swing can cause a panic, there are ways in which you can find out what makes the needle slide by. It’s always advisable to weigh yourself at a fixed time every day, so that you know how your body is receiving all the everyday vibrations and responding to all the stimulants for weight loss.
Also, people often get confused regarding the difference between weight loss and fat loss. When you’re over weight, chances are that you gain more weight on your upper body. Most of the fat deposit in the upper body happens around your arms and belly.
The Complicated Process of Weight Loss
The entire process of weight loss is quite bizarre and depends on a cluster of factors. And every gender has a particular tendency to put on weight. For instance, men seem to put on more weight on the belly, whereas women put on weight on the belly, thighs and arms. During the whole weight loss process, it’s more challenging to cut down the stubborn fat that’s taking ages to vanish. Weight loss also depends on the genetic make-up of a person.
We crack endless jokes on how obesity runs in the family and how a certain Mr. Patrick collapsed from his chair as he dozed off because of his gigantic self, but all this doesn’t seem as funny when we actually face the music ourselves. Weight loss is not a simple process. It’s not a remote switch that you press to get instant results. It’s an extensive process in which the body metabolism is controlled by many simulating factors like diet, exercise, daily activities, physical disorders, genetics and stress.
When we choose a fitness program, it affects the body in a certain way. Some exercises work on the core, some focus calorie burning, while others help with muscle building. Likewise, depending on the body type, we need to work on certain core areas to sculpt the perfect body. Some of us need to work on belly fat, some on the arms, while others might need to burn excess fat around the thighs. Belly fat is the earliest to melt down during our weight loss process. But it’s the clingy arm fat or wiggly arms that cause an issue. Let’s look at some of the reasons which may hinder our weight loss process.
1. High Sodium Intake
Most of us don’t keep a tab on our sodium intake and miss out when there’s spike in our weighing scales. As sodium tends to retain water in the body, it pushes weight gain. So the best way to tackle it is to drink sufficient water to drain the excess fluids.
2. When Your bowels are backed Up
As you eat throughout the day, your weight might hike up a little until the next time you empty your bowels. So, it’s extremely important to stay hydrated, exercise and stock up your fibre, so that you can empty your bowels and keep a check on your weights.
3. When it’s time for the monthly Blues
When it’s that time of the month, hormonal levels fluctuate and cause water retention. It begins 6 to 7 days before your periods and continues till the 3rd or 4th day of your period.
4. When You’re on a Carb Binge
If you’re eating healthy carbs then it’s okay. But if you’re eating carbs more than your needs, it leads to increased fat storage and water retention. For every gram of carb you store as glycogen, your body retains 3 grams of water.
5. Effects of Drugs
Some medications have potential side-effects of weight gain. They cause an instant rise in hormone levels, which lead to increase in appetite and hence weight gain. Also, some drugs like steroids lead to water retention in kidneys and consequently, to puffy hands and feet.
6. Strength Training
When you’re doing weight training exercises, it causes strain on your muscle fibres, which is how the muscles get stronger. But in order to rebuild the muscles, they must retain water to speed up the process in the cells.
7. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
PCOS is a hormone related problem that affects how a woman’s ovaries work. It is accompanied by symptoms like weight gain, irregular periods, excess hair growth and pregnancy troubles. PCOS results from an over secretion of testosterone and insulin. Women with PCOS tend to put on more weight around the waist.
8. Bathroom Usage
Our weights also fluctuate depending on how often we make a trip to the rest room. When our bladder is full, it tilts the weighing scale in a jiffy.
9. Changes In Glycogen Levels
Some of the carbs we eat are stored in our bodies in form of glycogen. This storage power house is in the liver and muscles. We tend to store approximately 50 to 100 grams of glycogen in our liver, whereas the storage capacity in the muscles may vary depending on body weight, fat composition and physical activities.
10. Alcohol
You may not realize how one night of booze can spiral your weight to abnormal levels. Any sort of alcohol consumption causes the body to get dehydrated faster than you can imagine. For every 220 ml of alcohol consumed, the body releases around 320 ml of urine.
How to Lose Arm Fat
Before we dig into the nitty- gritty of weight loss, we need to deal with stubborn arm fat and know how to lose it–
Our arms play a very important role in shaping our upper body. Normally, it’s the women whole gather a lot of pounds around their arms compared to men. Women are genetically built to have jiggly arms, which get aggravated due to diet patterns and lifestyle habits. Before we move on to exercises to lose arm fat, let’s take a look at some of the reasons for arm fat deposit and hence the weight fluctuation-
We generally fail to lose weight as we’re not balancing our energy properly. Weight loss is a cumulative process. Every calorie we burn beyond what we eat is a step forward towards our goal and every ounce we eat more than what we burn is a step backwards. First let’s take a look at the prime reasons of arm fat-
- Insufficient protein intake.
- Not doing enough weight training.
- Increase in oestrogen levels.
- Using cosmetic that contain paraben.
- Eating hormone laden meat and dairy products.
- Lack of sleep.
- Use of birth control pills.
- Drinking from plastic bottles.
Believe it or not, but the reasons some women have those bat wings can be groovier than you think! Even though testosterone is a male hormone, they give those lean and shapely arms to women. Women have lower testosterone levels than men, but sometimes due to various deficiencies they may plummet down to lower than normal levels and spike those arm flabs. To cut down on those wiggly arms, exercise is the best bet as it slims down your arms and also improves your overall body posture. Let’s take a look at how to burn arm fat by different techniques:
1. Diet
Out of all the various factors that shape up your arms, the most important is your diet. If you want to get rid of arm flab, then try to slash your intake of high glycemic carbs and increase doses of protein. Drink lots of water before each meal and try to finish your meal at least 2 hours before you hit the pillow. Your body burns fat better if you follow this regime religiously. Also, you need to turn your back on junk food, which is like poison for your body.
2. Exercise
This is the final take to reduce every inch of fat you have on your arms. Some people have arm fat in spite of being thin. This is due to the neglect they show towards their health. If you follow proper exercises to lose arm fat, then your sculpted arms won’t be a pipe dream any more. Let’s zoom in on some of the most effective workouts to lose arm fat-
3. One Arm Triceps
This exercise helps burn unwanted fat at the back of the arms. This is an effective arm toning exercise. You can perform it directly on the floor.
- Sit on the floor keeping your hands on the floor shoulder width apart.
- Bend your knees and keep the feet flat on the floor.
- With the help of your arms, raise your hips. This will put weight on your arms.
- Bend your left elbow, and with the help of right arm which is still straight, lower your hips to the floor. Ensure you don’t touch the floor.
- Now repeat the same move with the other arm.
4. Triceps Dips
This exercise also helps give you a pair of super toned arms. You can perform this exercise at home with the help of a 2 feet high chair or desk. Here, the whole-body weight will work on the triceps to tone them to the desired level.
- Place a chair in a steady position. Stand in front of the chair least 3 feet distance.
- Turn your back and place your hands at shoulder width apart, on the chair or desk.
- Move forward with 3 to 4 steps away from the chair or desk.
- Straighten your upper body and bend the knees to the level of the chair or desk.
- Now bend your elbows and lower your body as low as you can.
- Come back to the normal position. Repeat this 2 to 3 times.
5. Lateral Plank Walk
Like the one arm triceps exercise, the lateral plank walk also tones the muscles of the arms by cutting down excess fat. Lie on the floor on your stomach and then take the plank position by keeping your hands shoulder-width apart on the floor.
- Keep your legs joined together.
- Point your palms outwards with your body in one straight line.
- Move and keep your right hand on the left and move your left foot towards the left.
- Come back to the original position.
- Do the same with both the hands and feet.
6. Push-up
Push-ups help tone your upper arms tremendously, by targeting the pectoral and triceps brachii muscles. The good thing about this resistance exercise is that you do not need any equipment to perform it.
- Lie on the floor on the stomach.
- Now take the push-up position by keeping your feet together. Keep your hands apart wider than the shoulder width. Your elbows should be straight.
- Now bend your elbow and move your body towards the ground. Do 3 to 4 reps for better results.
7. Aerolean Push-Up
This exercise targets the triceps, and thus works effectively to lose arm fat. Lie on the floor on the stomach.
- Now take the push-up position by keeping your feet together. Keep your hands apart wider than the shoulder width. Your fingers should point out to the sides.
- Bend your left elbow and tilt your body to the left.
- Return to the centre position and then repeat the same move with the right arm.
8. Wrist Rotation
This is one of the easiest workouts to lose arm fat. You need 2 half a kilogram weight (2 half-litre water bottles) for this exercise.
- Stand straight and hold the half litre water bottles in both the hands.
- Rotate both the bottles first in clockwise and then in anti-clockwise direction.
- Perform this exercise for 60 seconds for each rotation.
- Do 3 to 4 reps.
9. Scissors
Scissors is a brilliant cardio exercise to get those perfectly toned arms. It is named such because it has a scissor like movement.
- Stand straight and stretch your hands at shoulder length.
- Now, cross your arms and bring them to your sides, crossing like scissors.
- Go back to the initial position and repeat the moves at least 20 times a day.
The more you do these arm exercises, the more you can benefit from them and get rid of your arm flab. Most importantly, follow these tips to steer clear of your arm fat for good!
1) Eat breakfast on time.
2) Eat smaller meals with more lean protein and slow burning carbs.
3) Climb more stairs and avoid elevators.
4) Have green tea to boost metabolism.
Perfectly shaped arms always give your body the desired shape and boost your confidence. You can also wear the clothes which flaunt your chiselled arms. You can perform any one or a combo of these exercises to keep your arms, as well your overall body in shape.