As the mercury rises, it may be time to think about what lies beneath your long sleeves. Chances are it's not a pair of toned, lean arms.
Before you reach for the dumbbells, follow the advice of experts and keep your goals realistic. The unfortunate fact is that, for a lot of women, the upper arms are a stubborn area where it's difficult - if not impossible - to shift the fat.
'We try not to over-promise and under-deliver,' says Rob Devereux, regional director of fitness development at California Fitness. 'For some women, it's to do with enzymes in the fat. It may be an area where they have a lot of fat-storing enzymes, or they don't.'
He recommends a mixture of overall aerobic exercise with general toning of the arms - and if that doesn't work it may be that you just have to accept your genetic makeup.
Whatever the outcome, don't go to extremes. 'The problem with encouraging people is that they'll reduce their body fat so drastically they begin to feel unhappy because of that sticking point,' he says.
Singaporean Cathy Sung is one of many women with saggy upper arms. 'I hate the fact that even though I'm slim generally, whatever flabby bits I do have seem to deposit solely in my upper arms,' Sung says. 'Wearing certain clothing, like spaghetti strap tops or sleeveless shirts or dresses, makes me self-conscious. Even when I've lost weight through other measures, my arms aren't at all toned.'
