The Best Diet and Exercise Tips to Lose Mass in Your Arms

Well-defined biceps and triceps are a goal for many gymgoers looking to strengthen their arm muscles. But if you're starting off with a bigger upper body and want to get rid of arm muscle and excess mass in your arms, you'll need to know what types of exercises help with upper-body slimming.

The good news is that, with a clean diet, cardiovascular exercise and muscle-toning exercises, you can lose upper-body fat (in addition to overall body fat) and arm muscle to get leaner arms.

If you're wondering how to lose muscle in your arms, it's worth noting that losing size in one part of your body requires making adjustments to your training program. If you follow a body-part split where you're working one to two body parts each day, you might want to change to a full-body workout three times a week.

Isolating individual muscle groups, such as your biceps and triceps, can lead to an increase in muscle size, according to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). This includes doing exercises such as biceps curls and triceps kickbacks.

Because your biceps and triceps muscles assist with many of the upper-body exercises you perform such as rows, shoulder press, bench press, lat pulldowns and pull-ups, you end up working these smaller muscle groups on both days. With that in mind, it makes sense to rely on compound movements for your upper body to train your arm muscles.

If you're wondering how to get rid of muscular arms or lose upper-body weight, consider changing the weight and reps of the exercises you're performing. For example, rather than lower reps and moderate to higher weight, focus on higher reps (12 to 15) and lower weight.

This takes some of the emphasis off strength and hypertrophy and puts it on muscular endurance. However, it's important to note that you can still build size with higher reps and lower weight (typically at the 6- to 12-rep range, according to the American Council on Exercise). So, make sure you're paying close attention to your rep scheme.

Here are a few exercises you can include in your workout routine to benefit your arm musculature.

Including cardiovascular exercise is another way you can lose upper-body fat and target general weight loss, according to a January 2015 review in ‌Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases‌.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults should get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise every week, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise every week or an equal combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise on two or more days every week.

Examples of cardio exercises include brisk walking, jogging, the stair stepper, the elliptical machine, cycling, rowing or swimming. Even gardening and household chores can contribute to your cardio goals. Doing these will help you burn calories, lose body fat and lead to a loss of muscle mass in your arms.

To get rid of arm muscle the right way, you'll want to take a slow approach that focuses on overall weight loss, especially if you need to lose body fat. While the idea of targeting ‌only‌ upper-body weight loss seems like a good one, the reality is that you can't spot reduce.

So, your first step in getting rid of bulky or muscle-y arms is to reduce your daily calorie intake by a small amount, according to the Mayo Clinic. For example, start with a reduction of 250 to 500 calories, which can be done by cutting out things like soda, alcohol or other processed foods.

Additionally, you'll want to do an overhaul of your diet. Keep a food diary for three days and check for places where you can cut back on processed or sugary foods. Identify the time of day when you tend to consume these items and replace them with fruits and vegetables.