Man boobs

[Tonofnoise]

This is my first thread that I've started so bare with me please. This question mostly for men but ladies please but in your input. I'm a somewhat overweight 28 year old that lifts weights 4 times a week for about 2 hours and I've been doing this since I was in high school. No matter what I do I can't rid myself of my man boobs. They have gotten large if anything when I would focus mostly on chest. They have always kept a cone shape. I don't want to get surgery to change the shape. I would rather do it all on my own through lifting but after years and years of hiding my chest I'm getting tired. Don't get me wrong I'm not a shame of my body but would rather change this left over baby fat that I can't get rid of.
Any body got any tips or stories?

 

[cmarlowe01]

Use cardio to lose everything?

 

[silverwhisper]

tonofnoise: you lift that often? you obviously take your workouts seriously. what do you eat?

ed

 

[bisexplicit]

As soon as EJFan gets here hes gonna have some good advice. Hes into lifting and all that stuff.


The best thing I can think of would be to echo what cmarlowe said and try to work on some overall cardio and dieting to lose weight.

 

[Wickid Cherry Pie]

It sounds to me like you have Gynecomastia, essentially a fancy name for man boobs that won't go away regardless of diet or exercise.
This isn't an uncommon condition at all, and while all your hard work at the gym continues to build muscle, it is still masked by a layer of fatty tissue.
Provided that you do not use marijuana or anabolic steroids, which increase the tissue, I am not sure what options you can use other than surgery.
Just curious, if this is a problem that is affecting you so deeply, why are you opposed to having a surgical procedure?

 

[ultra99]

It sounds to me like you have Gynecomastia, essentially a fancy name for man boobs that won't go away regardless of diet or exercise.
This isn't an uncommon condition at all, and while all your hard work at the gym continues to build muscle, it is still masked by a layer of fatty tissue.
Provided that you do not use marijuana or anabolic steroids, which increase the tissue, I am not sure what options you can use other than surgery.
Just curious, if this is a problem that is affecting you so deeply, why are you opposed to having a surgical procedure?

CherryPie summed it up very well. There is no way to "spot reduce" your boobs.

I have been fat all my life, and currently am in the best shape of my life now. But I have always had the man boobs. They are smaller now, but still there. They had a very deep social and emotional effect on me growing up, and took me a long time to get beyond it. My Dr said the pop smoking im my twenties probably didn't help either.

With all that said, I never had a woman that was freaked by my "soft pecs" My wife loves them. She said she is a closet lesbian and loves to suck on mine. And frankly, any attention from my wife is all good.

sorry not much help.

 

[acilenga]

I think you should go see a doctor. If yours is truly a case of gynecomastia (= high levels of the hormone prolactine in blood), you definately need to investigate. You can get treatment depending on the cause of this hormonal problem (in some cases, medication is sufficient).

 

[EJFan]

it could be genetic, like WCP said. it might just be the way you're built.

what's your weight and bodyfat percentage?

 

[Tonofnoise]

Wow

I didn't expect this much responce. So I'll try and anwer it all in one.

as for cardio: I do 1 hour every day of eleptical machine that burns 800 - 1000 cal. 1 hour of lifting 5 sets of 20 reps. incline, decline chest, pull over, bri, tri, shoulders, and back. than 10 minutes of abs. plus I fight in the sca for I have cardio 2 days a week there.

as for food; breakfast is carnation instant breakfast or a carb sense meal sup. with milk, fruit or nuts at 10am. chick or turkey veg and little non white starch at 12pm in a small tupperware container total about 500 - 600 cals total. fruit or gernola bar at 3pm and another shake or a non carb meal at 6 before the gym. No carbs after 6-7pm ever.
One weekend I do eat burgers not that ofter. I don't drink or smoke.

as for surgery I don't take over the counter drugs and I don't like to see doctors unless I have to. I would rather have the pleasure of culping my body myself and right now all built but not freakish.

weight 6'2 330 and on avg. 35 % body fat. all in my chest and lats.

My father's family are all thin people my mother side the men are thin the women are short and big breasted. I've had mine since I was 8 years old

I hope this helps answer some questions

 

[EJFan]

at 35%, i think there's a lot of room for you to ditch the man-boobs. i'm inclined to say it's not genetic.

if you're lifting for mass, i would recommend ditching that much cardio. maybe some HIIT on non-lifting days or a few minutes of cardio after lifting (while glycogen is already low so you can burn fat).

as someone else pointed out, you can't spot reduce but you can certainly keep most of your LBM and cut fat slowly by lifting to maintain and eating below maintenance cals. eat about 500 cals/day less than maintenance level, lift relatively low intensity and you should drop about a pound a week (this is just an estimate, of course) and most of it'll be fat.

are you doing any leg work? you didn't list any but you may have just omitted it. i'd recommend adding squats and deads... they're mandatory in my world. lower body work will develop your arms and torso as well as direct upper body work will.

good luck to you... i hope this makes sense, i'm typing off the top o' my head here.

 

[houseman]

Get yourself on a cardio machine and stay there until you see improvement.

Yes I am being serious. You might need surgery and you might NOT. You need to drop the bodyfat to a level that you cen determine this. Get down to 10'ish% and you should be able to determine what you need to do.

good luck.

 

[EJFan]

as for food; breakfast is carnation instant breakfast or a carb sense meal sup. with milk, fruit or nuts at 10am. chick or turkey veg and little non white starch at 12pm in a small tupperware container total about 500 - 600 cals total. fruit or gernola bar at 3pm and another shake or a non carb meal at 6 before the gym. No carbs after 6-7pm ever.
One weekend I do eat burgers not that ofter. I don't drink or smoke.

i'm just sorta wondering about your diet... there's not a lot of info here but it SEEMS like you're not eating all that much. where's the good fats? why granola? what kinda supps are you using?

i'm asking because if you're lifting and doing so much cardio work AND eating what seems like very little (for a 330 pound guy at least) you may be forcing your body to store fat rather than burn it.

 

[houseman]

Oh and yeah, your diet blows chunks.

More calories
more carbs
more protein
some health fats.

Do your lifting and then do an hour of cardio. Walk in an incline at 3.5mph at 2.5 degree incline.

You won't feel like it's doing much but losing fat (or gaining muscle) isn't a short-term thing. You have a lot of lose... gotta keep it slow and steady.

 

[xxxKyleB]

I don't know if this has been mentioned in the thread yet, simply because I didn't read it, I just went straight to the bottom to reply, lol. But If you wanna lose fat, strength training i.e. Weight lifting, plyometrics etc, is not going to that, all it will do is gain muscle. You simply have to do more cardio, either ride a bike along a hilly road for an hour a day or get a machine, just as long as you don't run for your cardio, because that will fuck up your knees especially if you're overweight and run. So just get more cardio and if you do feel the need to run, do it on a track or on a wood chip trail or grass, just not cement.

 

[houseman]

I don't know if this has been mentioned in the thread yet, simply because I didn't read it, I just went straight to the bottom to reply, lol. But If you wanna lose fat, strength training i.e. Weight lifting, plyometrics etc, is not going to that, all it will do is gain muscle. You simply have to do more cardio, either ride a bike along a hilly road for an hour a day or get a machine, just as long as you don't run for your cardio, because that will fuck up your knees especially if you're overweight and run. So just get more cardio and if you do fell the need to run, do it on a track or on a wood chip trail or grass, just not cement.

Yeah, umm wrong.

Ok thanks.

Weights burn more fat than cardio alone.

Weights + cardio burn even more fat.

 

[Tonofnoise]

Training

As For Lifting I'm Doing 5 Sets Of 20 Reps At %75 Of My Max. Same Routine Every 4 Days And I Fight 2 Days A Week. My Cardo Is On The Elicpitical Machine Only A. Cause I Have Bad Knees Due To Size And Family Defect B. It Burns More Caloris Per Min. Than Anything Else. For My Lifting Use Cables And Free Weight And I Keeps Good Fast Place. Aka 500 Reps In Under An Hour.
For Suppliment I Take On 600mg Of Fish Oil For Joints And Centrum Carb Sense. Thats It.

Fats I Get From Nuts And Fish Only.

Legs I Do Once A Week With Leg Ext , Lunges, &hack Squats. I Had My Back Opened Up Twice So Major Lifting That Involved My Back Is Out Hence Why I Do Low Weight High Rep.

On Avg. I Take In 1400 To 1800 Cals And I Burn About 1200 - 1500 A Day. Now Thats Rough. I Know I Use 400 Just At Work, 800 - 1000 In Running And About 200-400 Lifting

Houseman I Either Do Cardio First For An Hour
Or I Do 20 Mins Lift 10 Sets Do Another 20 Etc..

 

[EJFan]

I don't know if this has been mentioned in the thread yet, simply because I didn't read it, I just went straight to the bottom to reply, lol. But If you wanna lose fat, strength training i.e. Weight lifting, plyometrics etc, is not going to that, all it will do is gain muscle. You simply have to do more cardio, either ride a bike along a hilly road for an hour a day or get a machine, just as long as you don't run for your cardio, because that will fuck up your knees especially if you're overweight and run. So just get more cardio and if you do feel the need to run, do it on a track or on a wood chip trail or grass, just not cement.

yeah... weight lifting DOES add muscle, but only if you're in caloric surplus. i lifted for weight loss very effectively (150 pounds worth of effectively). cardio burns fat well also, but this guy is already lifting so i think we need to address the issue of fat loss WHILE keeping the lifting in.

 

[EJFan]

Fats I Get From Nuts And Fish Only.

what percentage of your cals from fats? maybe add some olive oil in there if you're not around the 20-30% area.

On Avg. I Take In 1400 To 1800 Cals And I Burn About 1200 - 1500 A Day. Now Thats Rough. I Know I Use 400 Just At Work, 800 - 1000 In Running And About 200-400 Lifting

your BMR (for your weight) has to be over 4000 kcal per day... why are you still breathing? something's awry with the math here... i'm totally perplexed at this.

Houseman I Either Do Cardio First For An Hour
Or I Do 20 Mins Lift 10 Sets Do Another 20 Etc..

i'll let houseman reply to this, of course, but in MY Opinion you should be doing cardio POST workout. it's not a HUGE difference but if you do your cardio when your glycogen levels are down, you'll burn more fat... if you do your cardio FIRST, your lifts could suffer.

the whole point here was to rid yourself of your "manboobs" and if you want to do that, the only way is to lose fat. at 35% you have a bit of a ways to go but it's easily accomplished if you just eat at a small caloric deficit and keep the lifting/cardio going.

 

[DuplexEmotions]

While I know very little about weight loss and lifting (i could stand to lose weight, 6'2" 290 lbs) but I will second the steroids giving manboobs, though I'm thinking corticosteroids.

Back in grade school, I was damn skinny. As in rib counting skinny. Then in about seventh grade, I started having breathing problems and was put on Prednisone. The prednisone pretty much killed my metabolism and at the same time my life became more lethargic. I gained about eighty pounds in a few months. Weight I still haven't been able to remove after six years, though I'm trying more and more to fix it.

That said, I know what you mean about manboobs. I have friends who make comments about mine because they're cone shaped and the like.

 

[Tonofnoise]

your BMR (for your weight) has to be over 4000 kcal per day... why are you still breathing? something's awry with the math here... i'm totally perplexed at this.

CAL BREAK DOWN
MYROPLEX CARB SENSE OR CARNATION INSTANT BREAKFAST WITH MILK 300 - 350 CALS
SNACK x2 150 - 200 CAL EACH
LUNCH TOTAL 800 -900 CALS

SORRY FOR THE CAPS, I'M AT WORK

 

[houseman]

While I know very little about weight loss and lifting (i could stand to lose weight, 6'2" 290 lbs) but I will second the steroids giving manboobs, though I'm thinking corticosteroids.

Back in grade school, I was damn skinny. As in rib counting skinny. Then in about seventh grade, I started having breathing problems and was put on Prednisone. The prednisone pretty much killed my metabolism and at the same time my life became more lethargic. I gained about eighty pounds in a few months. Weight I still haven't been able to remove after six years, though I'm trying more and more to fix it.

That said, I know what you mean about manboobs. I have friends who make comments about mine because they're cone shaped and the like.

Steroids - testosterone - don't cause "manboobs". It's the estrogen from the elevated testosterone that will cause gyno to occurr. If someone is using steroids, they would do well to have an Esteogen blocker or some Nolvadex on hand in case symptoms occur.

Note: I am not giving a steroid lesson here. Just giving correct information on cause and prevention.

And, one shouldn't assume because I am "in the know" that I use or don't use steroids. FYI.

 

[Tonofnoise]

Since we're talking in take

I don't know if this counts. For 1 year between the age of 14 - 15 my old man used to have me loaded on different weight supps. Hence why I hate the shit.
There was Vanidal sulfat (to speed up my metabolism)
amino acids 3333 mg
Cryotein (a generic protein mix)
and fish oil 1000mg
in total was about 13 pills 3 times a day and i lifted 5 days a week. now during this time I was huge but I broke my leg and started smoke so that all went to shit. I gained about 65-70 lbs.

 

[houseman]

Ok. I realyl don't want to get into a discussion on weight training, muscle building and fat loss and nutrition but I'll try to give things to follow here

1) Weight loss has to be gradual. You didn't put the weight on over night and you can't expect to take it off over night.

2) Weights first, then cardio.

3) Weight training: High reps are useless unless you are trying to deplete glycogen on a non-carb existant diet (done a few days out form a BB contest typically).

4) Weight training: Focus your training on heavy weights, SLOW reps (2-3 seconds down and 2-3 seconds up) for a total of 8-12 reps. You want to maximize the amount of time your muscle is under stress/tension. Aim for 45-60 second sets consisting of 8-12 reps.

5) Weight Training: Focus on mainly compound/core exercises that require the most energy/strength for each body part. For example, Chest: Incline Press (DB's or BB), Flat Press (DB's or BB) Decline Press (DB's or BB) and/or dips (if you can perform these. They are difficult but get easier the more you do it). Searching the net you should be able to find some decent "core" exercise routines for each bodypart. If not, I can help you with that.

6) Cardio: Perform it after weight training. Do it for an hour at low to moderate intensity. Anything more and you're burning muscle. Long duration, low to moderate intensity cardio will oxadize Free Fatty Acids that have been "released" through weight training. Now we need to BURN them off through cardio.

7) Diet: Probably the most important aspect to fat loss or muscle gain. You need to eat more. You're getting way to few calories so much so that your body is "holding" onto everything you eat. I would shoot for a 40/40/20 split (protein/carb/fat). 40% of your calories from protein, 40% from carbs and 20% from healtyh fats. Learn to start weighing and measuring your food if you want to get serious about this. Knowing WHAT and HOW MUCH you put into your body will help make proper food and meal choices throughout your life.

Ugh. I could write a ton more but I am out of time for now. Got to work.

Hope some of this helps. I know it's short.

Peace.

 

[EJFan]

momentary thread-jacking

3) Weight training: High reps are useless unless you are trying to deplete glycogen on a non-carb existant diet (done a few days out form a BB contest typically).

houseman... just out of curiosity, wouldn't high reps be useful for endurance training?

 

[houseman]

for Muscle endurance, yes. Not necessarily cardio vascular endurance unless you're talking about 20-30 reps squats