Wave Goodbye to Arm Flab
Firm up jiggly arms by targeting the biceps and triceps.
Do you avoid sleeveless tops? Have you toned down your goodbyes so that you don’t wave with too much enthusiasm? For many women, the upper arm is high on their list of flab-prone body parts.
But the upper arms are easy to improve, and you can firm up with a few easy moves.
The main muscles that give arms their shape are the biceps and triceps. Doing resistance exercises to target these muscles can help build more muscle, which will give the arms tone and definition.
Although weak muscles contribute to flab, so does excess fat. Some women are more prone to storing fat in their upper arms. And that means that, even if you strengthen your arms, they may still appear mushy if you don’t trim down the fat as well. So, in addition to strengthening your muscles, a key plan of attack is to decrease body fat. And the recipe for reducing fat all over—including in your arms—is to include more cardio into your workouts and to cut back on overeating, as well.
This workout is designed to blast your biceps and triceps in a variety of ways. Get ready to carve some curves and start wearing whatever tops you want. Read more
Lose Weight Eating Restaurant Foods
A recent study from the University of Arkansas says a mouthful: The average diner underestimates his or her calorie count by up to 93 percent when eating out. So every time you step through a restaurant door, you may be consuming twice what you bargained for. And that’s bad news for all of us: This year Americans will spend $500 billion—half of our total food dollars—eating out. It’s a double-dip disaster: More meals out, more calories consumed, more trouble from expanding waistlines. Read more
Liposuction
What’s your least favorite body part? Despite the popularity of low-carb and low-glycemic diets, keeping a diet food diary, or even resorting to diet pills, most U.S. adults still fight bulging bellies and flabby thighs. No wonder liposuction is the third-most-requested cosmetic surgery procedure, following breast augmentation and rhinoplasty, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgery (ASPS). Even the recession isn’t keeping us away from lipo: 245,000 procedures were performed last year, at an average cost of $4,000.
According to Andrew Da Lio, M.D., a clinical associate professor of plastic surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine, the ideal liposuction candidate is someone who works out regularly and has a healthy body-fat percentage, or BMI, and is mostly bothered by small fat deposits in one or two specific spots (such as the dreaded “muffin top”). However, he adds, most patients who request liposuction are out of shape and turn to surgery as a shortcut to lose weight.
This can cause disappointment down the road, he says, because “liposuction changes the way you gain and lose weight.” The human body has a predetermined number of fat cells, or a set-point. When fat is removed by liposuction, it can prompt the body to gain weight in areas that previously weren’t problem spots. In fact, Da Lio says he frequently sees patients return two to four years after their first procedure to request it again.
Think liposuction is still for you? Check out the risks involved and, of course, consider the side effects that you may encounter.
If you’re not ready for the leap into liposuction, here are a few things to try to get your body headed in the right direction:
* Count calories. It’s often eye-opening and can help you cut out foods high in fat and sugar.
* Search for a fitness instructor in your area.
* Find exercise videos to try at home.
* Make sure your fitness plan combines aerobic exercise, cross-training, and lifting weights.
