Bingo wings (the unfortunate appearance of sagging under the upper arms) can be very difficult to get rid of. What most people don’t realize is that targeted exercises or even surgery aren’t the only options. Understanding what causes bingo wings is the first step to banishing them for good, as we can then address these causes.
Being overweight
If you are overweight or have recently gained weight, this is a likely cause of your bingo wings. In this case, you’ll often notice that when your arms are extended out to the sides, there’s a gentle curve underneath where gravity pulls the excess fat down.
lack of muscle
Women often don’t like the idea of things like weight training, as we don’t want to be bulky and manly. However, if we don’t work our muscles at all, they can shrink and provide inadequate support for the skin and fat that rests on them, causing it to hang off the muscle.
A good test to see if this is part of your problem is to stand in front of a mirror with your arms at your sides. Make a fist with each hand and rotate your arms in toward your body so that the tops of your hands are facing your legs, and watch your upper arms as you do this.
This test is to tighten your triceps muscle, so if you’ve noticed little to no change in your upper arms, it’s most likely this muscle (located directly under the bingo wings and therefore very important) is not developed enough to support the fabric on top.
excessive weight loss
Drastic fluctuations in weight can really take a toll on our skin. If we suddenly gain a lot of weight, we can get stretch marks where the skin hasn’t been able to adapt to our new shape fast enough. It follows, then, that if we lose a lot of weight in a short space of time (for example, after gastric bypass surgery), our skin will often appear loose and sagging where it has failed to shrink as fast as our waists.
If this is the cause of your bingo wings, you’ll notice that, when you hold your arms out to the sides, the skin under your upper arms has a wrinkled, deflated balloon quality and doesn’t form a smooth curve.
Lack of skin elasticity
Our skin is delicate, so to keep it in good condition we must take care of it from within. Y the outside. Factors like poor diet, dehydration, smoking, and sun exposure can cause skin to lose elasticity over time, meaning it’s more likely to wrinkle and sag.
A good indicator of poor skin elasticity is if you pinch your upper arm and see how long it takes for it to shrink back to its original position. If it doesn’t settle instantly, this could be part of your problem. Wrinkles are also a sign of low elasticity.
poor diet
Finally, poor diet is a big culprit as it is involved with most other causes of bingo wings. Eating too many calories and not burning enough of them leads to being overweight, not eating enough protein and vitamins can prevent our body from building muscle, and a lack of minerals, fats and oils can cause the skin to lose elasticity.