Seen At 11: Women Turn To Extreme Measures To Become Armed And Fabulous

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Summer is the season for bare arms, but for some women no amount of exercise will help them get those coveted arms.

So they are turning to extremes to become armed and fab.

As CBS2's Kristine Johnson reported, there is a spot on the arm that's long been a curse for women.

"When I'm dancing or moving my arms it does jiggle," 31-year-old Neda Shilian said.

Now, Shilian is opting for a cosmetic procedure called "cool sculpting" to tackle her flabby arms.

"This machine is going to freeze fat. It's going to destroy the fat cells and then encourage the body to gradually eliminate the fat cells in a very natural way," Dr. Susan Bard of Vanguard Dermatology explained.

Dr. Bard said it takes about an hour to treat each arm, and added that the result will be permanent.

"Patients who have cool sculpting procedures can expect about a 20 percent reduction of fat in the area treated," Dr. Bard said.

There are also lotions and other products that claim to help contour.

"They'll contain ingredients such as retinoids and peptides and that's to encourage greater collagen deposition in the skin," Dr. Bard said.

Plastic surgeon Norman Rowe said for extreme cases, there may be only one solution for flabby extremities.

"It all depends on what the patients want and how far they are willing to go get it," Dr. Rowe said, "The effect of bringing that arm up and getting rid of all this there's one option and that's surgery."

Tahira Thomas recently lost a significant amount of weight, and was left with a lot of extra skin under her arm.

"I'm looking in the mirror, and I'm looking at my arms, and they're the worst thing in the world to me," Thomas said.

Thomas said that she was so upset that she's taking the drastic step of having surgery to tighten the skin, like a tummy tuck for the arms.

"I need to do what will make me feel good, and this is going to make me feel good," Thomas said, "Because this is definitely a struggle for me."

Extensive arm surgery can cost as much as $5,000 with two to three weeks for recovery.

Cool sculpting costs about $1,500 with no downtime and only one session is needed.