Some people want to lose weight because of the health benefits. Others want to get slimmer in a specific area like their hands and fingers.
It is certainly possible to lose weight in your hands but it is not possible to prioritize fat loss in your hands. That means that you have to lose fat overall until your hands are next.
There are also situations where your hands are swollen instead of accumulating fat. By resolving the root cause of that you might be able to slim down your hands without fat loss.
Why you generally can’t focus fat loss
In general it is not possible to focus fat loss in a specfic area of your body.
Some people claim that you can feel a “burn” in a specific place when you are working the muscles in that area with a certain exercise. However, it’s not because specific muscles are working that your body only uses energy from that place.
Your body looks at your body fat as a single store of energy. It does prioritize certain areas but you don’t have a say in the order this happens.
How do you gain body fat?
All food contains a certain amount of energy measured in calories. Your body needs energy to do the things it does.
When you absorb more calories from your food than you use your body stores this energy for later use as body fat and in other stores. The more excess calories you have the more body fat you gain.
Your body prefers some areas over others for fat storage. Most often these are areas like abdomen and hips.
From a certain point on, it is more useful to have the excess body fat divided into different areas. So, from this point on you will gain gradually gain body fat in other areas too.
In what order does fat loss happen?
Once you start losing weight this process happens in reverse. In the beginning you will lose a lot of body fat in places like face, hands, and feet. The places where you gained fat first will most likely be the last where you lose fat. That’s why you may have heard from “stubborn belly fat”.
Once you start losing body fat, the reverse of this storing process usually happens. The last place you gained fat will most likely be the first place you will lose fat again.
The main reason this order of fat loss is different in different people is due to genetics. Some people easily gain weight on their belly, others easily store fat in their thighs.
How to improve appearance in body areas
While you can’t target fat loss you can sometimes improve the appearance of certain areas of your body.
Reducing swelling
The first way you can make certain body parts appear less fat is by reducing swelling. You do have to keep in mind that not everyone who has hands that appear fat necessarily have swelling.
You can learn what some possible causes are. By excluding these you know whether or not you need to lose fat in your hands if you want to see a change.
Here are some possible reasons your hands might be swollen (1):
- Eating a lot of salt
- Fluid retention
- Exercise
- Hot weather
- When you wake up due to sleeping position
- Pregnancy
- An injury
- Certain medicines
- Medical conditions
If you have a lot of weight to lose the puffiness of your hands is most likely due to body fat. If not you might need to contact your doctor to exclude other conditions.
Toning body parts
The second way you can make body parts appear less fat is by building muscle in these areas. This won’t improve fat burning in the area but the muscle can make it look better.
Unfortunately this is not really an option for your hands. You can gain a lot of muscle in areas like your legs, arms and belly. There is not that much muscle growth possible in your hands and fingers.
FAQ
Do your hands get smaller when you lose weight?
That depends on how much you have to lose. If you only have a few pounds to lose you most likely won’t see too much difference in your hands. If you have a lot of weight to lose it is very likely you will get smaller hands.
By eating foods with less salt when trying to lose weight you might get smaller hands simply due to less fluid retention.
What causes hand fat?
Hand fat simply comes along with general body fat gain. Usually the human body likes to store fat first in areas like abdomen en legs. After that your hands is one of the areas that follows.
