No mansierre for me ...

October 22, 2006 8:05 AM

Help me lose my, um, male breasts.

A few years ago, I lost 80 pounds, through diet and exercise. I'm pretty happy with the way I look, with one, uh, two exceptions: I still have excess breast tissue which just refuses to go away.

I've lifted weights fairly seriously for about a year, and have nice definition. In many places on my upper body, I'm trim - but those two lumps of flesh still sit there, atop the muscle, and I absolutely hate them. I still have a small amount of weight to lose around the belly, which I'm working on, but I think I look OK there.

Is liposuction the way to go here? Can anybody honestly recommend it from experience, and for this part of the body? What is the experience like? Or, on the other hand, any other ways to diminish this area? (Autumn/winter is my favorite time of year, in part because I get to wear clothes that conceal.)

posted by jbickers to health & fitness (10 comments total)

Yes, liposuction. For some reason or another I have read about these male boobs, and have watched a couple plastic surgery shows on the topic. From what I have read and seen lipo is the way to go. I have a friend with the same condition, and although he is incredible shape, he has mammaries that won't go away.

Congratulations on your weight loss and your dedication to physical fitness. Why not go for the lipo if it's something you would consider doing? I think you would be glad you did. Good luck.
posted by LoriFLA at 8:12 AM on October 22, 2006

If liposuction is too radical for you, try to reduce the amount of "bad fats" from your diet, target the area with strength training to firm them up, and increase your aerobic work, which is the best way to burn excess fat. You can do this on your own at home, if you are not interested in working out at a gym. The benefit of joining some fitness facilities is that a trainer can guide you through a workable program. If you Google "get rid of man boobs", you will find a ton of good advice. Congrats on the work so far, and keep it up !
posted by lobstah at 8:41 AM on October 22, 2006

Talk to a doctor. Gynecomastia can be the result of a hormonal condition. It might be related to your (previous) state of obesity (congratulations, BTW), but your doctor would be able to tell you for sure.
posted by deadmessenger at 9:07 AM on October 22, 2006

If liposuction is too radical for you, try to reduce the amount of "bad fats" from your diet, target the area with strength training to firm them up, and increase your aerobic work, which is the best way to burn excess fat. You can do this on your own at home, if you are not interested in working out at a gym. The benefit of joining some fitness facilities is that a trainer can guide you through a workable program. If you Google "get rid of man boobs", you will find a ton of good advice. Congrats on the work so far, and keep it up !

The frustrating thing has been that as I've lost fat, I've lost it everywhere but in the chest. As a result, I feel disproportionate.

My gut feeling is that if I were to slim down completely (i.e. lose the remainder of the spare tire), the problem would solve itself. But as anybody who has lost weight knows all too well, plateaus are hell.
posted by jbickers at 10:32 AM on October 22, 2006

I went from 115kg down to 80kg a couple of years ago (I'm currently about 100kg). Yes, they went away, but later on (after I'd gone back up in weight and they'd come back) at least a couple of friends confessed that they'd been worried about me. (That said, I was never even close to the bottom of "normal" BMI.)

"Normal" has always been at least slightly boobular, which has given me a distorted body image throughout my life (indeed what spurred me to lose weight was the realisation that I actually was at least as fat as I thought I was).

The sense I've got is that targeted weight training (when I've done it) has, in the past, made them ... um ... perkier, rather than making them disappear, though I say that as an expert in nothing else except hating my own body.

So from my experience: Really skinny - yes, it works; Targetted training - not really; Liposuction - I'm English, male and 42 years old. I don't do liposuction. YMMV.
posted by Grangousier at 11:05 AM on October 22, 2006

I'm 22 and I've got teh man boobs too. Targeted training may have made a slight difference in my own life, but not enough to the point where I didn't notice them anymore. Liposuction really is your best way to go. Your MD may be able to tell you if you have gynecomastia or not, which is having breast tissue instead of fat tissue. My general physician said I could work it off with weights, but the plastic surgeon I had a consultation with said the only way to get rid of them completely is plastic surgery. I don't know which doctor is right. Make sure you get second and third opinions.
posted by speedoavenger at 11:21 AM on October 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

I talked to a couple plastic surgeons a month or so ago who did a lot--a LOT--of male breast work. (Including nipple reductions, for those with monster pointy nipples. Heh.) By their account, male breast reduction is easy, fast, not terribly expensive, and a great time is had by all. Okay, there's a bit of pain and healing time--but nothing like getting implants, say. (Also? Apparently a huge number of these are happening.... someday maybe even the English, Grangousier. Heh.)
posted by RJ Reynolds at 12:01 PM on October 22, 2006

Deadmessenger alluded to the possibility hormonal effects of obesity could be responsible, and here is a sentence from a chapter of a work on managing obesity from a site dedicated to endocrinology:

Adipocytes convert androgens to estrogens under the influence of the enzyme aromatase.

I have a vague memory, which I have not been able to make concrete, that fat cells (adipocytes) in the abdomen are particularly known for this.

All this could mean that the fat left in your abdomen could be converting enough of your androgens to estrogens to sustain your breast tissue. So I would do my best to lose the rest of the abdominal fat, which might just cause your breasts to recede, before I resorted to liposuction.
posted by jamjam at 12:01 PM on October 22, 2006

All this could mean that the fat left in your abdomen could be converting enough of your androgens to estrogens to sustain your breast tissue. So I would do my best to lose the rest of the abdominal fat, which might just cause your breasts to recede, before I resorted to liposuction.

After spending much of the day reading a lengthy post at a hardcore fitness forum, I think I've come to the same conclusion. The prevailing advice seems to be get your body fat down where it should be first, then consider surgery if it's still a problem.
posted by jbickers at 12:49 PM on October 22, 2006

Just so you know, in the 1970s one of the things 'they' said would happen if you smoked (too much) dope was the growth of man-boobs.
posted by Rash at 8:38 AM on October 23, 2006