Nearly all of us have a part of our body we are less than happy with, there’s no doubt that having excess skin or fat under your arm can make you feel self-conscious. Does it prevent you from wearing certain clothes? Does it stop you participating in some of you’re favourite activities? If so its time to do something about it!

If you want to get rid of the unsightly underarm flab, I warn you now there’s no quick fix! You will need to stay positive, it will take time, but by following all the steps and exercises outlined below, with videos and detailed how to’s, you will be well on your way to fixing the nagging underarm fat/flab holding you back.

 Causes of Underarm Fat

  • Getting older-As you get older it becomes much harder to lose the extra few kgs you might have put on on holiday or over Christmas. Our metabolism slows. As well as our metabolism slowing, we spend less time sleeping, our lives are busy with kids, demanding jobs, often meaning we’re missing out on healthy meals prepared at home and opting for high-fat convenience foods.
  • Diet-Overeating, drinking and lack of exercise are probably the three worst habits for adding the unwanted fat.
  • Low Testosterone-Recent studies have shown that having a low testosterone level in (men&women) increases the risk of becoming obese. Women tend to put on weight a little easier than men and having low testosterone makes it much harder to lose the extra weight they are carrying.
  • Estrogen, while some studies suggest having low levels of estrogen affects your weight gain other research suggests there is little or no evidence of this. The jury’s out on this one! But low estrogen levels in menopausal women has been linked to lower metabolic rate, it seems its highly likely low estrogen could lead to weight gain because of this. (low metabolism=burn fewer calories)

 

How to lose that unwanted sag(fat)

If you are determined to lose your underarm flab, then I’m afraid to say its almost impossible to target a single area to lose fat from. We need to look at the whole body in terms of losing fat. And this means a better diet and more exercise.

Try to eat 100 calories less from each meal, just removing the skin from a chicken breast or leg will give you that 100 less, instead of fries, eat a jacket potato or opt for rice, go for low-fat margarine instead of butter. 300 fewer calories a day adds up to 2100 a week and you hardly notice you are doing it.

Try eating smaller meals more often and drinking more water, this helps increase metabolism.

Swap processed food for natural foods such as whole grains, vegetables, fish, lean meats and healthy fats like coconut oil proved to boost metabolism,  olive oil and corn oil are great too.

Eating healthily is just as, if not, more important than the workout itself if you want to tighten that underarm sag/flab or add muscle, it’s always going to be 60% diet and 40%workout.

Below are some great toning exercises to tighten your underarm muscle the tricep, this will help lift that horrible sag and give an overall tightness in your arm.

 

How to Lose Underarm Fat Without Weights

If you don’t want to fork out for some weights? We have  3 fantastic tricep toning exercises to help tighten up that troublesome fat.

Close Grip Push Ups

Personally a favourite of mine, it really targets the triceps and also gives your pecs (chest) and shoulders a little workout too.

No need to worry if you haven’t done a press up before, you can start out doing this one on your knees. A month or so later, you should have built up enough strength to try a few sets without any assistance. Warm up first you need to get the blood going.

Same as the classic push up, apart from your hand being slightly less than shoulder-width apart, use your knees to make the movement easier.

  1. Place your hands slightly less than shoulder-width apart. Push yourself off the ground.
  2. Keep your body in a straight line, from heel to neck your body should be in a straight line.
  3. Be careful don’t let your butt stick up at all.
  4. Keep your core tight (midsection)
  5. Lower your body until the elbows are at a 90-degree angle.

Triceps Dips

Another great bodyweight movement to tone your triceps, you will need a chair or a bench.

Pay close attention to the video and my instructions, it’s very important to complete this movement correctly to avoid getting injured. Don’t let that put you off, they’re easy after a little practice and one of the best you will find for toning your arms.

Mark Laren the master of body weight exercises and Author of You Are Your Own Gym says ” Find your own surface, between knee and waist level. The lower the surface is the more difficult this exercise gets. But cannot be below knee level.”

Place your hands on the edge of the surface behind you, make sure knuckles are facing forward.
Walk your legs forward until they are straight out in front of you and your butt is only a few inches from the ground.
Slowly bend your elbows to lower your body straight to the floor, until your arms are parallel to the floor. Forearms should stay perpendicular to the floor throughout the movement.
Then push yourself back up until your arms are fully straightened.

Crab Walk

Primary toning your triceps, the crab walk will also give the shoulders, back, core and legs a workout. This one’s going to feel a little alien at first putting you in a position your body is not used to, but keep practising and you will soon get the hang of it, gives a great body workout. Ready let’s try it!

Start by sitting on the floor with your knees bent out in front of you, hands placed palms down behind you. Fingers facing hips.
Lift hips (butt) off the floor and tighten your core.
Now walk forward or backwards “crab walking”  left hand followed by your right foot, then your right hand followed by your left foot.

With Weights
Here’s two simple but effective tricep exercises to help you tone the muscles under your arm, both of these exercises target the triceps muscle group. You can combine a couple from the above list to give you a full workout. You will need a set of dumbbells for both of the exercises. Warm up first!

One Arm Tricep Extention

Stand up straight feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart and hold one dumbbell with one hand behind your head, with your elbow bent at 90 degrees towards the ceiling.
Raise the dumbbell with one hand until your arm is nearly straight and the dumbbell is directly above you.
Now slowly lower your arm back to starting position and repeat the desired amount of reps.

Tricep Kickbacks

With a dumbbell in one hand and palm facing towards your body, bend forward at the waist keeping your back straight. Make sure to keep your head up throughout the movement.
Keep your dumbbell arm close to the body, the elbow should be at a 90-degree angle between forearm and upper arm.
Extend your elbow to a straighten the arm by doing this you will push out the dumbbell behind you.
Bending the elbow slowly back to starting position.

If you start to exercise regularly and you are eating healthily you will soon start to see your underarm fat disappear and a more toned looked will start to develop. 3 resistance training sessions a week, weights or bodyweight exercises mixed with some cardio will really help to shift those calories and swap the fat for some needed muscle mass.

Resistance training is one of best ways to keep your resting BMR up (Basal metabolic rate). This means your body is burning calories even when you are resting.