I hear you buddy.

John!

I saw your letter to MSN,  so I thought I would post it here for everyone to see.  Good news, you CAN  lose the man boobs!

‘Help! I Have Man Boobs and a Belly!’

How can I get six-pack abs and get rid of my chest flab?

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

Q: I’m a guy who wants to lose weight and convert my fat into muscle. Is it possible to lose, or at least reduce, my “man boobs”? And which exercises are best for losing belly fat?

A: You can lose the man boobs and slim down your stomach with the right workout. In overweight people, both man boobs and big bellies are simply deposits of excess fat. (There is a hormonal condition called gynecomastia, in which males appear to have enlarged breasts, but it sounds as if what you’re dealing with is excess weight.) But to choose the most effective workout routine, you need to review the basics of Physiology 101.

Fat and muscle are two different kinds of body tissues. Because of that, you can’t convert one into another. Some people believe that if they are fit and stop exercising, their muscle will turn to fat. Not so. And likewise, exercise can’t convert fat into muscle—that would be like trying to transform a piece of cheese into a piece of meat.

What you can do is decrease the amount of fat and increase the amount of muscle that you have. This is a shift in the composition of your body tissues to a more desirable combination of more muscle and less fat (as opposed to more fat and less muscle, which occurs when you become a couch potato and overeat).

Flab-zapping fitness routines

Generally, weightlifting—also known as resistance training—builds muscle. You’ll need to follow a progressive training program, meaning that you work out harder as you become stronger. Chest exercises, especially, can help you build and firm up the man-boob area. Any upright strength moves from squats to a host of upper body exercises can help firm up your entire torso, known as your “core.”

But to drop weight and body fat—and downsize your belly—you need to do more cardio, because weight and fat loss is about burning more calories than you take in. Any movement, from lifting weights to doing yoga to sprinting full speed, burns calories. But generally, muscle-specific workouts like resistance training and yoga alone don’t tend to result in lots of inches lost because they do not burn a high number of calories. Cardio workouts are most effective to get your waist to whittle down because they tend to burn the most calories per minute. Cardio workouts include using cardio machines in the gym, walking, running or skating outside, and even dancing.

By the way, don’t waste your time doing lots of ab exercises like crunches to try to slim down your midsection. More cardio and smarter eating habits will have a bigger impact. And you can strengthen your core in a variety of ways, including making sure you maintain proper posture during all cardio and weight lifting moves.