Expert: Sarah Brown - 10/16/2008

Question
hi sarah,

i am 42 y.o. mother of four, 170cm tall & my weight varies between 65-67kg.
i am basically pretty happy with my overall appearance....with the exception of the top of my arms, they are fat, totally out of proportion to the rest of my body.  is there any type of exercise i could do that would target this area.  in the past when i have lost weight, there has been very little difference to my upper arms.

Answer
Hi Marci,
It's very frustrating when one part of the body just won't cooperate and is out of proportion. It's tough to find a solution because we can't spot reduce fat. When our body sheds fat, it sheds it from all over, not from any specific place, regaurdless of what we do for exercises. So, you can do arm exercises, but that won't cause fat loss from the arms any more than leg exercises or ab exercises would. If you lose fat, you WILL lose some from your arms, even though it may not seem like it. The body isn't picky about where it takes the fat from, it takes it from everywhere.
Workng your arms isn't a bad idea though, because then you will have lean muscle underneath. A couple simple exercise to work your arms are push ups and dips. I'm sure you've seen push ups before. Dips are similar. You start with 2 chairs facing each other a few feet apart. Sit in one and put your feet on the other. Put the heels of your hand on the chair you are sitting on and slowly move your body off the chair (except your hends). Lower your rear end toward the floor and then puch back up.
I hope that helps. Please let me know if I can help more.
Sarah
www.sarahpersonaltraining.com